Mozart-Havana Festival with diverse programming in content, formats and generations of artists

From October 13 to 19, Havana's Historic Center will be filled with music with the Mozart-Havana Festival, which this year presents a diverse program in content, musical formats and generations of artists.

Spain, France, Sweden and Cuba will be represented, with performances at the Oratorio San Felipe Neri, Teatro Martí, Basílica Menor San Francisco de Asís, the Ignacio Cervantes hall, and Fábrica de Arte Cubano, according to what the general director informed the Habana Radio station of the event, teacher Ulises Hernández.

The varied program will include master classes, concerts and different meetings between students and music professionals.

The public will be able to enjoy the opening ceremony on Sunday the 13th, at the Oratorio San Felipe Neri, where they will see, as a premiere, a semi-performance of the opera Azúcar, based on the work The Forgotten Lover, by Joseph Bologne, known as the Chevalier of Saint-Georges.

Furthermore, the Violin Concerto Kv. 219, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, will be performed by the soloist Jeyson Varona, the choir of the National Lyric Theater of Cuba, directed by the teacher Denise Falcón, and the Orchestra of the Lyceum Mozartiano of Havana directed by the teacher José Antonio Méndez Padrón. The talented Swedish soprano Charlotta Huldt, creator of the semi-staging of Azúcar, will also perform, and will be in charge of the general direction of this show that will open the doors of the Festival.

The notable pianist Ulises Hernández, director of the Lyceum Mozartiano of Havana, highlighted that, although it will be a day rich in high-quality performances, he also recommended the program on Friday, October 18, at the Teatro Martí, where you can enjoy works of chamber music by the masters Charles Gounod, François Devienne, Christoph Graupner and Félix Mendelssohn, and will feature talented performers such as the Ventus Habana quintet, the Dulcián trio, and a new group, the Flute Ensemble Op. 5, made up of instrumentalists of the Lyceum orchestra.

The Cathedral of Havana will shine as a concert hall during the closing ceremony with a very attractive program: Dances for Orchestra, by Federico Mompou, the Flute Concerto Kv. 314, by the genius from Salzburg, conducted by the soloist Niurka González, and Symphony in D, by Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga, nicknamed the “Spanish Mozart”, performed by the Lyceum Mozartiano Orchestra of Havana, which will feature on the podium maestro Ángel Gil-Ordóñez (Spain-United States), current musical director of the PostClassical Ensemble and principal guest conductor of the Perspectives Ensemble, in New York.

On a date of such significance: October 20, Cuban Culture Day, the Ignacio Cervantes room will be the meeting point for a post-festival concert dedicated to children.

In that building on Prado Street, the students of the Children's Symphonic Center will perform works for violin, viola and cello, as well as soloists and different chamber formats, all under the direction of teacher María Verdecia and with the general direction of Yisel Amorós.