On Sunday, July 2, at 8:30 pm., all visitors are invited to the Ford Amphitheatre (2580 Cahuenga Blvd., East Hollywood, California 90068, across from Hollywood Bowl) where "Sage of the Arts, Inc." will present a multi-media spectacle entitled Cubans In Hollywood in honor of Ernest Hemingway and his long stay in Cuba during the 1950s. The presentation is designed by painter and graphic artist Angel Marrero and directed by producer Jorge Luis Rodríguez.
The two main aspects of Cuban music, the European classical side and the African, will be presented in the first half of the concert. Aurelio de la Vega, representing the art forms of Cuban music, and master drummer, Francisco Aguabella, offering examples of Afro-Cuban sounds and gestures. After the intermission, a band featuring Latin Jazz will serve as a synthesis of the various elements which contributed to the richness of Cuban music.
De la Vega's intervention consists of three chamber works: the Leyenda del Ariel Ctiollo ("Legend of the Creole Ariel")(1953) for cello and piano, written in Havana, commissioned by Adolf Odnoposoff and Berta Hubermann; Adramante (1985) for soprano and piano, on a poem by Cuban essayist Octavio Armand who lived for many years in Venezuela, commissioned by the University of California, San Diego, in homage of Austrian composer Ernst Krenek; and Canciones Transparentes ("Transparent Songs")(1995) for soprano, clarinet, cello, and piano, on poems by José Martí, commissioned by Florida International University, Miami, in commemoration of the Centennial of Martí's death.
Internationally renowned soprano Anne Marie Ketchum and highly acclaimed instrumentalists Wendy Prober, pianist, Rowena Hammill, cellist, and Amanda Walker, clarinetist, will perform de la Vega's works.
Excerpts from a review © Contacto Magazine may be perused on another page.
04/20/08