PHOTO/Teatro Marti, Cuba’s leading concert hall and opera house, is the scene of Saturday’s historic event uniting Havana with Key West.
Key Westers on music mission to Havana
KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER
A party of several leading Key West citizens flew from Miami airport to José Marti Airport in Havana, Cuba, Wednesday morning to prepare the inaugural performance of an orchestral work by Bill Lorraine.
Called “The Hemingway Suite,” it is the masterwork of the long-time local composer and pianist and will make history as the first such cultural exchange between our neighboring cities and nations since the U.S. embargo of relations with Cuba half a century ago.
The work will be performed by Cuban musicians in the Teatro Marti, Havana’s foremost opera house, at 8:30 p.m., Saturday.
That is a time and day that will make history in U.S.-Cuban relations.
Although Wednesday’s flight out of Miami was expedited with the utmost secrecy, apparently for discretionary rather than political reasons, the travel arrangements and itinerary for the Cuba trip were apparently prepared for the Key West travelers “highly professionally” by Miriam Castillo of Bespoke Custom Cuba Travel out of New York City, Lorraine tells us. They provided the airline tickets, hotel reservations and visas for the delegation.
The Key West delegation includes members of the Key West Arts and Historical Society, Tropic Cinema, the Hemingway House and the Studios of Key West, plus artist Ann Lorraine and, of course, her husband, the composer Bill Lorraine.
It was Ed DE More of Key West who helped put together the U.S. and Havana delegations and is the on-site concierge assisting the Key West delegation while in Cuba.
“Everything was made possible by one man,” Lorraine told Konk Life, a person introduced to him by DE More. “Orestes del Castillo is an 80- year-old retired architect and professor at the University of Havana and responsible for the restoration of many of the historic buildings in old Havana,” continued Lorraine. “He is much loved by everybody I have met in Cuba. His students come up to him on the streets of Havana and kiss him. His gravitas and connections inside the Cuban cultural establishment have made our trip possible.”
Castillo introduced Lorraine to people in the Ministry of Culture such as Alfredo Roche, director of International Relations, the Havana city Historian Eusebio Leal (which is the “Cuban Hemingway House,”), the directors of the Mozart Music Academy and the Havana Art Museum.
And it was Castillo who introduced Lorraine to orchestra conductor Zenaida Romeu, who has put together an orchestra especially for this premiere of the Hemingway Suite.
The suite was favorably received and reviewed when first released on CD in the U.S. a year or so ago. It is based on the novels and short stories of Ernest Hemingway and was originally performed by a leading North Carolina Orchestra for the CD.
“The cultural exchange,” said Lorraine, in an exclusive communication with Konk Life, “is formed around the non-political medium of music. I wrote music that reflected the emotional center of 15 of Hemingway’s stories. Both Key West and Cuba think of Ernest Hemingway as their own, since he lived and wrote in both places. The two islands have long-standing cultural and economic connections going back 150 years. This is an effort to restore some of those valuable connections.”
Bill’s wife, Ann Lorraine, took on the job of preparing 10 gift bags to take to the Cuban delegation. “They are beautiful, done with Ann’s well-known artistic flair, and they contain very nice donated Key West-themed gifts,” added Bill. “We will have two working dinners with our Cuban counterparts, including interpreters, where we can all get to know each other and establish friendships and working relationships.”
The Key West delegation that left for Havana this week consists of Rita Linder and Janet Hinkle, Shirrel Rhoades and Michael Gieda, David Gonzales and Matthew Helmerich. Another Bill Lorraine composition, “Romanza for Piano and Orchestra,” will also be performed in the concert.
The Key West contingent will also attend the International Festival of New Latin-American Cinema opening at the Karl Marx Theatre located in Miramar. Since its creation in 1979, this festival goal has been the foundation of an international platform for Latin American and Caribbean cinema as well as a space for discussion about how to improve the actual conditions of these different countries’ film production. It is reputed to be one of the most popular cultural events that takes place annually in Havana.
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