CubaPLUS Magazine

The 20th edition of the "Guillermo Barreto In Memoriam" Drum Festival will take place from March 2 to 5, so percussion will take over numerous stages of the Cuban capital.

In a press conference offered this Tuesday, the organizers informed  this year the event will be dedicated to the Cuban musician Lázaro Ross, who was one of the founders of the National Folk Ensemble and one of the most important Yoruba music singers on the island.

Speaking at the conference, Giraldo Piloto, president of the festival’s  organizing committee, said  this year the main venues for the meeting will be Salón Rosado de la Tropical, the cultural centers El Sauce and BuleBar 66, as well as La Piragua.

He also pointed out that the closing of this great percussion festival will pay homage to the prominent Cuban musician José Luis Quintana, Changuito, at which time the percussionists Enrique Plá, Samuel Formell, Ruly Herrera and Oliver Valdés will perform, as well as Alexander Abreu and his group Habana.First.For her part, Tania Cardó, vice president of the Artex company, one of the organizing entities, reported that on March 2, the international Timbaly Congas competition will be held in El Sauce, while the percussion and drums competition will take place inthe Salón Rosado de la Tropical, where the Cuban musician Alain Pérez and the African group The Drumming Wonder of Burundi will participate.

Another of the initiatives of this edition is the Rumba por los Barrios project, which will be joined by the groups ObiniBatá, and Chispa y los Cómplices, whose presentations on March 3 and 4 will take place in the Havana municipalities of Regla and East Habana.

Founded in the year 2000, the Fiesta del Tambor or HavanaRhythm and Dance Festival had since its inception the purpose of honoring the life and work of Guillermo Barreto -Piloto's uncle-, who was one of the best drummers in Cuba in the last century . He founded the Cuban Orchestra of Modern Music, the Group Los Amigos and the instrumental quintet  &Descargas Cubanas". He was a great music producer and exceptional musician in the broadest sense of the word.