They Present Qué rico é!, First Music Video by Guido López-Gavilán

March 17, 2022

Qué rico é!, the first music video by Cuban maestro Guido López-Gavilán, National Music Prize 2015, pays tribute to the artistic trajectory of over 50 years of the renowned director of the Música Eterna Chamber Orchestra, and was presented today to the press in Havana.

The piece that gives the clip its title was chosen by López-Gavilán himself, and had the sponsorship of the National Center for Concert Music and was produced by ALMAR Producciones, an audiovisual production company directed by Pablo Massip. The attractive and singular video was shot at the Havana-based Sloppy Joe's Bar, recreating, according to the musician, an atmosphere similar to the 1940s and 1950s of the past century, in the full splendor of mambo, and to be in tune with those eras, each member of the orchestra took on the role of a character, real or from a fantasy story.

López-Gavilán confessed that the piece Qué rico é! was made with a sense of humor, and given the success of the choral version, he decided to create an orchestral version specifically for Música Eterna and it has been performed on each continent. This work has the inherent difficulties of the instrument and we decided to choose it for this first music video because we thought it was a piece out of the ordinary, unusual, and I am very happy and satisfied with the result, he said.

Producer Pablo Massip for his part stated that the theme of this clip is the dream of the dream, and to bring all that musical work to images, extensive research was conducted; based on the atmospheres of the Sloppy Joe's, the characters of the story they wanted to tell began to emerge.

He affirmed that they enjoyed the creative process very much, and although it was complicated and complex, with the support of the entire team they managed to shoot for 14 hours in the night and early morning of one day and successfully complete the audiovisual production. Massip praised the costume selection as an essential point for recreating the audiovisual and especially mentioned the excellent work done by executive producer Ana María Domínguez and editor Daniel Diez JR.

He recognized the performance of each of the musicians from the Música Eterna orchestra, and Daiana García, director of the Chamber Orchestra of Havana, who plays a rumba dancer in the clip.

Qué rico é! I really believe is an interesting product, complex in its execution, and complicated in its interpretation, Massip emphasized. The music video can be viewed on the digital platforms of the Center for Concert Music and ALMAR Producciones, as well as in the usual spaces for the distribution of Cuban audiovisual content.

Guido López-Gavilán (Matanzas, 1944) is one of the most popular musicians of his generation, not only within the artistic community, but for the Cuban people, who feel as their own the melodies usually heard on television and radio programs. He presides over the International Festival of Contemporary Music in Havana, is a founding member of the College of Latin American Composers of Art Music, and among other honors has been awarded the Grand Cubadisco Prize 2016 and the Teacher of Youth Award 2019.