Challenges of the Concert Band with the Argentinean maestro Maidana (+photos).

Under the baton of Buenos Aires master Facundo Maidana Sandoval, the Matanzas Provincial Concert Band challenged its symphonic proposal by performing a highly complex repertoire that included pieces by Beethoven and contemporary classics.

In nine days of rehearsal, the composer also managed to link beautiful sonorities among the musicians from Matanzas, many of them young talents, in a unique performance staged at the José White Concert Hall of the Atenas de Cuba.

With arrangements of his own, the southern conductor included in the program the overture Coriolanus and Symphony #1 in C major, Opus 21, by the famous German musician, as well as Jacob de Haan’s Concerto d’Amore, which received a standing ovation from the audience due to the harmony achieved in the performance.

They also performed Desfile, by René Duperé and the moving porteño compositions Ave María and Libertango, by Astor Piazzola, to close with Tanguera, by Mariano Mores.

Invited to Cuba with his mother, writer Liliana Sandoval, by the Chair of Gender, Culture and Society of the University of Matanzas, the remarkable musician also worked on the tuning of the piano of the Palacio de Junco museum and gave classes on that discipline to university students.

The concert was attended by Maritza Cuba, delegate in the province for Tourism-Culture relations and Leo García Ramos, first vice-president of UNEAC.

In an interview for the press, Maidana expressed about the important artistic exchange:
«It was necessary to have a lot of ductility in the search for sounds that would enhance the musical works.

«It was necessary to provide them with the knowledge, the power of reflection, the critical and instrumental tools necessary in their development, so that they make, not a commercial work, but one that lasts. This begins with artistic education and is later transformed into culture».

Conductor Facundo Maidana, 37, has conducted bands, chamber music and orchestras in his country and in countries such as Mexico, Peru and the United States. He has been appointed Cultural Ambassador of the International Network of Dance and Arts Institutions in Canada.

At the end of his interview he declared that he would be delighted to be able to work again with the Matanzas Provincial Concert Band as of March 2024.

(Photo Sergio Martínez)

Written by María Elena Bayón Mayor.