José María Vitier is the 2021 National Music Prize Winner

January 1, 2022

On Thursday, December 30, it was announced that José María Vitier García-Marruz was selected by a jury presided over by maestro and National Music Prize winner Digna Guerra, and also made up of fellow national prize winners Joaquín Betancourt, Guido López-Gavilán and Edesio Alejando, and musicologist Laura Vilar, director of Cidmuc (Center for Research and Development of Cuban Music), awarding him the 2021 National Music Prize.

"The prize leaves me very grateful, it is something that moves me and commits me even more to the music of my country," said Vitier, once recovered from the shock of the news.

According to the jury's judgment, José María, "who is an excellent pianist and composer, a very complete and integral musician, whose work ranges from the popular to the cultured, from jazz and song to the classical forms of chamber music, orchestral and choral, is one of our most relevant pianists of these times. His works, including Strawberry and Chocolate (film) and Missa Cubana, have had a great impact not only among the musicians of our country but among the people, standing out for his contributions to Cuban music."

Vitier, son of poets Cintio Vitier and Fina García Marruz, has recorded more than 30 albums as author and performer, obtaining on two occasions the Grand Prize for best album of the year in Cuba.

In the year 2000 his CD Psalm of the Americas was nominated for the Latin Grammy Award, among the five best classical music albums. He has also been nominated as a Candidate for the Ibero-American Music Prize Tomás Luis de Victoria in its 2002, 2004, and 2006 editions, obtaining the National Culture Distinction, the Alejo Carpentier medal and the Felix Varela order, which recognizes in Cuba extraordinary contributions made in favor of the everlasting values of national and universal culture.

During the press meeting with the jury at the Cuban Institute of Music, maestro Guido López-Gavilán, in a private conversation with Granma, said: "the music of José María Vitier is a teaching." And it is true. The high recognition will be presented to him next January, in a concert by the National Symphony Orchestra of Cuba.