Cuba New Years 2009 through January 6 2010, Joyce Keil, Artistic Director Ragazzi Boys Chorus

December 30

I was invited by a friend to travel to Cuba to celebrate New Year’s Eve but immediately ran into problems as I understood there were immigration problems. As I explored the options, coincidentally, I received an email from the Canada Cuba Sports and Cultural Festivals inviting me to explore a music tour to Cuba. I called the contact there and discovered that if I were to go on a cultural mission, I would be able to travel legally under the general license of the U.S. Treasury Department. The Festival company offered to host us, to meet our plane and to set up visits to schools and choirs in Havana.

Our Cuban journey began with an arduous plod through security, past many guards, all masked against the danger of disease, and then meeting a white-clad nurse wearing black fishnet stockings who was there to check for swine flu. My companion and I were met at the airport by the Cuban representative from the Canada Cuba Sports and Cultural Festivals and his future son-in-law. I was greeted with the gift of a rose and we drove in Osmany’s (smelly, rusty, Russian-made) old car to our Hotel Ingleterre. The hotel was a crumbling colonial structure attempting to offer European-style hospitality. The rooms were either windowless and rather musty with mildew showers or, if they had windows, the windows opened onto the street where horns honked and music drifted in until the wee hours.

Havana is crammed with beautiful, columned colonial buildings, most in disrepair. Many have missing walls or roofs and you can tell that people are living there because there is always a line of laundry hanging from the windows. The streets are so full of potholes that a local comedian uses this as a subject of his television show.

The presence of billboards and posters with pictures of Che Guevera or Fidel Castro were omnipresent, on the streets, on buildings and later in the schools and public buildings. Using a medium that the USA would use to advertise a product, Cuban billboards were shouting “51 ans! Viva la revolucion!!” or “Vencemos” (We shall conquer!!).

The streets were crowded with hundreds of old 50’s vehicles along with some Russian cars and buses. All of these were jammed with people. To cross the street was very dangerous; pedestrians had no right of way and if a vehicle encountered a walker, the driver simply sped up and honked until the pedestrian scurried away.

Our hosts took us to lunch at a typical Cuban restaurant which they told me would be a destination for Ragazzi if we were to go there on tour. It was dark and definitely not a tourist site. The food was plain but good; however it took an hour for it to be served.

December 31
We spent the day wandering the city. We walked down Obispo Street, crowded with people. Because of the holiday, there were lots of local Cubans out on the street, but not many tourists. Many of the shops were closed. In front of one storefront was a pig roasting on a rotisserie; apparently this is a New Year’s Eve tradition. There was a plaza surrounded by restaurants and little booths selling mostly books. If one wants to use a bathroom, one can duck into a café and order a coffee. Bring your own paper, though.

One restaurant had a patio filled with plants and caged birds along with a resident peacock: great fish and shrimp, good potatoes and coffee.

We stopped in the Museum of the Revolution and because my friend speaks Spanish, a passionate older man lectured us for an hour on the great Cuban society. He told us that on every block is a revolutionary committee member who watches over the people in that area. He insisted that no one is without a place to sleep, or without food, or without health care. The walls were covered with pictures and posters and I learned details of the revolution that I hadn’t known, for example, that Fidel and Raul came to Cuba in the early 50’s in a boat (that is now housed in a glass enclosed monument) with 100 other people. Eighty-two of them were killed. They then took to the mountains and emerged with Che Guevera and 4000 others and conquered Battista’s army of 10,000 in 1959. He claimed stories about Kennedy’s assassination, e.g. that Oswald had been trying to convince Mexico that Cuba was responsible for Kennedy’s death and that Ruby was Mafioso.

My friend, who has lived in numerous Latin American countries, affirmed that indeed Cuba lacked the intense poverty that is widespread in these other countries. We saw no little children with distended stomachs, but certainly the needs of the great majority of Cubans are only minimally met.

Cuba has preserved its architecture and values the arts, unlike Russia or China where all “frivolous activities” and anything but utilitarian buildings were destroyed or covered over. In St. Petersburg the facades of the great palaces (except the ones preserved for tourists) were covered with slabs forming concrete facades and divided into dismal apartments. Here the buildings are divided, but not destroyed. As there seems to be no money for infrastructure maintenance, they look very unstable. Music and art are encouraged and there are many artists selling their work along pradas or in outdoor art markets.

Maybe because of the holiday, a troupe of dancers and musicians on stilts came by and entertained the crowds. Loud music everywhere.

At the end of the street is the harbor with the old medieval sea wall and fortress. Across the harbor is a huge statue of Jesus Christ of Havana, reminding me of the one in South America. Looking to our left, we could see large, modern buildings which represent the newer section of Havana. Most of these buildings are also depressed except for the hotels for foreigners.

The government owns all the businesses, so the taxi drivers are part of a government-owned business. They get to keep their tips, however. Apparently there is great inequity in income and the TV comedian was joking that a local brain surgeon got drunk and began to dream grandiose dreams. He became so deluded that he thought he was a hotel porter (this was funny because the hotel porters get tips which they can keep and so make a lot more money than anyone else).

New Year’s Eve at the Tropicana. Waiting to get into the outdoor restaurant, one has to wait at the 50’s bar and I can just picture Ricky Ricardo’s band there. Cars and taxis drive up and deposit a collection of elegant people at the front door: some tourists, some wealthy Cubans. Extravagant dances and shows are on several stages during dinner. Each guest is given a flower (for the women) or a cigar (for the men), as well as a gift bag containing candy, a sculpture and a party mask. Guests were served free wine, rum and then finally champagne. At midnight the band came out for dancing.

Driving home we saw wet streets everywhere as Cubans ring in the new year by throwing water out of the window to expel the evil spirits of the old year.

January 1
The weather is hot and we walk to “Chinatown” which consists of an arch and buildings that are even more dilapidated than the others we had seen. This was a rest day with an excursion to the roof of the hotel with wonderful views of the (maintained) ballet building and a view to the sea.

January 2
We took a taxi to a local beach, but now it was cold. The beach was deserted and lined with sad communist-style buildings and spotted with little cafes. We had a coffee at one where the owner claimed to be the best chef in Cuba. Judging by the cleanliness of the restroom, we decided not to test his claim.

Lunch was at Norvo, arguably the best restaurant in Havana, certainly the most popular. We avoided lines that extended down the block by arriving early. The portions were huge. I was served two huge steaks of Halibut and I could only eat half of one. The waiter here spoke sassy English, but when we asked him where he had learned it, he had learned it all been in Cuba. No one travels out of the country here.

Visited another museum of the revolution which displayed something called The Cretin’s Corner. Here were huge caricatures of HW Bush, Reagan and Battista with the motto: Thank you for helping us in the revolution. It was a painful sight to read all of the blatant anti-USA rhetoric and people were laughing. I was feeling very patriotic and embarrassed and then defensive, because when I had to use the bathroom, I had to pay for 3 squares of paper, the toilet didn’t flush and the sink to wash hands didn’t work. I thought of USA’s clean, functioning bathrooms.

We ducked into one of the few remaining churches that hadn’t been designated for another use. I felt a need to pray for Cuba. The Spanish embassy and the museums, including the military museums displaying the tanks from the Bay of Pigs, were among the few buildings that show any sign of maintenance.

Dinner with our host’s family at a fancy restaurant obviously geared to tourists. It was decorated in cowboy décor and the waitresses were young and pretty with short white dresses and cowboy hats. We talked about the internet. At the hotel, there are 3-4 computers working at any given time and a long line to get access to them. Once you get access, it takes a long time to establish connection. You have to buy a card with an hour’s worth of access per session and half of that time can be spent trying to get to your site. The local people are not permitted to use the internet, although businesses can use search engines such as Google and Yahoo. So even though business people can, as a result, see what’s going on in the world, they are not allowed to use g mail or yahoo mail. All email has to be monitored by the government.

January 3
Our host gets a friend to drive us to the country. We pass lots of middle class homes that would seem like shacks to most of us. My friend again contrasts these with what exists in other Latin American countries and asserts that these are much better than what he has seen elsewhere.

We arrive at Lenin Park (!). I don’t think any Eastern bloc countries continue to venerate Lenin, but here there are statues of political heroes scattered among the trees -another example of propaganda everywhere. A small pony is tied up to a tree waiting for children to take a ride in a little circle. Loud music blares from a portable player and the smell of roasted meat is carried through the air from the various outdoor barbeque stations. There is a lot of beef, chicken and pork for sale. A man is weaving hats from palm fronds and so I buy one in hopes that I can somehow bring it home. Four boys admire my hat, but turn away when they find out that the hats cost one peso each. Feeling a bit ostentatious as the rich Yanqui, I bought hats for all the boys and then took their picture.

Leaving the park, we drove through a beautiful forest filled with banyan trees in the heart of Havana. In this neighborhood are many large mansions, most of them embassies, but some are inhabited by multiple families or multiple generations of one family.

Our host took us to another restaurant where he was hosting a Canadian women’s sports team for lunch. It was a cold day, but on warmer days, his groups often swim in the outdoor pool after eating together. The visiting sports or music groups are always connected with Cuban groups with the same interests. Lunch was good, and as we left, we saw a small Christmas tree next to posters of the “Five Innocents” with the slogan: volverán! (Return them.) There are many posters of these five men who have been held by the USA in Miami and who, according to the government claims on the posters, are not allowed to be visited by their families in Cuba.

Returning along the sea-road, we passed the United State “place of interest”, a modern, heavily-guarded edifice surrounded by US Marines. Apparently anti-American demonstrations center here. Next to this building is a huge display of 124 Cuban flags, one for each Cuban killed by “US terrorists”. It is a stunning juxtaposition and among the Cuban flags is one black flag to represent mourning. On some days, there are more black flags and no one was able to explain the reasons for this to us.

January 4. Our music visits begin.
The Conservatory Municipal Alejandro Garcia. This is a conservatory where the students are chosen by their aptitude, measured by singing and rhythm auditions and physical characteristics such as finger length, potential embouchure, arm length for holding a violin, etc. The students are accepted at age seven and each year must endure rigorous tests. Each student must sing in the choir, study one instrument and also piano.

The beginning chorus sings for us in a pleasing unison and then various instrumentalists play for us. The older adolescent students are astounding in their ability to play rapid passages on the bass and alto saxophone. The singers demonstrate excellent mouth shapes for the vowels. When they sing Cuban songs, their bodies are loose and move to the rhythms.

After the second graders sang, an older chorus sang something slightly more complex. The little girls sat behind us and eagerly leaned toward us trying to talk with us and examine us. My companion was able to speak Spanish to them and they were so delighted to communicate with us. It brought tears to both our eyes.

If students pass the tests each year, they remain in the music program and they then can attend the university for music. If they succeed there, they can become professional musicians. The most rigorous program is that for choral conductors, who must perform each year for juries of professional conductors.

On the wall is a poster proclaiming “Tolerancia, hacen amigos” with various admonitions for how to get along, and by asking questions such as “When I see someone with different clothes or someone with different color skin or from a different religion, what do I do?”

The Los Angeles Childrens Chorus has formed a collaboration with this school. They have written a song together on the theme: What do I like best about my country. A Los Angeles composer and video artist, Sage Lewis, visited the school and wrote the music for both choirs who are going to perform together via video. They were given a grant and will each give a concert with the other choir performing on a large screen behind them. I was given a copy of this music.

Next we visited a women’s professional choir, Coro Vocal Luna directed by Sonia McKormack. There were 12 women who come from various professions such as choral conductors of church or children’s choirs as well as non-musical professions. However, they are paid and they rehearsal four days a week. (They are allocated four hours of rehearsal a day, but they find they are only productive for two and one-half hours) This lovely Teatro Amadeo was a concert hall and they rehearsed to a Korg keyboard. They told me that normally they rehearse in a very small room with poor air supply. They also told me that some of these women don’t read music, but they pick it up. (After my introduction to the system of music education and the filter for choosing the professional musicians, this doesn’t quite make sense to me.) They were told to show up next week for their evaluation which would determine their salaries for next year.

They rehearsed the same way we all do, by isolating difficult intervals, talking about preparation for the high note, unifying the articulation, etc. Then, unbelievably, I heard American English. There were two men there who knew about Ragazzi. They were visiting with their church on a specific license (i.e. legally on a cultural mission with their church group) and were from Washington D.C. and New York City.

January 5 We walked down a tourist street where the buildings were maintained, painted and in good repair and where there was even a shop selling expensive jewelry. We entered a courtyard of the Museum Alejandro von Humboot. Two huge, perfectly preserved skeletons of dinosaurs, donated by Mexico in 2007, filled the yard. I heard some powerful, rich falsetto singing coming from upstairs. We were ushered up to the rehearsal of Sine Nomine, an eleven-voice professional all-male choir. Their conductor was Leonara Suarez and they were perfecting a program which the conductor wanted them to work without her. The first piece was a beautiful Renaissance piece by Victoria with perfect 5ths that rang and with crescendos and phrasing that astonished. They sang the famous French chanson “Il est bel et bon bon” and then a Hassler piece with dissonance so strong, I was in tears again. They gave me this piece. They then sang a heart-wrenching “Danny Boy” and a great medley of Beatles and Queen music. All the rehearsing was done by memory by both singers and conductor. Their English is better than ours because all the vowels are formed consciously and beautifully.
They sang so beautifully, but their rehearsal room was divided only by wooden slats which did not protect them from the street noises, including loud honking horns. Somehow they were able to keep their focus

Lunch at La Templeta, finally. Beautiful building, wonderful service, great food- and on the waterfront.

Afternoon we visited Schola Cantorumm, a professional mixed choir of 24 singers. They were learning the Fauré Requiem and using the piano to sound it out. It was interesting how this piece, with its unusual harmonies, was so difficult for them. On the board was a list of their repertoire which included Poulenc, Casals, Juramento (a Cuban piece that I have), and a Magnificat by Salazar. They sang two complicated African-Cuban songs and again the rhythmic dexterity of these musicians is awe-inspiring. If Ragazzi tours to Cuba, we will receive workshops in this type of music.

We decided to walk back to the hotel along the same street, Obispo, which now that the holiday was over was crowded with tourists. The atmosphere was more upbeat and the stores and cafes are open.

January 6. Cristina Arce, the principal of Conservatorio de Musical Guilermo Tomas, a high school greeted us. They are just back from vacation and the chorus of boys and girls is not very strong. I am given an extensive lecture on the music education system and the methods used to extract the most talented, dedicated and prepared musicians. This system was begun in 1977, so the directors of some of the most famous professional choirs, e.g. Maria Perez, conductor of Exaudi, had to take their education in Germany. Once a conductor has been given this prestigious job, they must work with young singers for 3-5 years in addition to their professional choral responsibilities.

Instrumental students, among them a wonderful bass player, played for us as well as a young girl on violin with her teacher (or her mother?) on piano. The pianos are so out of tune, one wonders how they can learn to sing in tune. This piece sounded poly-tonal because of the discrepancies in tuning between the violin and the piano.

Propaganda is everywhere and at this school, there is a poster quoting Fidel’s philosophy of education. To summarize: Education is everything, education is always valuable, it develops ethics, and an attitude for life. It sows feelings. Education is seeking always the good in the soul of the human, whose development is a struggle of contradictions, with instincts toward egotism and attitudes that have to be counteracted and (it) alone can move us toward consensus.

Afternoon we visited the excellent Leo Coro, 12 singers who have been trained in opera technique and are powerful and expressive. Lots and lots of “ng” warm ups. Then they sang a Monteverdi Madrigal with fast ornamented lines. Even in the Renaissance music, the singers keep a steady pulse with their bodies. Every song is sung with expressive faces.

For our last night, we were entertained at our host’s home which he has hand-built making maximum use of a tiny space. He invited other friends and everyone was warm and generous. At the end of the evening, he told us that he is a Catholic and he has the following over his door: God bless this house. He tells me that he wakes up every morning and thanks God for his life, and for the gifts that he has: bread and water and shelter. I am so moved by the humble gratitude of this man and this family living under an oppressive regime with limited comforts but who can celebrate life. This has been my experience with the Cubans, warm, generous, artistic people who celebrate life.

Responding to disaster with song: music in Haiti

For more than a week, there have been stories about Haitians struggling to cope with the destruction of their country. But even amid the rubble, there are moments of reprieve. In this audio postcard, we hear how some women and children formed a circle and chanted praise for Joshua's victory in Jericho.



The story is featured here on NPR.

Choral music is on the rise!

 From the January 10, 2010 San Francisco Chronicle Sunday Datebook comes this:

“First there was “Glee.” Then “The Sing-off.” Now, from public radio, it’s “VoiceBox,” a show dedicated to the art of singing and it’s coming out of San Francisco.”

Tune in to KALW (91.7 FM) on Friday nights at 10 and hear arts journalist and a cappella singer Chloe Veltman discuss “Why do we sing?” Ella Fitzgerald, community choruses, countertenors and cabaret artists from the Bay Area will participate. Veltman hopes to bring the level of depth and intelligence to her conversations that is typical of the conversations of Terry Gross and Michael Krasny. The website is http://www.voicebox-media.org/.