# Joaquín Betancourt: Blessed by Music

**Date:** 12/25/2019

Happy these days is maestro Joaquín Julio Betancourt Jackman, a camagüeyano violinist, orchestrator, composer and music producer. Many have called him to congratulate him. He, with that smile of a good man and talented musician that characterizes him, has thanked everyone for the gesture and with great humility does not speak of himself, but of his fellow colleagues who could also have been chosen –as happened to him–, because they too are bearers of a meritorious and intense life in the history of Cuban music.

According to his own words, «it is a very high honor, a great commitment going forward and a prize of high caliber that, to tell the truth, I did not expect».

Joaquín has been distinguished with the National Music Prize 2019, which he shared with guitarist, concert performer, professor and composer Ildefonso Acosta Escobar from Matanzas. «I have taken all my life very seriously being a music professional and for that reason I dedicate almost all my time to it. It is true that I have contributed from different platforms to the training of young people, even when I was quite young, in all areas of music».

An example of that contribution has been the one he offers to the Jojazz festivals and the creation of his Young Jazz Band, a project that «in good and bad times I do my best to keep it functioning and not let it stop».

In recent months the maestro has paid tribute to the great Benny Moré with concerts in which he has taken the music that this enormous musician performed with his giant band to the symphonic format, as he previously did with authors such as Juan Formell and Adalberto Álvarez, concerts that he titled Vale 2. These concerts have taken place in Havana and in Venezuela. «Paying the deserved tribute to Benny was a personal debt and I am very happy that it has been being done all over the Island and throughout the year. For me it has been another pleasant and unexpected surprise that Venezuela and its musical institutions have been interested in having that tribute take place in that land.

«Taking all this music by Formell, Adalberto, Matamoros and Benny Moré to the symphonic world, respecting the codes of each genre, is a hard task, that requires a lot of imagination and a high creative spirit, in addition to the necessary knowledge, to approach all that music, styles and genres».

We did not want to say goodbye to Joaquín without asking him if there would be other Vale 2s, to which he responded: «There will certainly be others, and now more».