Guitarist Luis Manuel Molina celebrates 40 years of artistic life and his 60th birthday with a concert at Bellas Artes

May 25, 2019

Luis Manuel Molina, one of Cuba's most outstanding guitarists and pedagogues whose music inspires you, recently celebrated 40 years of artistic life and his 60th birthday with a concert at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana.

For several people, Molina left his mark on their lives. On one occasion, composer, singer and guitarist Samuel Águila said that he had shown him the world of rock. "Molina was one of those teachers who opened your mind. After playing a work by Leo Brouwer, he would take out an electric guitar he had at the school and start playing Beatles songs."

And it is that from a young age, Luis always stood out on the guitar. He participated in national and international competitions and directed many groups that he created as a student, as his long-time friend Esteban Campusanos Valdés, director of the Youth Guitar Orchestra of Havana, remembers it.

"In his professional life he has maintained a high artistic level as a concert performer and also making popular music. I had the privilege of working with him in a guitar duo 25 years ago. We would sit in various halls in the capital and throughout the country, being part of the national concert ensemble, and at this moment, directing the orchestra, I have the honor of playing a piece he composed (Divertimento, 1992) for four guitars that remained in our repertoire," Águila recalled.

The years of artistic life and performance on stage are sufficient elements to verify that Molina is a passionate lover of music, of culture in general.

His training from the beginning of his career was solid, also standing out in the composition of repertoires, as an arranger and producer of radio programs. Today he continues at the forefront of artistic work performing concerts inside and outside the country at the highest level.

Carmen Collado López, director of the Polyphonic Choir of Havana, still remembers him as that conservatory student who was part of the choir and impressed everyone with his musical abilities. That night of the concert at the National Museum of Fine Arts, she felt pride in Molina and celebrated his achievements.

Today that love for his profession remains intact, in his radio programs on CMBF, in his interpretations and in his rock.

Molina had once said that the guitar is a fascinating and captivating instrument, beautiful and intoxicating with its enchanting feminine shape, with a warm and intimate timbre at the same time, which generally manages through its sonority to captivate everyone who listens to it.

The years passed and currently that would be the same description he would give if asked about his personal appreciation of the instrument, because he and the guitar, on stage, complement each other and from that is born the music that makes you reflect and love, the music that guides you in your interior searching for the secrets of the soul, that goes beyond a simple melody and touches the heart, always leaving its mark on you.