Batuta Awards ceremony to be postponed for 2021 in Cuba

The prize-giving ceremony for the Batuta Award scheduled for November in Havana was postponed to April 2021 due to the world's Covid-19 crisis, according to organizers.

The coveted gold batons, in this Caribbean edition, will be made in memory of the composer Carlos Fariñas and will be received by local musicians Frank Fernandez, Zenaida Romeu, Enrique Perez Mesa, Digna Guerra, Guido Lopez-Gavilan, Ulises Aquino, Roberto Valera, Juan Piñera, Idelfonso Acosta, Niurka Gonzalez and Alfredo Diez Nieto.

The National Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the National Choir of Cuba, the CMBF Station, the Lyceum Mozartiano, the Higher Institute of Art, the National Concert Band, the National School of Art and the National Ballet of Cuba will also receive plaques of recognition for their contribution to classical music.

The prize-giving ceremony, equivalent to the Grammy but awarded in recognition of world personalities of classical and concert music, is set for April 24, 2021.

In the first edition of the Batuta Awards, figures such as the Spanish Placido Domingo, the British Michael Nyman, the Cubans Leo Brouwer and Edesio Alejandro, the Mexican Enrique Batiz and Carlos Esteva, the Swedish Daniel Lozakovich (a young man considered a prodigy musician) were awarded, among others.

The Batuta Award Organization has its Headquarters in the Mexican capital and is led by its president Daniel Martin Subiaut, since 2019, and its founder Rene Platini.