The Failde Orchestra to the Kennedy Center: music from Cuba to the world

The Miguel Failde Typical Orchestra is one of the Cuban bands that make up the delegation that will participate at the Cuban Culture Festival in the United States.

A typical and young orchestra, under the direction of Ethiel Failde, a musician from Matanzas who carries in his blood and heart the musical wealth of this island, is travelling to the Kennedy Center in early May with a big suitcase loaded with traditional Cuban rhythms.                                                          

Why? “Of course, to share music and represent Cuba” What are you taking? “We are going to take our active repertoire, danzon, mambo, cha cha cha”. What does it mean? “A privilege”.

The reasons to feel honored with this opportunity are quite evident: “The only popular music bands that are travelling from Cuba are Los Van Van and the Failde Orchestra”. If you add that the festival kicks off with Omara Portuondo, that immense singer who also has a very special place in the soul of the Miguel Failde Typical Orchestra, then enthusiasm increases.

However, other reasons also encourage these young and talented musicians, who have updated anthological pieces, such as “Almendra”, in a renewing and fresh work, but in a constant dialogue with the roots.

“To able to participate in the inaugural gala is something very important for us and to be able to attend this political juncture between Cuba and United States, to be present at the Kennedy Center, and to represent our country with a large Cuban delegation, a big cultural embassy, is something very great”.

And the fact is that while US President Donald Trump in passing tries to undo, to separate and to break, the arts build and peoples meet through the most universal of languages, which is clearly listened to from Havana to Washington: culture.

Translated by Jorge Mesa Benjamin / Cubasi Translation Staff