Mayda Galano Guilarte

She was born in Baracoa, Cuba, where, as a young child, her mother introduced her to the practice of music, to which she dedicates her life.

Esclarecida Guilarte de Galano introduced her to the practice of music, to which she dedicates her life first as a pianist, and later as a singer. In fact, it was during her work as a pianist at the ENA when she made contact with the prima ballerina absolute Alicia Alonso at the National Ballet of Cuba, where she spent several years as a pianist in that specialty, a period during which she began her vocal training with Margarita Horruitiner, Adolfo Casas, Carlos Mena, and María Remolá. She took courses in musical interpretation with Gino Becchi, Paul Schilawsky, Ana Higueras, and Pedro Lavirgen.

She obtained a degree in Music from the Superior Institute of Art at the University of La Habana, where she was tutored by maestro Adolfo Casas.

She began her performances as a soloist with works from Italian Baroque and Spanish and Iberoamerican repertoire. Soon, her concert music catalog included operas, zarzuelas, lieder, and oratorio. Her first concert with a symphonic orchestra was conducted by maestro Mijail Kaftanat and, subsequently, she shared performances with the Lyric Group J. Anckermann for a recital tour. She participated as the only invited artist in the tribute to Harold Gramatges, where the composer himself accompanied her on piano.

Since 1988 she has been a soloist with the Opera of Cuba, although currently she holds Spanish nationality and has settled in Madrid.

After a series of concerts in northern Spain (Santander, Pontevedra, Santiago de Compostela, etc.) she participated in the competition at the University of Santiago de Compostela, where she received the José Miguel Ruíz de Morales award for the best interpretation of Spanish music.

In 1988 she debuted in the lead role of Aida and, with this, began a series of performances as the protagonist in the operas Tosca, IL Trovatore, Cavalleria Rusticana, and Ecue-Yamba-O. In addition, she also sang Mozart's Requiem and participated in various galas and lyric festivals.

She performed as master of rehearsals in Mozart's Così fan Tutte, with the winners of the first edition of the Alfredo Kraus competition at the Teatro Benito Pérez Galdós in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in 1991.

Concerts in Barcelona, Madrid, Asturias, and Seville, accompanied by Pura Ortiz, Juana Peñalver, and other pianists.

In Cáceres and Córdoba she performed with the Canadian Ballets in El Sombrero de Tres Picos. She regularly attends the International Festival of Lyric Art in Havana for special performances, her presentation at the Grand Gala Concert being particularly memorable, in which she performed the role of Adalgisa in Bellini's opera Norma alongside soprano Adelaida Negri and tenor Adolfo Casas. Currently in Madrid, and since 2000, in addition to concerts and performances, she teaches Technique and Repertoire to young talented singers and pianists.

In addition to research work with pianist Alfredo Levy on Cuban composers in collaboration with the National Museum of Music directed by María Antonieta Henríquez, dusting off the works of Cuban composers Arturo Guerra, Ernestina Lecuona, Joaquín Nin, and Joaquin Nin Culmell. Meanwhile, after receiving the José Miguel Ruiz Morales award for the interpretation of Spanish music in the courses at the University of Santiago de Compostela, she began her artistic career in Spain with recitals throughout the country with pianists such as Pura Ortiz, Juana Peñalver, and Francisco Álvarez Blanco. She has also performed at the Teatro Arriaga in Bilbao, Gran Teatro de Córdoba, Liceu de Barcelona, Teatro Real de Madrid, Palacio de la Música de Cantabria, Vienna, Dresden, New York, and Romania.

She has sung under the batons of maestros Elena Herrera, Roberto Sánchez Ferrer, Norman Milanés, Manuel Duchesne (father and son), Jesús López Cobos, Lorenzo Ramos, Mireia Barrera, Rafael Frühberck de Burgos, Josep Pons, Paul McCreesh, among others, with the symphonic orchestras: Gran Teatro de La Habana, National of Cuba, National of Spain, Dresden (Germany), Madrid, Córdoba (Spain), and the Philharmonic of New York.

On the other hand, Mayda Galano constitutes with pianist José Luis Fajardo the Chamber Duo, bringing to Spanish stages the vocal work of Cuban musician Ernesto Lecuona. Currently, the Cuban soprano combines her position as head of the choir section of the National Choir of Spain (CNE) with her work as a mentor to new generations of singers, materialized in the Lyric Group Cantemus, through which new talents in the Spanish musical landscape have passed.

Among her most recent performances as a soloist, the premiere at the National Auditorium of Requiem des Fleurs by Henri Busser stands out, within the framework of the I Cycle of Choral Music of the CNE in the 2008-2009 season under the direction of maestro Joan Company.

She participated in the 2009 Autumn Cultural Festival of Huelva in which the organization invited her to form a Chamber Duo with pianist Beatríz Boizán to perform an Iberoamerican Music Gala at the Ateneo de Sevilla.

Throughout 2010 she gave recitals across Spanish geography and in her country, where under the title "Prayer in Music," she presented works by Bach, Pergolessi, Haydn, Verdi, Schubert, Granados, Guridi, and Turina.