US orchestra travel to Cuba in major cultural exchange

US orchestra travel to Cuba in major cultural exchange
BY ANITA SNOW ASSOCIATED PRESS
02/12/2015 2:56 PM 02/12/2015 2:56 PM

HAVANA
The Minnesota Orchestra announced Thursday that it will play two
concerts in Cuba in May in what's believed to be the first major
cultural exchange between the two countries since their leaders
announced a move toward warmer relations.

Orchestra CEO Kevin Smith said the Cuban Ministry of Culture invited it
to play at Havana's International Cubadisco Festival on May 15 and 16.
It will be the first visit by a major U.S. orchestra to Cuba since the
Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra played in Cuba in December 1999.

"This initiative will demonstrate the power of music to offer
extraordinary opportunities for cultural exchange," said Marilyn Nelson,
a life director on the orchestra board who is helping finance the trip.
"We are thrilled that our orchestra will have the opportunity to make
this connection in Cuba."

There was no immediate response to the announcement from the Cuban
government.

The opportunity is partly a result of the moves toward normalized
relations announced on Dec. 17 by U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban
President Raul Castro.

The Minnesota Orchestra last played in Havana in 1929 and 1930.

"Eighty-five years ago, the Minnesota Orchestra, then called the
Minneapolis Symphony, performed Beethoven's music for Cuban audiences,
said the group's Finnish music director Osmo Vanska. "It is a thrill and
privilege for us to do the same so many decades later.

The last major U.S. orchestra performance in Cuba, by the Milwaukee
ensemble 16 years ago, came out of moves by President Bill Clinton's
administration to increase people-to-people exchanges aimed at
strengthening civil society in Cuba.

Efforts for such better US-Cuba relations were abandoned under President
George W. Bush, but were revived by Obama.

Even so, plans for two concerts by the New York Philharmonic in October
2009 were dropped because the U.S. government barred a group of patrons
from going along. Without their contributions, the philharmonic said the
trip was unaffordable.

Source: US orchestra travel to Cuba in major cultural exchange | The
Miami Herald The Miami Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/celebrities/article9813170.html