A few months ago I wrote a text about the master Tomás Tomás De Clouet, who initiated chamber music in Cienfuegos during the XlX century. From him, who later became his daughter-in-law, Ana Aguado, and his son Guillermo Tomás, would continue this legacy for a while, until due to their ties to the Liberating Army, they had to emigrate to the United States. Upon their return, they settled permanently in Havana, where they made great contributions to Cuban music. This way, the concert music in Cienfuegos remained silent.

Historical data show signs of a string orchestra formed by Maestro Rafael Lay with his students before the Aragón  orchestra finally made its way to Havana.

It is in the 21st century when a more organized and systematic movement of chamber music in the city is felt again, in which figures like the professor and violinist Emilia Bondarenko stand out, whose initial project, the Quartet of Concert Music Ad Libitum (1996-2015), is no longer active. Rafael Gallardo and his guitar orchestra Ensemble, Bronia Mejías, the flute orchestra Diadema and Emilia herself, this time together with the double bass player Enme Rifat, main architects of the Chamber Orchestra Concert Sur, join the quartet. Thanks to the efforts of all of them and to the incorporation of several talented soloists, that legacy of Maestro De Clouet is once again revived in the city.

Precisely, to the life and work of double bassist Enme Enrique Rifat Lima, I would like to dedicate the column today

He began his studies at the then Manuel Saumell Provincial School of Music in Cienfuegos, today "Benny Moré". He then studied at the National School of Art (ENA) in Havana. On his return, in 1995, he set out to realize a dream that he would share with other musicians. In this way and a little more than a decade later, in 2006, he manages to materialize it by founding the Chamber Orchestra Concierto Sur.

The musician himself says: "When I returned, I joined different groups where I did not feel the rigor with which concert music should be worked, and that is why we decided to do something ourselves. We joined a violinist with many years of experience, Emilia Bondarenko, known here as 'the Russian', who taught us the true importance of music in the Chamber Orchestra. In addition to giving concerts with the group, we began to accompany different soloists. I fell in love with that, and with her help, we have worked non-stop during all these years. At present we are working with wonderful singers not only in the lyric theme, but also in the popular one, with a repertoire that includes boleros and songs".

Enme Rifat has had an excellent professional career. He has integrated several groups of the province like the one that accompanies Los Hermanos Novo, the Bahison Traditional Music Septet or the Revelation Orchestra. He has also worked as a musical educator inside and outside the Island, and has given classes of popular double bass in different cities of Spain and France. He has participated in several international festivals and in recordings of outstanding musicians, although it is essential to mention the tour he made with his group in October 2012 in the United States. There they performed in Tacoma, where he gave master classes in Cuban music at the University of Puget Sound, in that city. They also took their music to cities such as Tempe (Arizona) and Miami, offering concerts with the Northwest Sinfonietta, conducted by maestro Christopher Chagnard. Within their repertoire, the interpretation of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and works by important Cuban composers stand out.

I would like to evoke the history of music and remember that in 1901, on the occasion of the Pan-American Exhibition in Buffalo, Guillermo Tomás, also from Cienfuegos, toured the United States with the Police Corps music band, founded by himself in Havana. They also performed in Roxbury and Wisconsin, obtaining excellent praise from the specialized critics of that northern country.

We are grateful that musicians like Enme and all the collective that accompanies him, as well as other chamber groups -in which I include the choral movement- continue to give this spiritual incentive to their city.

Taken from September 5th digital

English version Hector Hdez.

The 58 years of scenic work are being celebrated by the members of the Centro Dramático de Cienfuegos, a group that will perform a new production of the play "Mar Nuestro", by the late Cuban playwright and actor Alberto Pedro, on January 21 at the Sala Aida Conde.

According to the announcement of Generoso González, the artistic director of the group, the play, basically starring three women, will go on stage this month with a new cast, to assume the audacity of the text about three castaways together with the Charity of Copper.

Gonzalez reminded the radio that during its premiere by the Centro Dramático de Cienfuegos, the play motivated a lot of input from the local audience.

"Mar Nuestro", which evokes the theme of emigration, makes us really reflect, said the artistic director.

Whispers, parasols, pedals and clotheslines make the days of Miguel Pérez Valdés. Each one of these elements defines his work like cultural and literary promoter; they shelter stories, poems that travel next to him hidden in the books until the most remote communities of Cienfuegos. It was like this during 2020, in the months of tension imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic, but it has always been so, from the moment art brought him to the world.

He was born in Moa municipality of Holguín  in 1987, where he graduated as a theater instructor under the tutorship of José Oriol González, leader of the emblematic group Teatro de Los Elementos. His experience and ideas ignited those desires to make and promote artistic creation, which he honored since the times when he was an amateur. In Cruces, his hometown, he began the adventure of twinning other manifestations such as dance, visual arts and music through the Hélice project, founded during the hard years of the Special Period.

"We offered performances every weekend at the Raúl Gómez García municipal theater, the second largest in the Pearl of the South. That system, together with the performances we gave in nearby settlements, demanded a lot from us as artists and we later managed to be recognized by the Council of the Performing Arts. It was - said Pérez Valdés - a beautiful stage, of impact in the communities and, especially, of training in the transit to My Clown.

Miguel was one of the architects of the theater project My Clown, which set aesthetic guidelines around the art of clowns / Photo: Alcides Portal Alfonso

"It was the same group, to which we incorporated other actors and actresses with the intention of dedicating ourselves to the art of clowns. At that time there were many prejudices about mime and clown theater. I remember that we participated in one of the editions of the Aquelarre festival and they wanted to change our name to English. I protested, because we were working on the dynamics of the Cuban clown and one thing had nothing to do with the other.

"Then, in 1997, following the death of the actor Erdwin Fernández, the national clown festival Trompoloco was born. People came to see My Clown, and we created an aesthetic that allowed us to clean up some of the stigma of those who considered what we were doing to be small-scale theater. We came to a lot of spaces like Casa de las Americas, we were founders of the Book Fair and of the community culture events in the mountains; we got a Jagua Award, and so on until 2008.

During these years, Miguel Pérez Valdés also contributed to the birth of the Artistic and Literary Crusade of the Hermanos Saíz Association (AHS), to intricate areas of the Guamuhaya Massif in Cienfuegos. He also helped in the organizational part that cooked for the whole brigade of young creators. "It has always been very nice," he said. It's human work and we miss that you don't walk as much as you used to, when we went from one town to another with the food, the clothes and the theatrical elements upstairs, or we slept either in tents or in a doorway. The most recent one was wonderful and remains authentic. I've taken my children, grandchildren, and I don't feel comfortable if I stop attending.

 Now several publishing projects keep him on the edge of his seat, after that steep writing career that took off in 2004 with the appearance of the texts Por el hueco de la bota (poetry for children) and Humo en el río (stories for adults), both published by the local publishing houses Mecenas and Reina del Mar Editoresruedas de la luna, . Then other titles were born, such as  El príncipe de papel, Por el bolsillo del rey, Chinitos en verso y cartón... Currently, he is the representative in the central region of Cuba of the Spanish publishing house Selvi Ediciones, dedicated to the diffusion and commercialization of children's literature made by authors from the Island. He writes and illustrates books, and seems to be tireless.

For the renowned artist from Cienfuegos, literary promotion has to be ingenious, suggestive, and draw the public's attention / Photos: Courtesy of the interviewee

The year 2020 widened its horizons despite the limitations that the new coronavirus placed on everyday life. Although before Covid-19 Miguel proposed to retrace other paths of oral narration through the projects Whispering Verses and Tales with Umbrellas, the complex epidemiological scenario forced him to reinvent himself. With the sponsorship of the Provincial Book Center and the support of the Council of of the Scenic Arts, he took the road in "Pedales de Papel".

"It consisted," he said, "in going to a remote community where the logistical conditions were not in place to take other cultural offerings there, but I could do it. By bicycle, or in other occasions by motorcycle or by cart, I would go through a complete settlement, arrive, locate people two meters away and talk to them about a book. I did this, from the beginning, accompanied by young writers and actors from the AHS.

"We started with the municipalities of Palmira, Cruces and Lajas, and went to distant places like Amalia, Santa Teresa, Chicharrones. With the 'Crusade' we reached Topes de Collantes. There we did not have a bicycle and we visited families house by house; even, from the first floor, we interacted with the neighbors of an entire building. Later we extended this action to Cienfuegos, to popular tips such as La Esperanza and Pepito Tey".

Inviting reading from the novel and attractive distinguishes the exercise of literary promotion assumed by Pérez Valdés.

Hanging to read, for example, is another one of those ingenious proposals, full of magic, that only fit in someone for whom living means the act of creating. "Putting a book on the shelf is going to attract attention, because people are used to seeing them on the shelves and going on," he said. This forced me to look for all the resources: nails, screws, thread, rope, because the actions I do always involve assembly, exhibition and disassembly. The same thing happens when I work on the living statues, and I also do this, which is about narrating, declamation, conversation and making the spaces where it is presented known".

For this 2021, he intends to take up again with greater strength a project that he carried out two years ago, the Literary Clothesline, which he will strengthen at Cruces, outside the institutions located in the main park of that municipality, in line with commemorative dates. Other goals assail his head while he grants the interview: the trip he will make tomorrow, the text he will write later, the illustration to be drawn, the documentary to which he was invited, the still remote idea of something he would like to do...

Miguel does not stop plotting reasons to live. Art," he said, "is life. It is very much linked to the way I understand myself as a father, grandfather, brother, and son. Sometimes I receive the recognition or the corresponding remuneration, but many things I do for pleasure, never forced. It is, in essence, my attitude to life. I could not lock myself up or limit myself as a creator. His more than 30 years of artistic career are an intense and imaginative journey that would not fit in a thousand pages.

For the renowned artist from Cienfuegos, literary promotion has to be ingenious, suggestive, and draw the public's attention / Photos: Courtesy of the interviewee

Taken from September 5th digital

English version Hector Hdez.