Leo Brouwer and Roberto Valera will be honored at International Choral Festival

October 7, 2019

The XXXIII edition of the International Choir Festival «Electo Silva» will be dedicated to maestros Leo Brouwer and Roberto Valera, according to information from the TVSantiago website.

At a press conference, they announced that the program rescues theoretical workshops on singing in parts and will take place from October 28 to November 3.

In the workshops, discussions will be held about nineteenth-century Italian music, choral singing in Cuba, its young performers, Gregorian chants, and children's choral formations.

«We didn't just come here to sing, we came to learn. There will be eight workshops to improve singers and conductors. It's worth mentioning that the opening gala includes the Coro Orfeón Santiago, which is the host of the Festival. We will perform a contemporary music repertoire, we will premiere a piece for female choir by maestro Electo and that gala will be called Iré a Santiago», declared Daria Abreu, President of the Organizing Committee of the International Choir Festival.

«We will close with the Sinfónica de Oriente and the choirs of the city singing the work by maestro Valera titled Lemas y poemas dedicated to Fidel», added Abreu.

Choirs from South Africa, the United States, France, and Mexico will share with Cuban artists. «From Mexico come three choirs, one of children and two of adults, from the Dominican Republic and Australia. From Cuba we will have the formation from Holguín, the National Choir with its three formats, Vocal Samplin celebrating its 30th anniversary of founding, the singers of Cienfuegos and our choirs with a fundamental performance», she concluded.

The Choir Festival is part of Santiago de Cuba's cultural heritage and is supported by those who since 1961 invested their efforts to make it necessary. Electo Silva Gaínza was its founder, in fact, he is still recognized as Dean of Choral Directors in Cuba.

Electo was a seed for those who today join their voices in every group and it is only right that this Festival, about to celebrate its edition, bears his name and rescues spaces like theoretical workshops. Scholars from Cuba, Mexico, the United States, Italy, and South Africa confirm their collaboration.