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Saturday, March 9, 2024 | 5:00 pm or 7:30 pm | Port Theatre

A 100% Cuban Night is a must this season! In La Habana, Cosette and guest artists Mayquel and Yaroldy were students together. She is very proud to feature the incredible talent of these jazz players, who have performed all around the world. Not only will we hear the sounds of Cuba at this show – we will also see the country through the photos and videos by photographer Lilien Trujillo Viton . Get ready to move and feel the heat!

CONDUCTOR: Cosette Justo Valdés

GUEST ARTISTS: Mayquel González Trumpet
Yaroldy Abreu Cuban Percussion

PROGRAMME

Benny Moré (arr. Mayquel González) Bonito y sabroso
Mayquel González Mesié Julián
Moisés Simons (arr. Mayquel González) El Manisero
Abelardo Valdés (arr. Mayquel González) Almendra
Dámaso Pérez Prado (arr. Mayquel González) Qué Rico Mambo
César Portillo de la Luz (arr. Mayquel González) Contigo en la distancia
Osvaldo Farrés (arr. Mayquel González) Quizás Quizás Quizás
Chano Pozo / Dizzy Gillespie / Gil Fuller (arr. Mayquel González) Manteca
Juan Formell y los Van Van (arr. Mayquel González) Anda ven y muévete
Mayquel González Conga bajo 0

Mayquel González

Yaroldy Abreu

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What to wear? Be comfortable. Dress in a way that works for you. If you feel like dressing up, do it and you won’t be the only one, we promise. If you prefer to be more casual you will fit right in as well.

Beverages served prior to concert and during intermission. You can pre-order your beverage before the concert.


Mobile phones are allowed to be on but must be set to silent.


We weclome you to clap when you like what you hear.

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Lilien Trujillo Viton
photographer & journalist

Cuban journalist and photographer, graduated in Journalism from the Faculty of Communication of the University of Havana, currently known for her distinctive work on music photography in Cuba, especially on Jazz and Classical music.

Lilien Trujillo has been an editor in different Cuban media, mainly covering cultural issues; television presenter, marketing and communication manager; editor and proofreader of books at Ediciones Cubanas and since 2022 up to date, she’s been a freelance photographer with a fast growing career that already counts two solo exhibitions and 4 group exhibitions, one of them in Spain.

Her searches as a woman, as a Cuban of these times, as a human being and as an artist; her long journey of personal growth as a conscious exercise; her emotions, her own universe, and more recently, music and its communicative and transformative power, are themes that persist in her work. More recently, she has been focused on concerts, festivals, and jam sessions footage, documenting the Cuban musical scene, especially jazz, and classical, in Cuba and Canada.

Lilien has exhibited in several group exhibitions: Masks. A new reality, Raúl Corrales gallery (Havana, 2020); Nothing is temporary, Fotojenia Photography Festival (Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, 2021); Havana, a palpable soul, White Room Gallery of the Young Art Fund (Havana, 2023); and You are my relieve, Fábrica de Arte Cubano (Havana, 2023). Her her first solo exhibition was Sororidad, Casa de la Obra Pía Museum (Havana, 2022) awarded on the contest Photos of and by women, in November, 2022.

Her most recent solo exhibition, Havana Jazz Portrait, opened the International Jazz festival of Havana: Jazz Plaza 2024. Inaugurated in the National Theatre of Cuba. This exhibition shows a yearlong work where the artist documents the jazz scene in Havana, its main names, stories and venues. But most of all, the emotion and environment generated by jazz.

“My photos aim to capture the authentic, the real; something that probably comes from my journalistic vocation/training: documenting people, music, places, journeys; always seeking the truth about events, feelings, discovering. Trying to reveal what others do not see and making the seemingly insignificant or unnoticed become relevant.”

Mayquel González
Trumpet

Trumpeter, composer and arranger, Mayquel González is one of the most relevantCuban trumpet players of his generation. He is a jazz player and improviser, with aversatility that leads him to exquisitely mix jazz with different aspects of Cubanpopular and folk music.

For more than 20 years, he has toured worldwide with the most iconic bands of thegenre, led by Chucho Valdés, Ernán López-Nussa and Harold López-Nussa.

His extraordinary solos and performances have been applauded at the best Jazz festivals such as the North Sea Jazz Festival, Jazz in Marciac or the Montreal Jazz
Festival; as well as the legendary Blue Note stages in New York and Tokyo; Barbican Center in London, Sala Pleyel in Paris or Bimhuis in Amsterdam.

He has ventured into the world of cinema as a soloist on the soundtrack of the film Chico y Rita, by Fernando Trueba; of the musicals with the Lizt Alfonso Dance Cuba Company; as well as in classical music with the National Arts Center Orchestra of Canada, and the Havana Chamber Orchestra.

He has performed, recorded, and collaborated with renowned musicians and groups such as Buena Vista Social Club, John Cleary, Pablo Milanés, Joao Donato, Yuri Buenaventura and Isaac Delgado.

With the recording of his first phonogram, Tiempos de Paz (Cubadisco Award 2019), he forms his own quartet and his facets as composer and arranger take on greater prominence in his career. Mayquel composes, recreating Afro-Cuban Jazz, from Cuban rhythms such as changüí, timba, conga and songo.

His arrangements are conceived based on the quartet format and from the conscious search for a language consistent with his way of experiencing music. In the words of the Cuban pianist and composer Juan Piñera: “Beyond fashions, always fleeting, Mayquel González instructs us with the timelessness of his musicality, made to be here, there, today and always; (…)”.

Yaroldy Abreu Robles
Cuban Percussion

Yaroldy Abreu is a Cuban percussionist who has won several Grammy and Latin Grammy awards during his 30-year career, most of which has transcurred accompanying the great master of universal piano music Chucho Valdés.

In 1997, as a student at the Higher Institute of Art, he won the First Prize in the VI National Percussion Competition within the framework of the VIII International PERCUBA Festival. He graduated from the Instituto Superior de Arte in 2001 and since then began teaching as a professor of Cuban and classical percussion at the same institution. Due to his mastery and passion for teaching, he has had many
opportunities to give master classes at music festivals, universities and conservatories on and off the island.

At the same time, he has developed an intense professional career in many projects, such as Chucho Valdés e Irakere, Chucho Valdés Jazz Cuarteto, Chucho Valdés & The Afro-Cuban Messengers, Chucho Valdes Jazz Bata, Maraca & Otra Vision and currently El Committee.

Since the beginning of his career, this one-of-a-kind musician has performed on countless tours internationally, and has participated in the most important international jazz festivals worldwide like Jazz in Marciac, Jazz a Vienne and many others.

He has recorded with many of the greatest Cuban artists, but also with important international figures, such as Regina Carter, Coldplay; and has collaborated with prestigious artists such as Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Wynton Marsalis, Roy Hargrove, Kool & The Gang, Dianne Reeves, Joe Lovano, Kenny Garret, Michel
Legrand, Terence Blanchard, Roberta Gambarini, Concha Buika, etc.

All of the above places him amongst the most prominent and virtuous percussionists and performers of Latin jazz and Afro-Cuban Jazz of all times.