Concert in tribute to Juan Blanco at Bellas Artes

June 30, 2019

Thursday evening, July 27th, the Theater hall of the National Museum of Fine Arts, in its Cuban Art building, hosted a tribute concert to Juan Blanco, a musician considered a pioneering promoter of electroacoustic music in the country.

Organized by the National Laboratory of Electroacoustic Music (LNME), the National Center for Concert Music, the Institute of Music and the Museum of Fine Arts, starting at 7:00 p.m. the evening offered a good time of music made in Cuba, this time from machines.

Renowned masters of the art of DJing in the country, such as DJoy de Cuba and Iván Lejardi, shared the stage with ISA students and musicians Neil Leornard, Vivian Alderberg Rudow, Juan Piñera, Wilma Alba Cal and René Rodríguez. The latter, along with Claudia Ruiz, Milton Raggi and Mauricio Abad were in charge of the visual art.

Iván Lejardi, one of the special guests of the concert, performed with his BIO.M.A project, dedicated to the production of electronic music with an experimental edge. On the importance of the event, he told us:

"Juan Blanco's work consolidates the history of what we DJs and all those who believe in electronic music do. And although for some artists it may not represent a direct influence, his work is, without a doubt, one of the symbols of experimental creation in Cuban music: a sensibility that many of us producers today share when wanting to promote what is 'different'".

Juan Blanco was the first Cuban musician to use electroacoustic instruments and resources in his creations. In 1942 he patented his first instrument, which he called the "multiorgano", and in 1961 he created the first electroacoustic musical piece made in Cuba, titled Music for Dance. He was founder of the Electroacoustic Music Workshop (TIME), which in the 90s would become the current LNME.