Day 2 in Cienfuegos, Cuba
After
enjoying a good night’s sleep, we discovered that we had a world-class
view around our hotel as we had scenes of beautiful bay water around us. When we arrived last night, it was too dark to see the beauty
surrounding our hotel. Our hotel was situated next to the historic
Palacio del Valle. I understand that our hotel was originally owned my
the Hilton family. After a very generous breakfast, with fruits that
were much sweeter than we could enjoy in the States, we left for our
cultural exchange with our Cienfuegos choir that shared our first
concert this evening - Cantores de Cienfuegos.
All
four of our concerts have the same format: an opening act sung by the
local choir, the feature presentation of our Morgan choir, and then a
finale where both choirs sing joint songs. During our cultural exchange
we rehearsed music to be sung jointly this evening. The Morgan choir
learned one suggested Cuban song entitled "Dulce Embeleso,” about the
first kiss one has while in love. The Cuban choirs all suggested a
Moses Hogan spiritual: “My Soul’s Been Anchored in the Lord” also as a
piece in English. Although he had not sung the Hogan spiritual in
years, we quickly relearned this song for these concerts. We also
learned one piece to sing during our section of the concert, Esto Les
Digo, in Spanish, based on Matthew 18: 19-20 - "where two or three are
gathered in my name, I shall be also.” We sang this song to the Cuban
choir who confessed that our pronunciation was excellent. After a very
strong rehearsal led by both the Cuban choral director Honey Moreira and
me, both groups spoke and intermingled discussing choral and overall
education challenges all students shared, regardless of country.
After
our cultural exchange/rehearsal we toured beautiful Cienfuegos. Our
concert was in the historic Tomás Terry Theatre, which seats
approximately seven hundred. The theatre is across from the city center
José Martí Park. After our tour we had a typical Cuban meal of a
paella with various types of meat. We returned to our hotel to rest
before our welcome meal at a very nice hotel minutes walk from our
concert venue.
Our
concert began much later than typical in the U.S. with a 9:00 p.m. start
time. As of this morning 575 of the 700 seats were sold. I was quite
concerned that a translation error may have occurred. It was relayed to
the Cuba presenter that the Morgan Choir had sung frequently with
Aretha Franklin, however, we found out this morning, that some flyers
may have said that Aretha Franklin may sing at the concert. I was
aghast at the error and immediately tried to make sure that this error
was corrected, however, perhaps, some have have purchased tickets
believing the Ms. Franklin may have been singing on this concert.
Fortunately,
the audience was pleased enough with our performance that any mention
of Aretha Franklin may have been forgotten or at least not spoken! Our
first concert was a great entr'acte into American (Morgan) culture for
the Cubans. Conversely, we enjoyed the Cienfuegos ensemble immensely.
There was a huge level of excitement in the air throughout our concert
this evening. Once again, the Morgan choir left their mark on another
section of the world. See photos attached.
EC
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