Pianist and composer Nachito Herrera informed today that he will pay tribute to Cuban music with the concert "Cuba Vive", which will inaugurate the Santiago chapter of the Jazz Plaza International Festival on the 21st.
At a press conference in the Sierra Maestra hall of the Hotel Meliá Santiago, the Cuban musician based in the United States said that in the first part of the concert at the Heredia Theater of this city, he will perform classical works by Ernesto Lecuona, as well as Frédéric Chopin, Serguei Rajmáninov, in the Cuban style.
In the second part of the show, Herrera said, he will pay tribute to the greats of Cuban music, particularly from the eastern part of the country, such as Rodulfo Vaillant, Elio Revé, Enrique Bonne, Chepín Chovén, Frank Fernández, and will perform a duet with Wilfredo "Pachy" Naranjo, director of the Original Orchestra of Manzanillo.
It was also announced that he will share the stage with the Sexteto Santiaguero, the Orfeón Santiago Choir, a Jazz Band made up of local musicians, the Paso Franco Conga, saxophonist Germán Velasco, trumpeter Yasek Manzano, and Americans Karen Briggs and Yohannes Tona.
Composer Rodolfo Vaillant, president of the Organizing Committee of the Jazz Plaza in Santiago de Cuba, explained to the press that Nachito Herrera, in addition to starring in the inaugural concert and participating in the theoretical event "Mariano Mercerón Immemoriam", will donate instruments to the local artistic education system.
He will also donate medical supplies to the Hospital Clínico Quirúrgico Dr. Juan Bruno Zayas.
The 39th edition of Jazz Plaza will be held in nine venues in Santiago with 76 presentations, including the "Mariano Mercerón Inmemoriam" colloquium to be held at the Meliá Santiago Hotel on the 22nd and 23rd.
This event will be dedicated to the 85th birthday of Rodulfo Vaillant, the 80th birthday of Eduardo "Tiburón" Morales and the 45th anniversary of the founding of Son 14, and the 60th anniversary of the Original Orchestra of Manzanillo and the artistic life of Pachy Naranjo, its director.