Vanessa Herrera and her lyrical transcendence.
Matanzas lyric singer Vanessa Herrera climbs the ladder of popularity with her exquisite soprano voice and a performative expressiveness that incorporates attractive elements to her performances.
Matanzas lyric singer Vanessa Herrera climbs the ladder of popularity with her exquisite soprano voice and a performative expressiveness that incorporates attractive elements to her performances.
She is known for directing the D’Cámara quartet, an ensemble from Matanzas that specializes in themes from the Romantic period, plus the Cuban and Hispanic concert repertoire, in an effort to perform pieces that, due to their complexity, are rarely interpreted, as well as for her talent as a teacher of Choral Singing at the Professional Music School of Matanzas.
In an interview for this media, Vanessa expresses:
“We are preparing the final exercise of the Choral Singing IV Year exam, in the school, where we will present the opera ”Dido and Aeneas», by Henry Purcell. It will be a student performance, with a minimum of resources.
“We have integrated into the show the dancers of Danza Espiral, with the help of the teacher Liliam Padrón and students of the third year of Plastic Arts who work on the scenery and costumes”.
And about your personal career, what can you tell us about it?
«I direct the D’Cámara music quartet and through that group I try to rescue part of the Cuban concert music that has not been published in the country in recent times.
«Specifically, I work on the Melopeas dances, by Ignacio Cervantes, which when he interpreted them he would say some texts, related to the moment in which he performed it.
«We got to know him through an album that maestro Ulises Hernández made together with the magnanimous, the tremendous Luis Carbonell. We discovered this marvelous album, recorded in Mexico, and we want to reproduce it to enhance our repertoire.
«We are also interested in some songs by Magaly Ruiz, which we found in a Latin American magazine. In general, the quartet is working on these compositions, in addition to offering concerts in various venues in the city».
I tell her that I have observed in her performances as a soprano, some montages, some kind of performances, especially with Spanish music…
«I like it, yes, and transmit it to my students. I think that the most important thing for concert music in the world and, fundamentally in Cuba, is to attract the public, especially the young. With such an aim, I have discovered that the Spanish music pleases very much in Matanzas. As soon as a castanet is played, the public of any age gets up.
“Likewise, to the extent that we are able to translate those emotions, especially with the resources of the performance, that they feel and understand, because in that way, they will want to listen to that music more”.
It is worth mentioning that Vanessa Herrera and her group’s favorite venues in the beautiful city of Matanzas are the José White concert hall, the Pharmaceutical Museum of Matanzas and the chapel of the Ermita de Monserrate.
Written by María Elena Bayón.
