by Gabriela Milián Calzadilla.

The human condition itself wanted to turn music into a language. I recognize, without hesitation, that it is the most special of all. It is not an indispensable requirement to master the grammar of sound to listen, to feel, to let oneself go... However, a belief spreads through the sea of everyday life. A belief that sometimes ponders the belonging of the so-called "classical music" to past generations. While the virtuosity discovered in the scene is praised independently of the age of the performer, the dilemma always returns that the mastery acquired when one is the owner of full understanding, corresponds, for the most part, to experienced minds.

Is not the very nature of the art we are dealing with enough quality to energize such perception? Maturity indeed grants sharp and subtle virtues, but youth opens its way impetuous, frenetic, enraged. When it comes to finding answers, we can always revisit that vital chapter dedicated to balance, where the convenience of having both sides before tossing the coin is pointed out.

Our scales stand still in this century and take us to the shared site in the very heart of a city clinging to its glories. Right here, in the San Cristobal Village, the Habana Clásica International Festival promotes the dialogue between generations. The dream of Marcos Madrigal, a Cuban pianist indebted to the knowledge bequeathed by his original school, has materialized, and with him, masters and disciples embrace for the fifth time on the proscenium.

For the second time, the event has the support of the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC) as a leading donor, through Lorenzo Suarez, deputy director of SDC and Cultural Counselor of the Embassy of Switzerland in Cuba, who also serves as general producer of this edition, the most ambitious of those held so far.  

Madrigal is well aware of the importance of building an artistic identity on solid technical and interpretative foundations, a reason that motivates him to travel dissimilar paths to provide opportunities for emerging talents. In this sense, the synergy with the Youth Art Fund (YAF), a cultural platform created by SDC in January 2023 to support emerging artistic creation, marks the beginning of a promising stage dedicated to the youngest creators.

Nearing its first anniversary, YAF is a collaborative platform that brings together the efforts and wills of multiple donors and partners to offer financial support to musicians, visual artists, and cultural enterprises. Despite its young age, it has become a benchmark in the management of projects whose implementation has an impact on the symbolic capital of our society.

In this edition, the YAF is leading the financial and operational management of the festival, in conjunction with the Esteban Salas Musical Heritage Office, the Habana Clásica Cultural Association (ACHC) with its headquarters in Rome, Italy, the Office of the Historian of the City of Havana (OHCH) and the Cuban Institute of Music (ICM).

The objectives of Habana Clásica and YAF are aligned in intent and purpose. Together they promoted, from the field of inclusion, actions whose main beneficiaries were placed in that segment in need of a support network from which to launch and develop their careers. This year the festival summoned, with greater strength and scope, a group of young people between the ages of 18 and 35, such as Daniel Toledo Guillén (composer in residence), as well as Italian performers Edouardo Grieco (violin), Francesco Massimino (cello) and Lorenzo Nguyen (piano), the Polish duo Karolina Mikolajczyk (violin) and Iwo Jedynecky (physharmonica) and pianist Noemi Zoon (Switzerland-France). Participating for Cuba are Rodrigo García (piano), Olivia Rodríguez (double bass), Alejandro Aguiar (percussion), José Ernesto Rodríguez (clarinet), the Op.5 Flute Ensemble formed by Samdor Ramírez, Leandro Larrea, Melisa Fiallo, Felipe Romero, and Gabriel García, and Amaya Justiz (cello), who is the winner of one of the scholarships awarded by YAF.

In times of crisis and uncertainty, the union of Habana Clásica and the FAJ inaugurated alternative ways as a response to the need to motivate the artistic production of the youngest. The capricious Ariadna has marked destiny with her skein of threads, she has arranged it this way, because where the soul resides no older age prevails, only that which is devoted to music has value.