Cuba, Napa Valley blend to make beautiful music
It has taken more than a year of planning and a good number of international plane tickets, but the musical performers for Festival Napa Valley are now warming up in the wings for nearly two weeks of world-class concerts.
Festival attendees, meanwhile, should be preparing for some high energy “Danza Cubana.” That’s because the festival theme for 2017 is all things Cuba, featuring music, cuisine and more inspired by the once forbidden island. Perhaps the most notable is the recent announcement that Cuban music group Compay Segundo will perform at the Closing Night Party at Quintessa on July 22. Founded by original members of the Buena Vista Social Club, this will be the group’s first U.S. performance since 2000.
The season also includes performances by acclaimed Cuban pianist/composer Aldo LópezGavilán and the Havana Chamber Orchestra performing with Grammy Award-winning American violinist/conductor Joshua Bell.
The Caribbean island inspiration came about when, in January 2016, a delegation from Festival Napa Valley visited Cuba seeking to build a cultural diplomacy initiative with the republic’s Ministry of Culture.
“The goal of the trip was to discover world-class Cuban artists and invite them to perform at our festival,” Executive Producer Charles Letourneau said. “Over the course of five days, more than a dozen Cuban national artists performed for our group, ranging from string quartets, traditional samba, Cuban jazz and chamber orchestras.”
Immediately, the festival’s producers were so impressed with the caliber of the talent they were seeing that pianist López-Gavilán was invited for the 2016 season where he had his first opportunity to play with a U.S. orchestra. His performance of Rhapsody in Blue was so well received that he was invited back for this year where he will be part of Joshua Bell’s Seasons of Cuba dinner, concert and after party taking place at Far Niente winery on July 15. That evening, Bell will lead the Havana Chamber Orchestra, López-Gavilán and soprano Larisa Martínez in a vibrant program spanning from Vivaldi classics to Piazzolla tangos.
López-Gavilán also will headline the sold-out “Hot Havana Nights” Patron show at the Blue Note Napa supper club on July 18, playing alongside other Cuban jazz artists.
“Aldo’s story really reiterates what the festival is all about,” Letourneau said. “We have a track record of serving as a launch pad for young, emerging artists to be discovered and heard, connecting them to other talents, and creating a platform for them to get great exposure and eventually wow crowds all over the world.”
As one example of increasing accessibility, he pointed to the (nearly) all-female, 22-piece Havana Chamber Orchestra, who, besides its performances with Bell and López-Gavilán, are being brought in as part of the festival’s Bouchaine Young Artist Series to play free concerts on July 17 and 18, and also offer a private concert for students from Boys & Girls Clubs of Napa County.
“Cuban and U.S. culture comes from the same roots, even though each has blossomed in different ways for many years under the shadow of distance,” López-Gavilán said. “Now, with new opportunities of getting together, we can enjoy greater development of each others’ arts. I believe that music, especially, can bring together the entire world.”
While violinist Bell was born in Bloomington, Ind., he too has ties to Cuba. Last year, he traveled to Havana as part of the U.S. government’s inaugural cultural mission to the area under President Barack Obama. Then, this past fall, he performed at the Lincoln Center in New York with the Havana Chamber Orchestra, López-Gavilán, Martínez and singer-songwriter Carlos Varela. His concert at Far Niente is a tribute to that original collaboration.