By
the end of the day on Sunday, it felt like we had already been in Cuba
for a week. It's amazing how much we get done and how much life seems to
slow down while we're here. We started our day the best way we know
how, singing for an audience. We practiced in the bus on our way to
Matanzas (which we learned means Massacre), where we performed in
a hermitage for members of the community and for another choir who
performed as well. They were amazing and it was particularly interesting
to see how their choir brought people of different age groups together,
from our age group to the very elderly. They were extremely talented
and welcoming and I was pleased to find that the language barrier was
less significant than I thought it would be. Singing seemed to bring us
together in a way that conversation could not.
After our first
concert, we had lunch in The Hotel Velazco with live music featuring one
of the altos from the choir that morning. Then we walked around the hermitage taking pictures of each other and of the buildings. We then
took the bus to the Plaza or town square where we saw the José Martí and
buildings with large images of Che Guevara and Cienfuegos but what I enjoyed
seeing most at the square were the taxis. Their vibrant color and old
school feel drew our attention everywhere we went. After our visit to Matanzas, came my favorite part of the day, a workshop in Havana with a well known
singing instructor named Digna. Her approach was really interesting and a
little scary at first to be honest. She made each soprano sing by herself and rearranged us according to the texture of our voices and
made some major changes to many of our songs. It was amazing to see how
much progress we made in such a short amount of time with an instructor
that spoke no English at all. We ended our day with a dinner on the 33rd
floor of La Torre with a view of Havana. It was a day I will never forget
filled with experiences I will always value. The power of singing to
bring people together regardless of language is truly remarkable.
-Lotoya Francis
No comments:
Post a Comment