On Saturday’s (3/26) “Weekend Edition” on NPR, Anastasia Tsioulcas reports that Cuba “has a long history of cultivating classical composers and performers…. One group that stands out” is Cuban conductor Zenaida Romeu’s Camerata Romeu, founded 23 years ago “to show off the parity between men and women she saw in her native country…. Romeu was the first Cuban woman to graduate from Havana’s conservatory as an orchestral conductor…. Yadira Cobo Rodriguez is the leader of the second violins and a composer herself. She’s been playing with the orchestra for 14 years. She says there’s a special energy to it…. Camerata Romeu is a string orchestra—made up of violins, violas, cellos and basses. And it plays the standard repertoire, like Vivaldi, Mozart and Grieg. But Romeu says some of the best composers from Cuba and beyond have written for her group, including Brazil’s Egberto Gismonti … and Cubans like Leo Brouwer and Guido López-Gavilán … whose Camerata en Guaguanco has become a signature piece for the Camerata Romeu.” Romeu says the last time the group visited the U.S. was in 2001, and “I would like to share this music, and the happiness of doing music.”
Posted March 29, 2016
