CubaPLUS Magazine

Perhaps World Piano Day is yet to take hold, which, at the initiative of the German maestro Nils Frahm, has been celebrated every March 29 since 2015. But without a doubt it will soon be a highly recognized day, especially in Cuba, where that great music box is one of the leading instruments of culture, in its cultured and popular variants.

A curiosity about the choice of that date to entertain musicians and instruments is that that day is number 88 on the calendar, which alludes to the exact number of keys that has the universal instrument. They say that the piano was developed from other gadgets that produced music, very old, with a more defined format from the 18th century, due to the ingenuity of the Italian Bartolomeo Cristofori.

Returning to Cuba, because this is not the history of the piano, we will say that here there is a strong tradition of musical education, started at the beginning of the century at the end of the XIX and during the XX, with the contribution of founders, pedagogues and professors of different specialties as exceptional as Ernesto Lecuona, Ignacio and Ernestina Cervantes, the renowned professors María Alvarez Ríos and Teresita Junco, Antonio María Romeu, Lilí Martínez, Chucho Valdés, Frank Fernández, Harold López Nussa, Ernán López Nussa, Jorge Luis Pratts, Aldo López Gavilán, Alejandro Falcón, Cucurucho Valdés and Rodrigo García, the youngest.

 For the record, it is only a varied synthesis of the very broad spectrum of relevant talents of yesterday and today, in the field of that instrument. There are three levels in Cuba for the formal teaching of music and, of course, the piano: Elementary, (coinciding with Primary Education), Intermediate (Secondary Studies and Pre-university), and the Superior (already completed as a central degree). Like basic education, it is totally free. There are also elementary level music schools in almost the entire national territory.

There are usually courses of all specialties, but surely there are the basic ones: string instruments (violin, viola, cello, double bass), piano, singing, guitar, wind instruments (trumpet, saxophone, trombone, flute) and percussion.

In almost all the provinces there are schools of Medium level. The higher level (Licenciatura) only offers its skills in Havana (for all specialties), and in Camagüey, Holguín or Santiago de Cuba for some. It offers the additional options, not suitable for the other levels, of being able to opt for face-to-face classes, in daytime courses, or by spaced meetings.

Even hit hard by the suffocating economic blockade, the recent damage from the Covid-19 pandemic and the recession of the economy, artistic education and of thatinstrument so leading in Cuban music, has remained against all odds. The development of talent is undeniable, which has never stagnate d, both from the point of view of view of execution as of creativity and pedagogy.

Today, many young pianists are awarded prizes in international competitions, including primary and secondary school students. Long life and future has the piano in Cuba.