Manuel Duchesne Cuzán

Orchestra conductor, violinist and trumpeter. National Music Prize.

He was born in La Habana. From 1944 to 1953 he studied at the Municipal Conservatory of La Habana with Aida Teseiro, music theory; Georgina Ramos, theory; Raúl Anckermann, violin; Pedro Mercado, trumpet; Ángela Quintana, piano; Harold Gramatges, harmony and counterpoint; Edgardo Martín, history and aesthetics of music; and José Ardévol, fugue, orchestration and comprehensive musical analysis.

From 1954 to 1958 he studied orchestra conducting with Enrique González Mántici, which he refined in México, París and La Habana.

Beginning in 1948 he started his professional career as a violinist with the Orchestra of the CMZ radio station of the Ministry of Education; at the same time he worked as a violinist, trumpeter and orchestra conductor in chamber groups, performances of the Pro Arte Musical Society, Philharmonic Orchestra of La Habana, operetta seasons at the Martí Theater, under the direction of Gonzalo Roig and Rodrigo Prats.

He also performed in the orchestra and band of the Municipal Conservatory of Music, the CMQ Orchestra (radio and television), directed by Enrique González Mántici, Roberto Valdés Arnau, Adolfo Guzmán, Paul Csonka and Carlos Ansa; in the orchestra of the Radiocentro theater, which was led by Adolfo Guzmán; in the accompanying orchestra of the Follies Bergère and Lido de París shows, with which he traveled to República Dominicana; as well as in different orchestras that performed in important cabarets and in the Hermanos Palau jazz band.

He founded, together with Juan Blanco, the Symphonic-Choral Society, and shortly thereafter was one of the founders and vice president, in 1952, of the Cultural Society Nuestro Tiempo, presided over by composer Harold Gramatges.

In 1954 he traveled, as orchestra conductor of Ballet Alicia Alonso, to Argentina, where he performed at the Colón theater in Buenos Aires in Giselle; they later presented themselves in Chile, Uruguay and Brazil. This experience, as well as conducting opera orchestras, chamber music and music for film, enriched his training as a symphonic conductor. That same year he was appointed permanent director of the Symphonic Orchestra of the Symphonic-Choral Society of La Habana, whose president was composer Juan Blanco, and Duchesne Cuzán was one of its vice presidents.

In 1956 he was part of the jury of the VI World Festival of Youth and Students, held in Moscú. In 1959 he worked as guest conductor of the Philharmonic Orchestra of La Habana and that of the National Modern Dance Ensemble. He accompanied the National Ballet of Cuba on its tour through Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Perú and Ecuador. On this occasion, he conducted the Symphonic Orchestras of Venezuela, Symphonic of the Municipal Theater of Río de Janeiro, Philharmonic of Buenos Aires, Symphonic of Perú and Ecuador, and Symphonic of Fine Arts, México.

He was, in 1960, one of the founding directors, together with Enrique González Mántici, of the National Symphonic Orchestra. That same year he toured with the National Ballet of Cuba through the Soviet Union, in which he conducted the orchestras of the Bolshoi theaters of Moscú and Kirov of Leningrado; Philharmonic of Dresde, the symphonic orchestras of Berlín and Weimar, in the former German Democratic Republic; Symphonic of Katowice, in Polonia; Central Orchestra of Pekín and the symphonic orchestras of Shangai and Cantón, in the People's Republic of China; Philharmonic of the German Democratic People's Republic of Korea; that of Teplice, in Checoslovaquia; that of the State in Rumania, that of Hungría and that of Sofía, Bulgaria.

Beginning in 1961 he worked as musical director of the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC), and in 1962, of the Experimental Dance Ensemble; in 1963 he was appointed titular director of the National Symphonic Orchestra and professor of orchestra conducting at the Alejandro García Caturla Conservatory.

In the 1960s the musical world was moving in new directions regarding the search for expressive means; in Cuba young composers appeared concerned with taking advantage of the new means and new techniques made available to them by contemporary music. But these artists were not satisfied with composing bold and innovative works if they did not have the necessary collective instrument for their execution. And that collective instrument was given to them by the National Symphonic Orchestra, under the direction of young conductor Manuel Duchesne Cuzán.

Duchesne Cuzán carried out at the helm of the National Symphonic Orchestra, in its contemporary music concerts, a laudable effort in terms of updating the contemporary repertoire and its assimilation.

The work of Duchesne Cuzán at the head of the National Symphonic Orchestra was very closely related to the composers who initiated the avant-garde in Cuba, such as Leo Brouwer, Juan Blanco, Carlos Fariñas and Héctor Angulo; with a new generation that stood out in this line of creation, among others Roberto Valera, Calixto Álvarez and José Loyola; with European composers such as Pierre Boulez, Lux Ferrari, Luis de Pablo, Ramón Barce, X. Berenguerel, Luigi Nono, Hans Werner Henze, J. Mayusumi, Franco Donatoni, John Cage, Krysztof Penderecki, Woiciech Kilar, Kazimierz Serocki, Edison Denison, A. Schnitke, I. Spasson, V. Kazanyjiev, G. Minchev, Itsvan Lang, Václav Kucera, M. Kopelent; and with Latin Americans Héctor Tosar, César Bolaños, Corium Aharonian, Manuel Henríquez, Marlos Nobre, Fernando García and Celso Garrido Lecca.

But Duchesne Cuzán not only conducted works by the composers who were part of the avant-garde, but also those by Cubans from other generations who had great importance in the historical development of Cuban music, such as José Ardévol and Natalio Galán, Harold Gramatges and Argeliers León. He did not disregard European creators who at the beginning of the 20th century advanced the art of sound, such as Arnold Schönberg, Igor Stravinsky, Gustav Mahler, Charles Ives, Edgar Varèse and Anton Webern.

As an orchestra conductor, Duchesne Cuzán was characterized by extraordinary precision and meticulousness in his work, as well as by strong objectivity in his artistic attitude. His personality showed dynamism and a sense of order and responsibility that was reflected in the artistic result he achieved with the orchestra.

For his outstanding artistic trajectory he deserved the National Music Prize in 2003. He also received the Alejo Carpentier medal in 1990 and the Félix Varela Order, awarded by the Council of State, in 2004. He died in 2005.

Source: EnCaribe.org