Annie Garcés Santana

One of the new female voices of Cuban song. She demonstrates great solidity in her proposal that, while opening toward diverse horizons, shows a very coherent interpretive personality and of high poetic caliber.

Native of the town of Patria on the Isle of Youth. Her mother was part of the art world through the amateur movement and was a cultural promoter in her native town. In every activity she organized, she would take her to sing or recite. So from a very young age I was in that world. So she always wanted to be a singer.

She studied flute at the Guillermo Tomás Conservatory in Guanabacoa. With essentially independent creation and the support of the El Reino de este Mundo scholarship from the Hermanos Saíz Association.

She regularly performs accompanied by guitarist José Manuel Ordáz, Pepito, who is the son of guitarist and composer Pepe Ordáz who has been Annie's guide and mentor. With Pepito she starred in the music video "Gracias a la vida," an emblematic piece of the Latin American songbook by Violeta Parra; a video that won second place in La Pupila Asombrada's Now Contest. She also has a second clip, Mañanita de montaña, a piece by troubadour Eduardo Sosa. The selection of her repertoire goes to the roots of troubadour song and Latin American and universal culture.

She learned from greats of music: with Pancho Amat, Augusto Blanca, Eduardo Sosa, who is her close friend thanks to all the work we do together. I'm grateful that Pepe gave me the opportunity and brought me close to them.

Annie was an essential element of the Trova de cámara concert, held on February 7, 2015 at the Hispano-American Center of Culture, an innovative proposal that aroused great admiration because it featured musical versions of trova in unusual formats for this type of song with arrangements by Daniel Torres Corona.

Accompanied by young instrumentalists from a string ensemble of the Guillermo Tomás Conservatory, and with special guests such as Pepe Ordáz, Eduardo Sosa and Pancho Amat, the young singer displayed her ability to delve into anthology pieces from diverse periods and accompanied by various formats.

Annie had a monthly gathering for a good time at the Casa del ALBA Cultural, and currently brings the proposal of an ensemble that accompanies her in a repertoire that includes pieces by those young instrumentalists from the group.

In 2012 she traveled to Brazil on three occasions, invited by samba singer Diogo Nogueira. In the presentation of the Documentary "Diogo Nogueira live, in Cuba," in the cities of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Porto Alegre and Salvador de Bahia, she performed the songs Habáname by Carlos Varela and La Guantanamera by Joseíto Fernández alongside the Brazilian musician.

Simultaneously, she was part of the "Youth Symphony Orchestra" and the "Chamber Choir" of the Guillermo Tomás Conservatory, as well as the "Young People in Concert" Project of Havana East, performing in different cultural spaces in the city.

She leads the Suite Habana Project, which is a compilation of songs dedicated to Havana, where authors from different generations and musical genres are mixed such as song, trova, habanera, guaguancó, pop rock and fusion. This recital is performed by music students from the Guillermo Tomás conservatory and has been presented on stages such as the Miramar Theater Cinema, the Municipal Museum of Guanabacoa and others.

Mañanita de montaña is the first music video of Televisión Serrana, and she recorded it in San Pablo de Yao. She also actively participated in the campaign for the 30 years of the Hermanos Saíz Association. She was in the music video Con un poco de amor that led the campaign.

Annie feels very identified with the Hermanos Saíz Association. In the tour of the grateful, it was very nice how the press took on, and it wasn't preconceived, that she was the representative of the AHS within the team. Because Luna is a very young artist and also a member of the AHS, but she has a much more consolidated career than mine, even internationally. So she feels that young people identify her as the representative of the newest generation of musicians.

She financed her own DVD, an ambitious audiovisual project that began to be recorded in early 2016 at the theater of the National Museum of Fine Arts. She has shared stages with troubadours such as Pepe Ordáz, Eduardo Sosa, Toni Ávila, Martha Campos, Manuel Argudín and Pancho Amat.

She is a presenter on the Cuerda Viva program on Cuba's Cubavisión Channel of Cuban TV.

She is one of the performers of the song Cabalgando con Fidel by Raúl Torres, it was this performance that made her popular in Cuba. For her it was an honor to be alongside musicians of the caliber of Luna Manzanares, Eduardo Sosa and Raúl Torres.

Annie is a girl with an easy smile and a melody that charms. Owner of an enviable register and timbre for any performer. Among her most interesting projects was the symphonic concert of Cuban trova songs accompanied by the musical group Nuestros Tiempos directed by maestro Enrique Pérez Mesa.