Authorities of the Provincial Directorate of Culture in Cienfuegos, declared to the press that the closure of cultural centers and institutions due to the outbreak of COVID-19 in the territory does not mean a paralyzation of artistic creation.

According to Arturo Javier Apezteguía Ibáñez, deputy director of this organization in the Pearl of the South, "at the present time we are subordinated to the measures of the Ministry of Public Health (Minsap) and the Provincial Defense Council (CDP). Since last January 10, it was decided to suspend most of our cultural services in the capital city, in correspondence with the complex epidemiological scenario.

"The rest of the municipalities - he added - respond to the provisions of their respective Municipal Defense Councils. Now, today, although the province is going through Phase 1 of Covid-19 recovery, even the services of cultural centers, museums, libraries, bookstores and galleries remain closed here. There will be time to resume the activities of these institutions".

The setback of the sanitary situation in Cienfuegos is related to a rebound of positive cases of the new coronavirus, with an upward trend for weeks. However, Culture officials maintained that although the context is difficult, the creation processes continue.

Apezteguía Ibáñez pointed out that within the framework of Martí's day -on the 168th anniversary of José Martí's birth-, "artists have reasons to create from home, taking care of themselves and their families. Cultural life is not totally at a standstill and we will support all online projects so that people can nourish their spirit in these days of so much tension".

Taken from september 5th digital

English version Hector Hdez.

This 2021 we are celebrating several commemorative  music dates in the beautiful City of the Sea. One of these is the 120th anniversary of the founding of the Cienfuegos Municipal Band. For that reason, I wanted to make an account of the personality that made this event possible. Thanks to the efforts of Agustín Sánchez Planas, an essential figure in the history of music in this southern city, today we celebrate one more anniversary of this music institution in our territory.

Orchestra and band conductor Agustín Sánchez Planas was born in Cienfuegos in 1860 and died in this city in 1944. He studied with the outstanding pianist and composer José Manuel Jiménez, "Lico". To Sánchez Planas we owe not only the founding of the Municipal Concert Band; he made notable contributions to the culture of his native city, some of which are still in force for the delight of many, despite having been created more than a century ago.

This gentleman, in partnership with the notable musician Antonio Palmira, organized and directed a typical orchestra in 1879. Due to its success and demand, he was forced to create a second group in 1910 to carry out parallel activities. Maestro Rafael Lay, who later became the director of the Aragón Orchestra, had his first experience in this orchestra. José de la Caridad Peña, the father of the outstanding Cienfuegos singer Paulina Álvarez, known as the Empress of Danzonete, was also a musician in the Sánchez Planas orchestra.

Along with the economic flourishing that the southern city was reaching, several societies were created. In 1899, Agustín founded and consolidated, together with a group of friends, the educational and recreational center he named "Minerva".

At the beginning of the 20th century, the concert bands were key institutions in the training of many musicians on the island. Sánchez Planas, being a councilman of the City Council and respected clarinettist, had a fruitful work in that sense as well. In 1887 he organized the Marine Infantry Band; in 1901 he founded and directed the Cienfuegos Municipal Music Band, one of the best musical organizations of the Republic at the time, and in 1926, the Firemen's Band. These last two groups, in addition to their usual musical activities, promoted excellent musicians and pedagogues of the province. With the Cienfuegos Municipal Band he won first prizes in contests held in Havana in 1908 and 1911. He was awarded as director together with his band by the Cienfuegos City Hall, on the occasion of the first centenary of the foundation of the Fernandina de Jagua Colony, today  Cienfuegos city.

That is why on this new anniversary, it is more than appropriate to remember his memory and his works, thanks to which, abundant chapters have been written in the musical history of his city and in the lives of so many Cienfuegos residents and visitors, who still have the pleasure of enjoying the company and spiritual nourishment provided by the Cienfuegos Municipal Band. More than one hundred years of history, more than one hundred years accompanying its people.

English version Hector Hdez.