Last Wednesday June 27th and during the 13th edition of the International Choirs Festival CorHabana 2018, three groups performed with particular characteristics; but with the bond that ties peoples and their cultures: music.
The female juvenile choir Mussa Nova, from Colombia, was responsible of opening the performance at the Spanish American Centre of Culture.
The new group created in 2014 did not have greater pretensions than the relaxed sobriety of well-tuned voices and a strong desire for a good job.
With an eclectic repertoire and appropriate for their voices, the juvenile group was able to take us to distant cultures such as the Japanese and the Israelite, as well as the American, using gestures to accompany singing.
Being a Caribbean country, its director Nancy Sierra guided the programme in which the Colombian music was predominant. Accompanied by atiple (instrument with 12 strings) in some pieces, and the piano or indigenous instruments in others, they got emotional applauses from the audience.
It was really pleasant and emotional to listen toTus recuerdos, by Lucho Bermúdez; Caracolito, by Germán Ruiz, as well as Aguacero de mayo, by Totó Momposina. It was also excellent El lamento de la sirena, by Joseph Martín.
Wearing happy costumes and with dances of a pure Latin root, they kept for the closing of the performance the version of Las cuatro palomas, by Ignacio Piñeiro, arranged by Electo Silva, to which they added a convincing reversion accompanied by the piano, the tiple, percussion and dance.
Later, we had the pleasant surprise of hearing the Camerata Vocale Della Corte, a new group from Bayamo that worries and works in developing a historically informed kind of music.
Formed by countertenors, tenors and basses, it proved having the potential enough to face bigger challenges, because of the harmonic value of their voices and the musical projection while performing two pieces: Al di dolce ben mio, and Chacona, by Juan Ararez and Phillipo Azaiollo, respectively.
To close the concert, we could hear some pieces that were purely Cuban, performed by the Professional Choir from Bayamo, conducted by Mercedes Gómez.
With a good staff of voices, they caused a very good impression while performing emblematic pieces such as Comienzo y final de una verde mañana, arranged by Reynier Silegas; and Ámame como soy, both by Pablo Milanés; and also Te amaré, by Silvio Rodríguez, in a choral version by Honey Moreira.
In the same way, other pieces such as Hallelujah, by Leonard Cohen; Contrabajeando, by Astor Piazzolla; and Guajira con tumbao were perfectly performed by soloists and choir.
Despite the visible tiredness and the exhausting heat, the will to make good art was stronger in order to finish the concert with a heartfelt version of La Bayamesa, by Céspedes and Fornaris.
Undoubtedly, those were Caribbean airs that had for a witness the immense sea that joins us, through music and singing.
Translation by Alberto Morales