Ivette Susana Hernández Álvarez

Ivette Hernández has been one of the greatest Cuban pianists of all time. Her Cuban identity was beyond all doubt, proudly from Guantánamo, her interpretation of the Danzas by Ignacio Cervantes is considered something very difficult to match and surpass, and even more: her entire interpretive work assures her an indisputable place in Cuban culture.

Almost from the time she had awareness and reason, Ileana showed signs of an early inclination toward music. The girl from Guantánamo had been born into a cradle of certain financial comfort. As soon as her musical inclinations became evident, her parents decided to channel and help in every way possible the development of that innate and boundless talent. In her native city she takes her first lessons with Guantánamo teachers José Gallard and Sara Parúas, who soon understand that the little girl's talent deserves to expand.

At ten years old, her parents take her to the capital to continue her studies. There she is discovered by a Viennese man who was fulfilling a season contracted by Pro-Arte Musical to conduct the Philharmonic Orchestra of Havana: he was maestro Erich Kleiber, who becomes a true mentor for the little girl and a decisive factor in the subsequent course of her budding career.

In 1945 the magazine Bohemia, in its April 15 edition, sounds the alarm about the child prodigy from Guantánamo, and reports: "That evening of February 25, 1945 was of very pleasant proportions for Cuban musical art. The great world of elegance and culture, assembled in the 'Auditorium' theater, was seized by the emotion transmitted to them by the small great artist who was presenting herself with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Havana under the direction of maestro Erich Kleiber. Her name is Ivette Hernández. She is eleven years old and is a prodigious pianist."

At Kleiber's insistence, the miracle occurred. That day, little Ivette, before a suspicious and incredulous audience, began her concert, performing the Capriccio Brillante by F. Mendelssohn, and all expectations were exceeded. Critic Rafael Suárez Solís, the day after the concert, recalled in his column in the Havana newspaper El País, the words of maestro Kleiber, at whose initiative Ivette had taken the stage at the Auditorium: "It is not that she plays very well for her age, and even for any age: it is that, at her age, she interprets. Consequently, it frightens…".

When questioned by journalist Don Galaor, the young Ivette confessed, with great naturalness, that since she was three years old she played the piano by ear, and that at seven she began to study there in Guantánamo with professor José Gallart. She affirmed that the public did not frighten her and that it was not the first time she had faced it: "Pro-Arte Musical of Santiago de Cuba had presented me before, and afterward the Dean of Pedagogy of the University presented me as a pedagogical case in a concert I offered at the University itself." In her first concerts, Ivette performed Chopin, Paderewski, and Beethoven, but recognized then that Mozart, Bach, and Debussy were among her favorites.

She herself recounted in that first interview in 1945, held at the home of the renowned soprano Carmelina Rosell: "I have been in Havana for a year. My mother is in Oriente and my father is at the Santa Cecilia sugar mill, where he is the head of production. I am here with my grandmother [Elsa Rodríguez de Aguirre], but Pro-Arte Musical of Havana has taken charge of my education and soon I will go to the United States, on scholarship, to study with Olga Samaroff in Philadelphia."

Indeed, the board of Pro-Arte Musical was moved by the precocious talent and, motivated, decided to resume the scholarship that had been previously granted to who would also be another great pianist, Jorge Bolet. Now, with the apt name of "María Teresa García Montes de Giberga," this scholarship would be conferred upon Ivette Hernández.

The trip became a reality. Accompanied by her father Bernardo, she boards the ship Florida headed to Miami with final destination New York. It was May 25, 1947. There she perfects her studies with teachers Sidney Foster and Claudio Arrau.

After finishing months of advanced study, she returns to Cuba. About to turn fifteen, the adolescent from Guantánamo presents herself on Sunday, June 27, 1948, in the event organized by the Fine Arts Section of the Ministry of Education and also in the second Summer Concert of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Havana, under the baton of maestro Heinz Unger, performing Chopin's Concerto No. 1 for piano and orchestra, Op. 11.

In her cultural criticism column in the newspaper Hoy, its writer Mirtha Aguirre wrote about the evident virtues of the fifteen-year-old pianist: "…she possesses phrasing of absolute clarity, a sound of marvelous regularity, treble notes like crystal, moving pianissimos. Her formal discipline is already that of instrumentalists who master a craft. But this is the least of it compared to the other, what is rarely learned and many old artists never achieve: profound musicality and most rigorously guided." And evaluating her performance in interpreting the famous Chopin concerto, Aguirre assures: "…it is rarely heard [that concerto] as it was able to be heard by Ivette Hernández".

Summing up both events of 1948, Mirta Aguirre concluded: "…her two concerts have been surprising. Ivette Hernández's fourteen years at the piano are like a miracle that fulfills the promises she gave us long ago, in that same theater where the adolescent has now presented herself, the little girl with blue ribbons whom it was necessary to qualify as genius."

In 1949 she takes the stage of the Auditorium theater in Havana again, once again under the auspices of the Pro-Arte Musical Society and the artistic tutelage of her teacher Sidney Foster. Hernández performs works by Brahms, Liszt, and Debussy.

Those concerts held on January 3 and 5, 1949 were received with approbation by musicians and critics, who referred to Ivette as "the brilliant pianist-child." In particular, Mirtha Aguirre, from her already-mentioned column of nearly a quarter page in the newspaper Hoy, dedicated January 5 to a flattering and timely critique: "…it benefits Ivette Hernández in no way—the artist Ivette Hernández, the good pianist Ivette Hernández—that she continues to be considered as a promise, as a child genius in whom one must judge only the innate instrumental aptitude, forgiving in light of her young years the weaknesses she may show. Ivette Hernández already plays, in the most artistic sense; she already possesses, as a pianist, developed adult technique; she has already yielded, with extraordinary results, intense years of study, and is already beginning to project herself, as well, toward concert halls."

A few months later Ivette would return to New York on a study trip, and there she would meet Arthur Rubinstein. The brilliant musician, valuing the talent and possibilities of the young Cuban, advises her to travel to Europe to take lessons from musician Marcel Ciampi. At 15 years old, Ivette would begin the intensive preparation demanded by the entrance competition for the Paris Conservatory of Music, where maestro Ciampi taught. In the midst of long hours of piano study, and upon presenting discomforts, a dramatic problem arose: she was diagnosed with a tumor in one of her hands. She underwent surgery, which required about three months of recovery and rest afterward. Ivette was not discouraged and as soon as it was possible she continued her preparation uninterruptedly.

From New York, on September 4, 1949, she boards the steamship Queen Elizabeth headed to the port of Cherbourg, France to arrive at the final destination of this trip: Paris. To the competition for entering the Conservatory, 399 candidates presented themselves, but only the young woman from Guantánamo, Ivette Hernández, achieved first place.

Paris would be very important in her training: there she receives lessons from maestro Ciampi and later from Margueritte Long, and she would begin her harvest of prizes in Europe: in 1950 she obtains one of her greatest triumphs: the coveted Grand Prize for Music and Piano from the Paris Conservatory. Upon her accession to the throne, Queen Elizabeth II of England decides to create a special prize for her coronation, and asks the great British pianist Harriet Cohen to select three young pianists who deserve to receive it. Cohen had already seen the Cuban pianist perform, had met her personally, impressed by the young woman's talent. Thus, Ivette Hernández is awarded one of the three medals presented by the British sovereign. When news of this reached Guantánamo, the Lions Club and other Guantánamo institutions decide to organize a tribute in honor of the young pianist.

She leaves Paris for Cuba, via New York, on July 20, 1951 and arrives in her native city on August 25, 1951, for a special occasion: the Municipality of Guantánamo and the Lions Club of that city honor her by receiving from the hands of then-Mayor Ladislao Guerra the title of Favorite Daughter of Guantánamo. The Lions Club presents her with a Cuban flag trimmed in gold to be delivered to the British sovereign as a sign of gratitude and recognition. She would spend little time in Cuba, as already in September of that same year she must return to Paris to continue her studies. She remains there until June of the following year when she travels back to New York. These would be years in which Ivette would be constantly traveling between the United States, Cuba, and Europe.

In 1954 she marries Juan Comas Rivas, father of her first son. The marriage would be short-lived. Ivette continues amid intense days of study and preparation of recitals and concerts. Among the many she offers, her highly successful interpretation of Beethoven's Concerto No. 4 in G Major Opus 58 for piano and orchestra stands out, with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Havana conducted by American director Walter Hendl. The Havana Auditorium theater would host this event on June 4, 1956, as part of two events celebrating the work of the German composer. Between 1957 and 1959 Ivette resides in Paris receiving lessons from Margaritte Long.

After the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista's government on January 1, 1959, Ivette spends more time in Cuba with her family, also anxious to know firsthand the changes that rapidly occur after the revolutionary government assumes power. She gets involved. She joins multiple cultural activities, gives concerts and begins to teach twice a week at the "Alejandro García Caturla" conservatory. She joins a popular concert called for February 25 of that year at the University Stadium to close the celebrations for the anniversary of the Grito de Baire, in which the Philharmonic Orchestra and the Municipal Band of Havana also participated, both conducted by Gonzalo Roig; pianist and composer Ernesto Lecuona, who, like Ivette, had arrived in Havana to make contact and participate in the changes that were rapidly occurring in the country. The singers María de los Ángeles Santana, María Teresa Carrillo, Carmelina Rosell, Rosaura Biada, Ramón Calzadilla, Zoraida Morales, Eulogio Peraza, Violeta Vergara, Manolo Torrente also participated, the Matamoros trios and Servando Díaz, the Cabrisas-Farach duo and that of the Martí Sisters, Ramón Calzadilla, Ramón Veloz and his Ensemble, and the Paquito Godino choir, among others.

In October 1959 the First University Music Festival hosted Ivette in concert at the Cadenas Plaza of the University of Havana. The symphonic orchestra of C.M.Z., the radio station of the Ministry of Education, directed by Roberto Valdés Arnau supported the pianist in Rachmaninoff's Concerto No. 2 in C Minor Op. 18 for piano and orchestra.

Ivette stars in the third symphonic music concert on December 5, 1959, sponsored by the newly established General Directorate of Culture of the Ministry of Education. On the stage of the Auditorium theater and under the baton of Jean Constantinescu, she performed W.A. Mozart's Concerto in D Major for piano and orchestra. Before traveling to Poland to participate in the Warsaw Piano Competition, Ivette returns to the Auditorium stage on January 17, 1960 to again perform Rachmaninoff's Concerto No. 2 in C Minor for piano and orchestra Op. 18, with an orchestra conducted by Maestro González Mantici. It was a pro-Agrarian Reform event sponsored by the C.M.Z. radio station and the Art Division of the Rebel Army.

The team working in the newly built National Theater of Cuba shows feverish activity. In late February 1960, its music department, directed by composer Carlos Fariñas, presents the theater's Symphonic Orchestra, conducted by González Mantici in Beethoven's Concerto No. 4 for piano and orchestra, with Ivette Hernández as soloist. The program also includes a work by Cuban composer Félix Guerrero.[20] Months later, in August, the pianist is presented in the Covarrubias hall of the theater itself performing J. Brahms' Concerto No. 2 for piano and orchestra, also under the direction of maestro González Mantici.

Ivette Hernández was an authentic celebrity and as such was recognized. In September 1964 the renowned magazine Cuba dedicates its cover to her, with a photographic triptych taken by the eminent photographer Mario García Joya "Mayito" and inside, a report-interview by Alfredo Muñoz Unsain with photos by Mayito. In it Ivette speaks about her life and her dedication in recent years, to, like many other musicians, take her art beyond the usual halls, offering concerts in the open air, in schools, rural areas, where through her has been known, according to the writer, "…the music of Bartok and Schömberg, alternating that virgin audience with the consecrated halls where the opinion of critics buzzes." The interview unfolds among everyday themes and high-flying reflections about piano playing and art. Ivette asserts that "the piano is a friend, a lover, and a traitor, all on a grand scale."

She tours Germany, Russia, Hungary, and Romania. In 1965 she gives concerts in Austria and on that occasion, the music critic of the newspaper Kurier would write: "For me, she has been for many years the best pianist who has performed in the Brahms Saal in Vienna" And one should not forget that this is one of the most prestigious concert halls in the Austrian capital!

An important pianistic event occurs on May 10, 1966 at the Amadeo Roldán theater (former Auditorium): Ivette Hernández and the renowned Polish pianist Halina Czerny Stefanska offer a two-piano recital interpreting works by Scarlatti, Chopin, Mozart, Schumann, Brahms, Liszt, and Cervantes. About this event Ivette opined: "That concert we did with her is a very difficult thing. I believe it is the first time it has been done in Cuba. It is difficult because we were two different temperaments interpreting the same work. Everything that is done in chamber music is very difficult. However, it seems to me that the performance turned out uniform. As if it had been a single person playing the piano." The encore was Los delirios de Rosita, a delightful dance by Ignacio Cervantes. The two played it seated on the same bench, on a single piano.

Critic Félix Contreras, in his article "Ivette and Halina. Head to Head" published in the magazine Cuba, reported that EGREM directors had been interested in recording this memorable encounter. "Wednesday the 11th [of May] at four in the morning Halina Czerny Stefanska and Ivette Hernández had it recorded."—Contreras would state in his text. However, this assertion by the journalist opens a great question, because as far as has been able to be investigated, the record does not exist, the tape apparently, neither; the record never came to market nor appears registered in the catalog of matrices and recordings of the Areíto label of EGREM. The respective discographies of Ivette Hernández and Halina Czerny Stefanska do not mention it.

On April 4 of that year Ivette travels from Havana to Italy contracted by RAI to perform, starting on the 15th of that month, a series of concerts and presentations on radio and television in Rome, Florence, Venice, and other cities.

Married to Cuban diplomat Armando Flores Ibarra, who had been Cuban ambassador to Czechoslovakia between 1963 and 1965 and had held other positions since 1959 in Cuba's embassies in the United States, Belgium, and Romania, Ivette receives authorization to travel with her husband and their two children to France in 1968. Marcel Ciampi, one of her teachers in Paris and to whom she was united by profound affection, was gravely ill and had requested her presence by his side in the face of the impending end. On that trip, Ivette and her husband decide not to return to Havana and to reside outside the country. Media in Spain and the United States echo the couple's decision, who settle temporarily in Spain.

The young pianist had lived outside of Cuba, between New York and Paris, from age 15, the majority of her life, and mainly during her years of training and studies and also of concerts and recitals.

Months earlier Ivette had recorded for the Areíto label (EGREM) the LP Works of Ignacio Cervantes, already printed at the moment when the pianist makes the decision to settle outside Cuba; the record was removed from the producer label's catalog. The record is in itself relevant for being the first recording Ivette Hernández makes of nearly all of the Cervantes dances, and also, for including excellent liner notes by the prominent composer, pedagogue, and choral director Gisela Hernández, which offer valuable information about the interpreter and the author of the thirty-one dances on the record.

"Endowed with an exceptional temperament, Ivette Hernández has achieved through submission to rigid discipline the development of refined technique,"—affirms Gisela Hernández in the liner notes. And adds: "In Ivette Hernández one can admire, alongside her technical rigor, the spontaneity of her expression, the intensity of her interpretation, and, as has been stated, 'her disciplined and classical freshness.' In her are found the brilliance and personality of a great virtuoso."

On its Side A, the LP Works of Ignacio Cervantes includes the dances: Soledad, No me toques, Un recuerdo, La celosa, La encantadora, Duchas frías, Zigs-Zags, Amistad, No bailes más, Invitación, Se fue y no vuelve más, Mensaje, Improvisada, Picotazos, Cortesana, La carcajada, and Decisión. On Side B: Los tres golpes, Adios a Cuba, Vuelta al hogar, Ilusiones perdidas, El velorio, Siempre así, Pst!, Homenaje, Interrumpida, No llores más, ¡Te quiero tanto!, Tiene que ser, ¿Por qué, eh?, and Lejos de ti. Today, this record is a collector's rarity, due to the scarcity of available copies and because of the alarming and unusual removal. However, the few people who have been able to preserve it or obtain it have in their possession a jewel of Cuban piano playing and one of the few phonographic recordings made by the notable pianist from Guantánamo.

Ivette and her husband arrive in Spain in 1968. That same year the Spanish RCA label publishes the LP Cuban Dances for Piano (LSC-16340), which includes 35 Cervantes dances, 4 more than the Cuban record, from which it does not include Duchas frías and No bailes más, but adds 6 other dances: Almendares, La glorieta, Cri-Cri, Intima, Gran señora, and ¡Amén!. Unlike the Areíto record, the RCA Spain one includes credits for the producer (Pedro Machado Castro), the sound engineer (Francisco Rivera), a brief note about the pianist; a biographical review of Ignacio Cervantes written by Machado Castro, plus brief notes by Alejo Carpentier (written in 1948) and by Orlando Martínez, also about the author of these dances.

Ivette and her husband will remain in Spain for about three years. A pleasant event will cause their plans to take another direction.

In 1969, on December 4, Ivette gives a recital at the Casa Americana in Hamburg, Germany, which will provoke one of the best reviews throughout her career.

In June 1970 Ivette takes a significant step when she presents herself to compete in the First International Louis Moreau Gottshalk Competition for Pianists and Composers, an important event convened by Dillard University in New Orleans and she spectacularly wins the Gold Medal. According to the newspaper The Pittsburgh Courier, the pianist from Guantánamo "won over the audience and the jury with her emotional interpretation of Franz Liszt's Sonata in B Minor." Ivette won this distinction individually endowed with 1500 dollars, along with Chilean Roberto Bravo and American Richard Syracuse. This prize was crucial for the relaunch of her career and decisive for the family, dislocated between Spain and France, to decide to settle definitively in the United States.

Two years later, the pianist makes her New York debut at none other than Carnegie Hall, with a repertoire that included Schumann's Etudes Symphoniques, Chopin's Sonata No. 2, a Ravel Sonatina, two Preludes by Debussy, and two pieces by Albeniz. To judge by the brief review published in The New York Times, the temperamental Ivette was not fully understood by critic Allen Hughes, although the American had to agree on the excellence of her technical performance and her complete understanding of the works performed.

The Cuban woman had entered by the grand door, as she always did: on November 24, 1973, she offers an important concert at Town Hall in New York, which cannot be ignored by demanding Peter G. Davis, another critic from The New York Times: "Everything that Ivette Hernández played in her piano recital, late afternoon last Saturday at Town Hall, exhibited precise, orderly, and meticulously articulated interpretations. To be even clearer and with orderly logic: it could hardly be criticized.

The Liszt Sonata, the piece of resistance of the program, demands a little more than correct musical manners, and here Miss Hernández sounded like a small schoolgirl. She often gave as much importance to details as to primary thematic and structural substance; meanwhile, her tone seemed undernourished for such an epic work. Two Scarlatti sonatas, six short Schoenberg pieces, three Chopin studies, and Ravel's "Gaspard de la Nuit" fit more comfortably within the scope of Miss Hernández's piano playing. In Ravel she could have used a bit more color, but it was refreshing to hear the notes projected with such technical honesty. In Schoenberg she also performed wonderfully, with absolute precision, but also with unflinching sensitivity.

Ivette Hernández's career continues on the rise. In 1974 she is signed by the international music talent agency The Matthews and Napal Agency, to perform concerts and recitals throughout the United States and also in Latin America, which is echoed in several American newspapers. In June 1975 a benefit concert for WNCN is organized at Hunter College, the only New York radio station dedicated exclusively to broadcasting classical music. Ivette Hernández appears on the bill, alongside folk singer Judy Collins, soprano Maralin Niska from the Metropolitan Opera, and Renata Babak, former member of the Moscow Bolshoi Theater Opera. The newspaper The Central New Jersey Home News, in reporting this news, indicated that Ivette had just returned from a tour of Latin American countries.

Various media, such as The New York Times, reported on the recital she performed at the Hunter College Playhouse on February 19, 1976, as part of its Latin American Series, with the Cuban pianist performing several Scarlatti sonatas, Beethoven's Sonata in C Minor, Prokofiev's Sonata No. 7, and some Cervantes dances, among which stand out, in an evocative manner, two that she performs with some frequency: Adiós a Cuba and Vuelta al hogar.

And her appearances as soloist with the Milwaukee and Minnesota symphonic orchestras are already being announced. At the second annual YWCA Music at the Neighbors Benefit Pops Concert, she would perform alongside the Carillon Choristers in a program dedicated to the music of George Gershwin, where for the first time she would perform Rhapsody in Blue, with the backing of the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra. She will conquer critical favor in them, especially for her interpretation of Chopin's Concerto No. 1 for piano and orchestra. The newspaper The Milwaukee Journal stated that Hernández had brought to Chopin "a brilliant technique and a sensitivity that never allowed her to fall into the arms of sentimentalism."

Unstoppable, with a recital on the afternoon of March 2, 1977, at Alice Tully Hall, of the Lincoln Center in New York, Ivette commemorates the thirtieth anniversary of her debut in Havana, in that memorable concert with maestro Erich Kleiber. For this occasion, she announces a program with works by Chopin and Rachmaninoff and reserves Stravinsky's Petroushka for the end. "It is the first time I will perform this work in public,"—affirms Ivette. "And although Stravinsky clarified that it is not a transcription of the movements of the famous ballet, his version for piano adheres closely to the orchestral score and the soloist cannot help but evoke all of its brilliance and originality."

In this concert, she emphasized, she would evoke in Kleiber not only the musician who so colossally influenced her career, but also the man who unflinchingly clung to the principle of freedom in artistic expression, "an attitude that made him collide in his time with all types of totalitarianisms," as the pianist highlighted in an interview for the Pensacola News Journal. "Erich Kleiber was like a father to me. His death in 1956 filled me with deep sorrow,"—Ivette would say to the press.

Her career would lead her to offer concerts and recitals in numerous cities in the United States and other countries, in theaters, halls, and auditoriums at universities. In particular, the press also highlighted her participation as soloist with the Miami Symphony Orchestra, at least in two concerts: one on December 15, 1991 under the direction of Manuel Ochoa in a program with works by Rachmaninoff, Corelli, Faure, Ponchinelli, and Händel, and another at the Lincoln Theatre on February 20, 1994, conducted by José Carlos Santo, with works by Beethoven, Robles, and Falla.

Ivette Hernández is part of the dozen Cuban pianists who are Steinway artists. Her page on the official website of the prestigious piano manufacturer is inaugurated with these words of hers: "Steinway has achieved the greatest accomplishments in piano manufacturing. It allows the artist to deploy all of his resources in the use of that technique and to project in its full dimension the spectrum of his personality, his ideas, his fantasies, and his sensations."

The pedagogical work of Ivette Hernández is remembered by her students. Cuban pianist Ninowska Fernández Brito evoked her teaching on the occasion of a new edition of the National Interpretation and Composition Competition convened by UNEAC in 2016. Decades earlier, together with Frank Fernández, Ninowska was a winner of the first competition and as such exalted the figure of Ivette Hernández as a pedagogue, "especially for how kind she was as a teacher. Ivette Hernández deserves to be taken into account in the piano history of the Island."

Ivette has resided in Manhattan for decades and, with more than 80 years, probably continues to show her famous serene beauty. She continues to give lectures at American universities, teaching a select group of students, and performing concerts. She is a member of the Advisory Board of the Cuban Cultural Center in New York, an institution that in 2004 awarded her the "Ignacio Cervantes" Medal for her merits as a keyboard artist. The homage to this distinguished musician took place in the Weill Hall of Carnegie Hall, where the pianist, as part of the ritual, performed a concert to reciprocate the tokens of appreciation and esteem at that event. Only two other Cuban pianists had previously received this recognition: Zenaida Manfugás and Juana Zayas.

Around 2013, the Solvisión channel of Guantánamo dedicated a broadcast of its program Tentar el asombro. Historias de Guantánamo (Testing Wonder. Stories from Guantánamo) to Ivette Hernández. Music researcher Magrit Barrio made a concise journey through her life and work, and read a letter sent by the eminent pianist to the people of Guantánamo, dated October 14, 2012:

"Greetings, Guantánamo. Greetings, my beloved Cuba. I carry you always in my heart. Thank you for this honor and the privilege of communicating with you. I have been very fortunate to travel throughout the world playing the piano, bringing music as a message of peace, also bringing my people, Guantánamo, and my country, Cuba, held high. Playing the piano is one of the many blessings of my life, it requires my total dedication. In the keys of the piano many voices and sonorities are enclosed, like those of an orchestra. These are the voices I try to highlight in my interpretations. Each finger has its own voice and message, which must be allowed to sound freely. As you listen to me play on this occasion, receive my message of love and peace. May my humility and the love I feel toward every living being remain forever. Although I have been away for many years, I miss the warmth of my people. I carry you in my heart forever. Thank you. Ivette Hernández."

In addition to her immense talent, generosity distinguishes Ivette Hernández and reaffirms her greatness. There has not been a Cuban pianist in all of history who has maintained such a magnitude international career for so many years. We know that we owe Ivette Hernández from decades past not one, but many rounds of applause. They will come late, but with the full conviction that she is among the names that will forever honor Cuban culture.