Dr. Eric Conway writes:
Day 6 in Matanzas, Cuba
After a great night’s sleep enjoyed by the entire group, we set out for another day trip today, May 29th, this time to Matanzas, Cuba. Matanzas was a two and one half hour drive from Havana. As we have one of the largest vehicles on the narrow Cuban streets, with every time a car that approached from the opposite direction, our driver had to slow down to make sure that both could safely pass. The Cuban lanes must be at least one foot narrower than in the US, so a 44 passenger motor coach is an enormous vehicle that almost looks behemoth in size.
We arrived in Matanzas ahead of schedule. The word Matanzas, named by the Spanish, means massacre, due local people in the 18th century attacking a Spanish boat in the evening and killing all aboard. Upon arriving to yet another Cuban square in Matanzas called Parque de Libertad, we immediately toured a museum like no other visited in life - a pharmacy museum. After the quasi-interesting museum tour, we walked around the city center for an additional hour. After taking a short stroll to purchase more internet calls at a price of $2 per hour, some of us returned to the park to purchase refreshing pina coladas, which must have been some of the best that we have ever tasted. Later, our guide told us that he believed that the pina colada possibly originated in Cuba - with all Cuban ingredients - pineapple, coconut, nutmeg and rum. We then drove to our group lunch a few minutes away, again with some incredible Cuban music and energy - see another clip from local
musicians attached. After lunch, we drove to a high peak outside of
Matanzas, featuring one of the oldest churches in Matanzas build by the
persons form Cataluna, Spain where we were able to view the entire town.
From this point, many choir members, knowing that we were in Cuba, all
wanted to go to see a beach. We drove to a local beach, just to have
everyone get their feet wet, knowing that we had a concert a couple of
hours later.
From
there we went to our cultural exchange activity where we had a
delightful rehearsal with a chamber group of about sixteen local
choristers, who began singing a very well-known American composition by
Randall Thompson, Alleluia. The Matanzas choir was very
good. We were very pleased to see that the hall, although very
intimate, seating only 200 or so, had air-conditioning that was stronger
than any American hall. Having the robes on the bus, we decided to
again return to our choir robes for the uniform for the evening.
At
6 p.m. the concert began. This particular concert, unlike the others,
had a free admission. The entire room was filled to capacity. Because
the room was more intimate, everyone could enjoy a better music-making
experience. Often the larger the space, the more difficult it is to
control the sound, from both the audience and performance perspectives.
This evening, the sound could not have sounded better. We sang with no
amplification - went totally acoustic. Both choirs could hear each
other better on stage, and enjoy the act of singing more than with
microphones.
When
the first choir sang, the the MSU choir was the most enthusiastic
persons in the audience. Subsequently, the Cuban audience wildly
received the Morgan choir. Although I love enthusiastic audiences, every
song that was sung this evening was so enthusiastically received that I
found myself rudely interrupting their applause just to have flow to
our program. There seemed to be a genuine connection between the choirs
and audience this evening - partly because the room was so relatively
small, but also because both groups knew how to communicate to their
music to the listeners.
The
Morgan State University Choir has made such a huge impression on the
Cuban audiences, that tomorrow night’s concert venue was changed from
original venue to the largest venue in Cuba. I have also been asked if
our concert tomorrow night could be televised across all of Cuba! What
an impact we will have on Cuba during our tour!
More to come . . .
EC
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