The event was initiated by the members of the Musicians’ Union of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (Uneac) from Santiago and its President Iván Acosta Ochoa.
“Guitars in Santiago” is sponsored by the Provincial Committee of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC), chaired by the composer Rodulfo Vaillant García.
The organizers highlighted the support of prominent guitarist, arranger and music producer Rafael Guedes Mendoza, “who helped us organize the program and confirmed his participation in the meeting,” said Acosta Ochoa.
That is why the cultists of the guitar in Santiago de Cuba will celebrate in the middle of a celebration in which they will take part alongside other luxury participants:
Orquesta Sinfónica de Oriente conducted by Maestro Michael Elvermann; Guitar Orchestra Ekos de Santiago conducted by Maestro Lleliandra González, who will also participate as a soloist; the Sultasto Orchestra. from Las Tunas, directed by teacher Elvira Skourtis; the soloist Ariadna Cuéllar from the province of Cienfuegos and the soloist Aquiles Jorge from Santiago de Cuba.
The guitar concerts form part of the encounter, although the other is also specific: the master classes that will take place at the Esteban Salas Music Conservatory, on Santa Lucía street, between San Félix and San Pedro, in the heart of the old center of the city.
“Guitars…” begins on Friday, February 24th at 10am at the “Esteban Salas”, with a master class given by teacher Elvira Skourtis and the intervention of the Sultasto Quartet.
On the same day, but at 4:00 p.m., the meeting continues, but at the Uneac headquarters on Heredia Street, with an evening with a very suggestive title: “From the Balcony of the East”, through the intervention of the Sultasto Quartet , from Las Tunas, and the teacher Ariadna Cuéllar, from Cienfuegos.
Another master class is scheduled for Saturday 25 February at 10:00 am at the “Esteban Salas” with Ariadna Cuéllar and at 4:00 pm a special concert will take place in the colonial courtyard of the Uneac headquarters with the presentation of the soloist Aquiles Jorge and the guitar orchestra “Ekos” conducted by Lleliandra González.
CONCERT IN THE CATHEDRAL
An increasingly beautiful and artificially lit backdrop, the Cathedral of Santiago de Cuba, in front of the central Céspedes Park, will host a concert of the “Guitars in Santiago” event on Saturday evening.
The presentations, in the emblematic Church of Santiago, are scheduled for 7:00 p.m. and include performances by Ariadna Cuéllar from Cienfuegos; the Sultasto Quartet from Las Tunas; the soloist Lleliandra González from Santiago de Cuba and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Oriente conducted by Maestro Michael B. Elvermann.
The closing of “Guitars in Santiago” is scheduled for Sunday, February 26 at 4:00 p.m. in this familiar and welcoming setting, the courtyard of the mansion of the Uneac headquarters, a building with a unique architecture in the historic center of this city With 507 years since its founding as a city in July 1515, a place where the guitar is in the hands of troubadours and soloists has established a professorship.
Rafael Guedes’ support for “Guitars in Santiago” is interpreted as a tribute this remarkable guitarist and composer is making to a place where the instrument is an integral part of cultural and artistic history.
Guedes Mendoza, eagerly awaited in this city, comes from Cienfuegos, is 66 years old, graduated from the National School of Art (Ena) and the Higher Institute of Art (Isa) until graduating in Music in 1985, later to be a guitar and harmony teacher with Ena and also at the National School of Art Instructors.
“Mayohuacán” was directed by Guedes and double bass player at the same time, and with this popular group he has performed in Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Bern, Mexico, Buenos Aires, Tripoli, Madrid and has been directing the Camerata del They are since 2011, in which he Concert and pop music merge.
The well-known composer and guitarist has works for voice and piano; trumpet and piano; background music for films; chamber music; for choir; Songs… and for guitar and orchestra he has composed “Concierto con Certain verwilderment”, “Introduction and guajira” and “Latin American Concert”.
Regarding the way Guedes plays the instrument, Venezuelan guitarist Alirio Díaz pointed out that it had a “great effect of virtuosity”; that “it is full of grace and dynamism”; that “it could be the beginning of a new artistic trend” within the traditional; that Guedes’ work unfolds a surprising musical effect even with simple musical elements.
And in the foregoing, the guitar undoubtedly has a decisive weight with its unknowns, its history, its sounds, its multiple forms over time … An instrument that has accompanied man for more than 4,000 years and which is now Santiago de Cuba and Uneac dedicates a meeting to him for the third time.
The guitar also has its peculiarities in the country of Santiago, due to its familiarity with the troubadours and that, even when it was brought to this part of the world by the European colonizers, it was here that it was shaped on execution and variations in the number of strings , what these new edition of “Guitars in Santiago”.
Studying the instrument through concerts, exchanges between practitioners, master classes will help to get to know it better and better and consolidate its popularity.
Perhaps at some point in the meeting, which begins on February 24 in this city, instrumentalists or researchers will raise the question of the origin of musical instruments in ancient civilizations, in Assyria or Egypt, which changed over time until they discovered the guitar have produced knowledge today.
In Mesopotamia and two or three thousand years before Christ first primitive boxes with stretched ropes; and then the lyre and harp can be seen as the birth of what became the classical guitar as we know it today.
Finally, Antonio de Torres Jurado, a luthier from Almería in Spain, created the first classical guitar in 1817 and also the flamenco guitar in 1850. They are a modification of the mandolin born in 1779 in the hands of Gaetano Vinaccia.
But classical and flamenco, optically they are similar; Holding them in your hands you’ll see the difference: in Flamenco or Spanish, the sides are narrower, so the distance between the top and the back is less; the strings are closer to the fretboard and the fingers hardly suffer; for back and sides cypress; German spruce for the top; the resonator is slightly smaller; In general, the pieces are thinner and the internal construction helps to create a metallic and percussive sound. The instrument is much lighter overall.
Because it is handy and easy to carry; When played, it offers the possibility of simultaneously combining the sounds of the bass, the accompaniment and even “declaring or plucking the song” in the manner of the prima guitar; Because it is so handy and easy to carry, the guitar is the most widespread and popular instrument, and nobody denies that it is the one that leads all those who symbolize music.
There’s more: the classical guitar – the most widespread in the world, the mother of all guitars, the six-string guitar – features a significant number of other instruments related to it but not gaining popularity: the lute, the bandurria, the electro-acoustic guitar, the electric guitar, the bass, the acoustic bass or double bass, the ukulele (a very small four- or five-string guitar that McCartney and Lennon were so enthusiastic about), the charango, the guitarrón (used by mariachis) ; the cuatro, the harmonica (a creation of Compay Segundo, with seven strings and on the border between the Spanish guitar and the Cuban tres), the timple, the banjo, the dinar, the mandolin, the zither (which looks like a harp) , the balalaika, tiple, dobro, 12-string guitar, chitarra battente, guitarro, requinto (a smaller-than-normal guitar, usually tuned to a very high sound, and often used to express “the prima” in trios in the Mexican style…Latin American), the sitar that George Harrinson learned in India and introduced to the Beatles…
Among renowned guitarists and scholars on the subject of the six strings; With the support of ordained instrumentalists and students, on February 24th, Santiago de Cuba becomes a giant guitar, sonorous and joyful.