La Bella Habana

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Composer Information

Composer José White (1836-1918), born in Cuba, was a noted virtuoso violinist. He was a close friend of Louis Gottschalk. White soloed with the New York Philharmonic in 1875, and, according to Dominique-Rene de Lerma, was superior to such famous violinists of that day. “La Bella Cubana” was the most popular Cuban composition in the late 19th Century.

Moisés Simons (1889-1945) was born in Havana and was a leading composer, pianist and orchestra leader. He was the composer of El Manisero (The Peanut Vendor) considered by many to be one of the most famous pieces of music created by a Cuban musician and has since been recorded by other musicians from around the world hundreds of times.

Cuban guitarist, bassist and composer, Publio Medina (b1944), has developed his professional career as part of various Cuban music groups and as part of different jazz bands. In 1980 he began his work accompanying on guitar various singers. In his work as an orchestral musician he has participated in multiple shows in cabarets and musical shows, as well as radio and television programs. His composition featured on this CD, Cuan Hermosa Naturaleza, originally composed for guitar, was orchestrated for the Camerata Romeu by Yadira Cobo who was a member of the Camerata.

Argentinian musician, Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) is probably one of the best-known Latin American composers, who revolutionised the Tango genre – Libertango composed in 1974 is probably his most recorded piece.

Mexican composer Eduardo Gamboa (b1960) Graduated from Trinity College of Music in London, Gamboa has been entirely dedicated to composition since 1985. His work includes concert music, both chamber and symphonic, as well as a vast production of music for cinema and theatre. The Cuban composer and conductor Guido López-Gavilán (b1944) graduated in 1966 from the choral conducting program at the Amadeo Roldan Conservatory in Havana and in 1973 from the Orchestral Conducting program at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow.

Carlos Fariñas (1934-2002) was a Cuban composer. He was one of the most important masters of the Cuban avant-garde in the 1960s along with Leo Brouwer and others. In 1956 he attended to the courses taught by Aaron Copeland at Tanglewood Music Center in the United States. Between 1961 and 1963 he studied at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow. Fariñas also composed in several styles from traditional symphonic music to computer music. In 1989 he created the Electroacoustic and Computer Music Laboratory at the Art Superior Institute in La Habana, Cuba.

Ricardo Herz (born 1978) is a violinist from São Paulo, Brazil. He is a classically trained musician, and additionally received training in jazz at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Herz's repertoire is extremely rich in instrumental Brazilian melodies and ranges from North-eastern rhythms to choro, samba and its multiple variations.

Artist Information

Camerata Romeu are unique.

They are a young, all-female, 18-piece string orchestra from Cuba. Formed by the renowned conductor Zenaida Romeu in 1993, Camerata Romeu specialise in the performance of chamber works from across Latin America – but especially from Cuba. Over the years, Camerata Romeu has had a huge number of members – for many it was their first experience of being a member of a professional chamber orchestra. In addition, every concert is performed from memory, without the score.

Belonging to the third generation of a family of remarkable Cuban musicians Zenaida Romeu received piano lessons from her mother Zenaida Romeu, as well as Choral Direction with the Hungarian teacher Agnes Kralovszky and Orchestral Conducting with Gonzalo Romeu, becoming the first woman to graduate with Orchestral Direction at the Higher Institute of Art of Cuba in 1983. She received master classes with professors Olaf Koch and Gert Frishmuth, in Cuba and Germany.

She has combined her artistic activities with her teaching skills at the Higher Institute of Art of Havana and has given master classes in Choral and Orchestral Conducting, as well as lectures on Cuban music in Spain, Mexico and the US. She has also presented the “Other Times” program about music on Cuban TV for more than a decade.

In 1990 and 1992 she resided in Spain giving master classes of Choral Direction in Vigo. She then returned and founded a Chamber orchestra with the name of her maternal family, Romeu, in 1993 to pay tribute to the two generations of musicians before her of great prestige on the island, under the sponsorship of the Pablo Milanés Foundation, and dedicating itself to the recognition and promotion of Cuban and Latin American music. She has directed all the Cuban orchestras and has been guest director of the National Philharmonic of Cuba, at the head of which she made several National Tours. Founder of the Orchestra of the Higher Institute of Art, she has also directed the Bard University orchestra and the Winston Salem Youth Orchestra in North Carolina. As a conductor she has conducted symphony orchestras not only in Cuba but also in the US, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic and Canada.

In January 2020, it was announced that Zenaida Romeu has been awarded “The Golden Baton” by the Institute of Latin Music (the Batuta Award is effectively the Latin equivalent of the Grammy’s) for services to music. Only two Cubans have received this accolade previously.

For more detail please visit www.camerataromeu.com

Additional Information

Cugate Classicos Latinos are pleased to announce that Camerata Romeu will be one of the featured showcases at Classical:NEXT (www.classicalnext.com) in Rotterdam in May 2020. Other concerts are being arranged in Europe and further dates are in preparation for 2021.

Classical:NEXT is the key annual international gathering for professionals engaged in the classical music business – including record labels, music publishers, artist managers, tour promoters, festivals, concert venues, educational establishments, composers, ensembles and performers from all over the world.

Marketing and Press

“La Bella Habana” will be fully serviced to key press/media. Please request a physical review copy or a link for digital files if preferred via email to john@musicandmediaconsulting.com – likewise for interview requests with Zenaida Romeu.