Cuban troubadour Alberto Tosca has died

August 14, 2018

Tosca passed away at age 63 as a result of kidney failure. At the time of his death, he was working on preparing a new album with some of his most recognized musical hits, performed by outstanding Cuban troubadours, who had already made the first recordings. In 2018 he was celebrating 40 years of artistic career.

The troubadour was one of the great minstrels of the country and belongs to the second generation of the trova movement. His songs such as Paria and Sembrando para ti have been performed by figures like Silvio Rodríguez and Xiomara Laugart.

He was born in Havana, Cuba on March 12, 1955. From an early age he began studying singing, classical guitar, Cuban percussion, complementary piano, harmony, counterpoint and fugue. In 1978 he joined the Movimiento de la Nueva Trova. From a literary point of view, he was influenced by American Walt Whitman, Cuban José Martí and Spanish Juan Ramón Jiménez.

As for the musical aspect, his work shows the influence of songs by Silvio Rodríguez, Joan Manuel Serrat, Amaury Pérez Vidal, Noel Nicola and Vicente Feliú, as well as beat, rock, rumba and the most important Cuban drummers, and in some of his works he used batá drums.

He studied singing, classical guitar, Cuban percussion, complementary piano, harmony, counterpoint and fugue. His authorial work exceeds seven hundred songs, which have been performed by artists such as: Tania Libertad, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Carlos Santana.

Alberto Tosca Sánchez is the author of songs such as Canción para despertar a mi amor, Libre yo, Ni un ya no estás, among others. At the time of his death, he was working on preparing a new album with some of his most recognized musical hits, performed by outstanding Cuban troubadours, who had already made the first recordings.

His body is laid out at the Funeraria de Calzada y K in Havana and will be buried at 3 in the afternoon of this same day in the Cristóbal Colón cemetery.