Detail of the Habana Clásica 2023 Festival poster. On the verge of the fifth edition of the Habana Clásica Festival
The fifth edition of the Habana Clásica Festival will take place from November 18 to December 3, with the participation of 59 Cuban and foreign artists and groups from 17 countries, according to the event's program. The main venues will be the Basílica Menor del Convento de San Francisco de Asís, the theater of the National Museum of Fine Arts, the San Felipe Neri Oratory and the Montilla Gallery. The event will be dedicated to the talented and influential flutist and pedagogue Roberto Ondina, sixty years after his death.
For the first time, jazz will be present at the festival as part of a bid to "open the tuning fork to a universe of expressive and technical freedoms," said Miriam Escudero, director of the Esteban Salas Musical Heritage Office. Brothers Harold and Ruy Adrián López-Nussa, together with the prestigious Swiss harmonica player Grégoire Maret, will be in charge of representing it.
The spirituality of Arab music also has a place in the festival's program to bring non-academic musical traditions closer to audiences. A selection of works of Tunisian, Egyptian and Lebanese musical production will be performed at the theater of the National Museum of Fine Arts by singer Afef Elouni and oudist Nada Mahmoud. They will be joined by pianist Ernesto Oliva, double bass player Olivia Rodríguez and percussionist Alejandro Aguiar, representing our country.
As in previous editions, the artistic director of the event will be the pianist Marcos Madrigal. He was accompanied by Lorenzo Suárez as general producer, and deputy artistic directors Lissy Abreu Ruiz, Luis Ernesto Doñas and Katia Cárdenas, who is also the OHC's director of Cultural Management.
