# Beloved Teacher Alfredo Muñoz Passed Away

**Date:** 06/29/2023

On the morning of this June 28th, the beloved teacher, violinist and pedagogue, Juan Alfredo Muñoz Fernández, passed away at the age of 74, a victim of lung cancer.

It seemed like a commonplace to say that Alfredo Muñoz was one of the great Cuban violinists, so much had his excellent interpretations accustomed us. Now that he is no longer here –although he remains among us through his recordings, his teaching and the example of dedication inseparable from his life's trajectory–, Cuban culture honors the indisputable stature of a legacy destined to endure through time.

Alfredo passed away on Wednesday morning at the age of 74 in Havana, the city where he was born on June 20, 1949. His vocation for the instrument awakened when he attended a presentation by the celebrated Russian violinist Leonid Kagan. Encouraged by his father, he enrolled in the Orbón conservatory. He ventured into popular music as a teenager and at 14 years old, while continuing his studies at the Amadeo Roldán conservatory, he had the opportunity to join the strings section of the National Symphony.

He then understood that to advance in his career he needed to complete his academic training. So he entered the National School of Art, from which he graduated in 1972, a date that marked his return to the ranks of the country's main symphonic organization. His drive for improvement led him to be among the founding students of the Higher Institute of Art, where he refined technique and expression until 1981 under the tutelage of Bulgarian professor Radosvet Boyadjiev.

From stand practice he transitioned to solo performance. With the OSN he premiered the Violin Concerto by Leo Brouwer, and the one written for the same format by Julio Roloff. The first performance in Cuba is still remembered, in 1990, of the Baroque Concerto by Mexican Manuel Enríquez, alongside Evelio Tieles. As soon as he learned of Alfredo's death, Evelio expressed: "I have lost a great friend, a great artist. I pay him homage with admiration and sadness."

He dedicated a good part of his career to chamber music. First with the White trio, directed by Boyadjiev, in which he shared with cellists Rodolfo Navarro and Amparo del Riego, and pianists César López and María Victoria del Collado. With Vicky, his cherished companion in life, he later formed the Pro Música duo, one of the country's most outstanding ensembles for their formidable interpretations and the demanding and rewarding repertoire that they brought to concert halls inside and outside our borders and to phonographic recordings. All of this without abandoning teaching at Amadeo Roldán, Alejandro García Caturla, and the University of the Arts.

Regarding what was achieved by the Pro Música duo, Alfredo and Vicky gave reasons that should not be forgotten by those who intend in the future to undertake chamber music with all rigor: "We gradually got used to listening to ourselves better; we learned to position ourselves in context and we gradually acquired a sound result with the same breathing. The interpretation of chamber music provided us with a considerable increase in technical potential, since the density of the repertoire implies challenges to instrumental technical mastery that, when developed from interpretive goals, becomes increasingly broader."

Under that premise they delivered to audiences works by Mozart and Béla Bartók, by Stravinsky and Prokófiev, by Ravel and Debussy, but also by notable Latin American authors and of course, the Cuban classics –Roldán, Caturla, Nilo Rodríguez, Gramatges, Ardévol and Brouwer– and the contemporaries, with emphasis on the joint work with Juanito Piñera, who relied on them for the premiere of his surprising scores, as was demonstrated with the recording of Órficas, winner of the Cubadisco Prize. There are also the recordings of Miradas, for flute (Niurka González), violin and piano; and of Marinas, by Sergio Vitier. They also championed the works freshly produced by young Ernesto Oliva, Javier Iha, Jorge Amado and Pepe Gavilondo.

Alfredo does not say goodbye. Every time La bella cubana sounds, he will be present. Because he is of the lineage of White and Brindis de Salas.