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Published: December 15th 2016
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The National Choir Headquarters in HavanaOn sunday, 12/10, we left Cienfuegos early and drove back to Havana, a three hour trip. Today we would finally get to meet with the National Choir. Our time with them had been postponed until today due to the national mourning period when we were first in Havana.
When we arrived in Havana, we had lunch at the John Lennon park, then at 1:00 we went to the headquarters of the national choir. This was a beautiful, well maintained building and we noticed that there were practice rooms for each of the sections. Satb, with a piano in each.
We met with a smaller chamber group of about 16 singers who had come in on Sunday, their day off! The full choir has more than 40. We met Digna Guerra, the director, a lovely person, and very famous here in Cuba. First they performed for us, singing several songs including Chan Chan and Chili con Carne. They were amazing to hear in such a small space! We then sang 4 songs for them. Fred taught their choir one of his songs (It takes a village), Digna taught us a song, Guantanamera, and Kent taught them Marvelous Things. Afterwards we
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Sad condition of surrounding buildings presented them with a plaque of appreciation and quite a bit of sheet music and a pitch pipe and they were very appreciative. We had a wonderful time singing with them and talking to them. This was definitely a high point of the whole trip.
The National Choir is a very prestigious and select group. They are paid a salary and practice every day for 5 hours. They have the opportunity to travel (especially the smaller group of singers) and have sung all over the world. We were extremely lucky to have this opportunity to sing with them.
Afterwards we drove to the El Presidente hotel, checked in and then quickly got back on the bus and headed for the art museum where we had the opportunity to hear another wonderful choir called Elé. This was a group with about 8 singers with several instruments, including guitar and percussion. They are a professional group and very polished. Again, we were very lucky to have this opportunity. We then headed back to the hotel, by now it was almost dinner time. I'll tell about the evening in my next entry.
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