Andrés Alén

Pianist, composer, arranger, and professor. He is a comprehensive musician; his gift as a communicator is evident in the way he approaches both popular and classical music, and in his mastery of his instrument.

Andrés Alén was born in Cuba and trained with his father, Osvaldo Alén. In 1962 he entered the National School of Art, where he studied with Margot Díaz Dorticós and Cecilio Tieles; in 1971-73, postgraduate studies with Professor Vitali Dotsenko.

1973. He entered the P. I. Chaikowsky Conservatory in Moscow, Russia through a competitive examination, in the class of Master Lev Nikolaeivich Vlasenko, graduating in 1976.

At age 11 he performed concerts at the Chamber Music Society of Havana, and was named Honorary Member of that institution.

Between 1979 and 1988 he served as professor and head of the piano department at the National School of Art.

In 1980 he participated in the Chopin Competition in Poland; in 1981 he participated in the Prague Spring Festival; in 1982 he toured Czechoslovakia, performed at the Beethoven Festival in Tirse, and visited the Soviet Union; in 1984 he gave recitals in nine cities in India and lectured at several of its conservatories.

His recitals have taken him throughout the Americas, Asia, and Europe. His interest extends to Cuban popular music and jazz, which has led him to collaborate with trumpeter Arturo Sandoval, Dizzy Gillespie, Hilario Durán, and with "Perspectiva" of Jazz Latina.

He has performed concerts with the symphonic orchestras of Matanzas, the National Orchestra, and with the Instrumental Ensemble Nuestro Tiempo.

He participated in the Contemporary Music Festival of the Socialist Countries.

In his piano repertoire, in addition to Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Contemporary music, he includes Cuban popular music (listen to his versions of Bola's pianistic style on the album Estás conmigo. Tribute to Bola de Nieve) and Latin American music.

As a composer he has written works of chamber music, symphonic, choral, for piano, music for children, and modern popular music.

Nominated for the Latin Grammy in 2001 for his album Andrés Alén Pianoforte (which includes much of his piano work), he has received the Cubadisco award for best soloist for his recording Chopin: 4 Ballades and 3 Nocturnes, the Medal of Merit for Teaching from Cuba's Ministry of Higher Education, and the Alejo Carpentier Medal for his artistic trajectory.

Full professor and founder of the Superior Institute of Art of Havana, he has taught international courses at the National School of Music, at Stanford and Florida universities, at the College of Charleston in South Carolina; at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in the United Kingdom, and at the Rythmic Conservatory in Copenhagen.

His career as a creator began with Danzón Legrand, a synthesis of Cuban essence. The saxophonist Miguel Villafruela premiered his Theme with Variations and Fugue; in this piece Alén demonstrates his mastery of the great forms of Western music and his profound knowledge of Cuban popular and classical music.

His qualities as a jazz musician and charanguero pianist; his interesting and fascinating way of approaching variations, his richness in melodic turns, tempo changes, and motifs of frankly popular character, have resulted in this work being arranged for various instruments and piano, among which stands out the arrangement by Alfredo Muñoz for violin and piano.

Another work that draws attention for its subtle treatment of melodic turns and harmony is Theme with Variations, based on the songs El breve espacio en que no estás by Pablo Milanés, and La vida by Silvio Rodríguez. Here he again uses one of the recurring resources in his works: variation; his ability to transform and make his own a theme taken from this or another composer, without, in this case, the melodic discourse and harmonic conception losing their original breath.

In Milanés' song, one sometimes hears, treated in his own way, other pieces by this author, particularly works in which he demonstrates his sonero abilities, as is the case with Buenos días América, resulting from Alén's thorough knowledge of Milanés' work.

In Silvio's song, more reflective and perhaps due to its melodic and harmonic nature, he remains more faithful to the original melody, without losing his rich imagination for varying it; sometimes one hears a robust cha-cha-cha, a characteristic tumba of pianists in popular orchestras, and at times, there appears a reminiscence of Alejandro García Caturla's Berceuse campesina. In both works the author displays his talent for using the pedals, which allows him to create the atmosphere he set out to achieve, evidently, at the end of each song.

Currently, he lives in Spain and is a professor at the School of Creative Music and at Alfonso X University.

Awards and Honors
In 1999 he obtained, with Miriam Ramos, the Grand Cubadisco Prize for Estás conmigo. Tribute to Bola de Nieve; in 2001 a nomination for the Latin Grammy award for his album Pianoforte, best instrumental music recording, with which he had won the Cubadisco Prize that same year.

He was presented with the "Alejo Carpentier" Medal in 2002.

PIANO
Danzón "Legrand" (1968)
Prelude no.1 (1979)
Prelude no.2 (1981)
Prelude no.3 (1982)
Prelude no.4 (1992)
Prelude no.5 (1998)
Prelude no.6 (1998)
Theme with Variations (on a theme by Pablo Milanés). (1993)
Theme with Variations (on a theme by Silvio Rodríguez) (1999)
Tribute to Cervantes. For piano four hands.
Unison. (Piano version of the last movement of the Saxophone Quartet) (1996)
What Confusion of Tones! (2004)
Three Ways of Saying the Same Thing (2003)
Small Cuban Musical Moment (2004)
Study (2007)
Study (for the five fingers) (2008)
Emiliano (2007)
Fugue (?2004)
Revelations (2003)
Tribute to Scriabin (Study) (2002)
Seven Contradanzas Intervals (2010)
Unanswered Phrases (2010)
Impromptu (2010)
Song (2010)
"Mutations" (2010)

CHAMBER MUSIC
Danzón "Legrand" (version for classical trio, violin, cello, and piano) (1968) (Version for classical trio 2002)
Danzón "Legrand" (1968) (Version for two flutes and piano 1979)
Theme with Variations. (For Alto Saxophone and Piano.) (1978)
Sonata for Flute and Piano.
Sonata for Clarinet or Soprano Saxophone and piano.
Saxophone Quartet.
Sonata for Flute and Piano, (transcription for violin and piano)
Sonata for Clarinet or Soprano Saxophone and Piano, (transcription for violin and piano)
Theme with Variations, (For Alto Saxophone and Piano, (transcription for violin and piano.)
Musical Moment for Oboe and String Orchestra.
Musical Moment no.2 for Oboe and Piano.
Variations on a Theme by Pablo Milanés, (version for String Orchestra.)
Four Pieces for Violin and Piano
Theme with Variations and Fugue for two trumpets and Chamber Orchestra.
Theme with Variations and Fugue for two trumpets and Chamber Orchestra (version for two trumpets and piano)
Song "Ode to the Graces" (on a text by Pablo Neruda)
Song (on a text by Carmen Rosa López) for boy soprano and String Orchestra.
Song. (On a text by Carmen Rosa López.) Version for voice and piano.
Alicia. for two trumpets and piano.
Contra-fughetta (for flute and piano)
Gregorio Marañón. For string quintet.
Joropo Guajira
Danzón "Legrand" (version for violin and piano) (1968). (Version for violin and piano 1973)

CHORAL MUSIC
The Piano (on a text by Nicolás Guillén) (Mixed Choir)
Ave Maria (Mixed Choir)
Alleluia (Mixed Choir)
Choral Suite (Mixed Choir)
The Colors (Children's Choir)
Mischievous Muse (On a text by José Martí)
The Angel (On a text by José Martí)
I Already Know (On a text by José Martí)
Two Sketches in the Traditional Cuban Style (Mixed Choir and Jazz Band)
Three Pieces (On texts by Rabindranath Tagore) (Mixed Choir and Saxophone Quartet)
Children's Choral Suite (Children's Choir)
The Sea (On a text by Nancy Morejón) (Mixed Choir)
In These Pale Lands (On a text by José Martí)
Two Madrigals in Tribute to Monteverdi (Women's Choir)

SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Rondo. For Flute and Orchestra.
Danzón "Legrand" (version for Symphony Orchestra)
Rhapsody.
Children's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra.

VARIOUS FORMATS
Internal Voice 1 (for jazz trio)
Internal Voice 2 (for jazz trio and symphony orchestra)
Southern Air (Version of the Second Movement of the Children's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra)
Danzón "Legrand" for Cuban Típica Orchestra. (French Charanga)
Charanguero Girl for Latin jazz group.
The Mulatta of the Streetcar. Danzón. For Cuban Music Quintet.
Waves.

CONCERT VERSIONS OF POPULAR CUBAN SONGS
The Kleptomaniac (Manuel Luna)
Romanza from "María la O" (Ernesto Lecuona)
And What Have You Done (Eusebio Delfín)

WORKS FOR CONCERT BAND
A Game for Damiá.