Frank Fernández

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Frank Fernández Tamayo (born March 16, 1944 in Mayarí , Holguin Province ) is a Cuban pianist , university professor and composer .

Live and act

Frank Fernández Tamayo began playing the piano at the age of four. A year later he received his first lessons from his mother Altagracia Tamayo, who was the director of the Obrón Academy in his birthplace Mayarí. In 1959 he went to Havana , where he continued his education at the Amadeo Roldán Conservatory with the renowned professor Margot Rojas , who was a student of Alexander Lambert, one of the last students of Franz Liszt . Margot Rojas gave him access to the most important pianists of the 19th century and helped him to the most important part of his education.

In 1966 he received the first prize of the piano competition of the UNEAC (National Association of Writers and Artists of Cuba) combined with a scholarship at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow . There he studied for five years and completed his studies in the class of pianist and teacher Victor Merzhanov with Summa Cum Laude . During this period he also acquired the works of the famous Russian piano school.

After his return to Cuba he began his career as a pianist and not only appeared as a solo pianist and with orchestras , but also worked as a composer, as a university lecturer, as a record producer and promoter, artistic director and advisor on cultural events.

In the years that followed, his studies gave him access to the richness of the Cuban musical tradition of the 19th and 20th centuries with the works of Manuel Saumell, Ignacio Cervantes and Ernesto Lecuona .

Early on he had contacts with the well-known performers of Cuban and Latin American popular music.

Frank Fernández does not limit himself to the interpretation of classical works of piano literature, from Bach to Mozart , Schumann and Rachmaninoff up to the modern age, but he also performs with popular Cuban musicians like the Cuban rumba formation Los Muñequitos de Matanzas ; he also appeared as an improviser at some jazz concerts, a. in a duo with Chucho Valdés .

composer

As a composer, Frank Fernández can refer to a catalog of over 650 pieces, including symphonies , chamber music , works for choir , solo piano, and ballet music . His compositions for film and television, with which he has received important prizes in various competitions, deserve special attention. He appears in more than 150 works as an interpreter, composer, arranger , musical director and producer .

In many countries he is considered "the creator of the Cuban school for contemporary piano". He is the founder of the Instituto Superior de Arte de Cuba (ISA) and the Judith James American Piano Chair in Venezuela. He is currently President of the Ignacio Cervantes International Piano Jury , which gives masterclasses in Cuba and abroad.

Concerts

As a soloist , he has performed with more than a hundred symphony and chamber orchestras in more than thirty countries in (Eastern) Europe, Asia and Latin America. a. with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra , the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow Radio, the Russian National Orchestra , the Philharmonic Orchestra Osaka , the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, the SãoPaulo Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Bogota, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Krakow, the Philharmonie of Warsaw , the youth orchestra of Venezuela, the symphony orchestra of Mexico, with all the orchestras of Cuba and many others.

In 2015, Frank Fernández, under the presidency of Barack Obama and the associated policy of rapprochement with Cuba, had the first chance of a big concert in the USA. There he was invited by the Ravinia Festival , the most renowned open air festival in the USA, with a prominent nomenclature from Leonard Bernstein , Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington to Yehudi Menuhin , Luciano Pavarotti and the Rolling Stones and Carlos Santana .

Discography (selection)

A large number of Frank Fernández's recordings are available on sound carriers and as radio and TV productions. Many of Frank Fernandez's recordings are difficult to obtain in stores due to Cuba's decades of economic isolation. However, a large number of audio and video recordings are available on the Internet, and here in particular on YouTube, of which only a few are listed here as examples:

Audio and video recordings

Recorded productions

  • Frank Fernández Y Sus 2 pianos (1960)
  • Encuentro de musica latinoamericana (1972)
  • Danzas cubanas- Ignacio Cervantes (Frank Fernández) (1975)
  • 4to concierto de Beethoven (1978)
  • Música de la banda sonora original del serial "La gran rebelión" (1981)
  • Lecuona (Danzas para piano) - Gershwin (Rhapsody in Blue) (1985)
  • Beethoven-Schumann ciclo grandes maestros del piano (1987)
  • Desde la música Vol. 1 (1988)
  • Bach-Chopin ciclo grandes maestros del piano (1989)
  • Tchaikovsky-Gershwin (1992) Cubano y universal (1994)
  • Desde la música (1994)
  • Lecuona-Cervantes (1995)
  • Liszt-Mozart-Schumann (1997)
  • Todo Mozart (1999)
  • Todo Cervantes (2001)
  • Todo Saumell (2001)
  • Tierra Brava (2002)
  • Integral nocturnos de Chopin (2002)
  • Amor y dolor (2003)
  • Sonatas mas famosas de Beethoven Vol. 1 (2003)
  • Gershwin-Mozart (2004)
  • Hasta la victoria siempre (2005)
  • Lecuona-Cervantes (2005)
  • Sonatas mas famosas de Beethoven Vol. 2 (2005)
  • Homenaje a Gades. La rebelión (2005)
  • Dos travadores (2007)
  • Novia mía (2010)

Web links

literature

  • Radamés Giro: Diccionario Enciclopédico de la Música en Cuba, Ed. Letras Cubanas Ciudad de La Habana, Cuba 2009, ISBN 978-959-10-1400-9 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cubasoyyo: Frank Fernandez y Los Muñequitos De Matanzas - Guaguan Piano (VIDEO 2011). Retrieved January 10, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Bailes Afroantillanos: Bailes Afroantillanos: Frank Fernández y los Muñequitos de Matanzas. In: Bailes Afroantillanos. January 25, 2014, accessed January 10, 2019 .
  3. ^ Cuban pianist Frank Fernández on His US Debut, Revolution, and Reconciliation. August 16, 2015. Retrieved January 10, 2019 (American English).
personal data
SURNAME Fernández, Frank
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fernández Tamayo, Frank
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Cuban pianist, teacher and composer
DATE OF BIRTH March 16, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH Mayarí