2023 National Music Prize for Maestro Roberto Sánchez Ferrer at 96 Years Old

January 13, 2024

The 2023 National Music Prize was awarded this Friday to instrumentalist, composer, orchestrator, and orchestra conductor Roberto Sánchez Ferrer, who holds a meritorious position in the symphonic field in Cuba.

The news was announced by the president of the Cuban Institute of Music, Indira Fajardo, and the jury members, composed of Pancho Amat as president, Guido López-Gavilán and Beatriz Márquez, who also hold this award, along with musicologist Élsida González and journalist and music critic Guille Vilar.

Born in Havana on December 31, 1927, Sánchez Ferrer has an prolific career that makes him one of the paradigmatic figures of musical culture since the second half of the twentieth century.

With an extensive artistic life, he encompasses an integrative body of work that has been reflected in recordings with notable figures such as Esther Borja, Iris Burguet, Armando Pico, Omara Portuondo, Chucho Valdés, and Ernán López-Nussa.

He began his musical studies at the Edison Institute and the Levy Conservatory, and at only 18 years old he conducted a musical revue made up of musicians from the Philharmonic Orchestra of Havana, which constitutes his first role as an orchestra conductor.

In 1945 he formed the Jazz Trio named Los raqueteros del Swing, in which he played the clarinet alongside José Álvarez on piano and drummer Antonio García, later joined by Arturo (Chico) O'Farrill, Kiki Hernández, Gustavo Más, Isidro Pérez, and singer Ana Menéndez.

He joined as saxophonist and clarinetist the Hermanos Castro Orchestra, then moved to other important jazz bands of the era, including Hermanos Le Batard, Riverside Orchestra, and Habana Casino.

In 1961 he traveled to Paris as musical director of Modern Dance of Cuba and conducted the orchestra at the Sara Bernhardt Theater of Nations. That same year he directed Verdi's La Traviata in the first opera season in Cuba after the triumph of the Revolution.

The University of Uruguay awarded him the prize "Gateway of the Sun over agate and amethyst" for the results of the recording of the work Revolutionary Chants to Cuba, by composer Alberto Soriano.

In 1965 he joined the musical direction of the National Opera of Cuba, and from 1976 to 1978 he served as general director.

He has conducted numerous international tours to countries in Latin America, Asia, and Europe, where the most famous Cuban zarzuelas by Gonzalo Roig, Ernesto Lecuona, Rodrigo Prats, among others, have been presented. Source: Prensa Latina.

The awarding of the 2023 National Music Prize took place this morning with the presence of Indira Fajardo, president of the ICM, other members of the Institute's Board of Directors, and the press.

The jury was composed of Pancho Amat, 2010 National Music Prize winner (president); Guido López-Gavilán, 2015 National Music Prize winner; Beatriz Márquez, 2015 National Music Prize winner; Élsida González, musicologist; and Guille Vilar, journalist, cultural promoter, and music critic.