Clarissa Damila Pérez Hernández, a concertmaster of the Las Tunas Chamber Orchestra and our Symphony Orchestra, is well aware of the responsibility she has on her shoulders. Giudel Gómez, the leader par excellence of both orchestras, is currently working in Egypt, and she has taken over the direction of the former, while the latter has Javier Millet Rodríguez as its assistant conductor. The melodies weave the dreams of this girl and many others that have taken root under these blankets.
Las Tunas, Cuba.- Next September, the Chamber Orchestra of Las Tunas will celebrate its first decade, and as part of the activities to celebrate the anniversary, a concert of this group together with our Symphony Orchestra was recently held here, at the Casa del Joven Creador (House of the Young Creator). The event also honored Nuris Cantallops, director of the El Cucalambé Professional Art School (EPA in Spanish), for all her dedication as a teacher of young people and her unwavering support for the excellence of these talents.
"It has exceeded my expectations. It has been a long time since we have seen these groups in public and it was very beautiful. The applause was also deserved for Giudel, who, although he was not present, contributed to the consolidation of the work," summarized the writer Andrés Borrero, part of the audience that attended the concert at the Las Tunas headquarters of the Hermanos Saíz Association (AHS).
"The concert was very beautiful and special for us. We performed three works with the Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Maestro Javier Millet, who is also the conductor of the Bayamo Chamber Orchestra. We played the overture The Creatures of Prometheus (by Beethoven), Kamarinskaya (by Mikhail Glinka), and Symphony 39 (by Mozart)," says Clarissa.
She emphasizes how fruitful it is to involve recent graduates of the EPA, who are also members of the Tunisian Symphony Orchestra, in the performances. Seeing all the musicians at the recent performance made her feel good. "It was also interesting to see the positive response from the audience and the musicians themselves, we had a good time and felt very comfortable," she added.
For her part, leading the Chamber Orchestra now is both gratifying and a commitment. "I'm not standing in front of the orchestra to conduct, I'm doing it from my position as concertmaster, which requires extra concentration. It's not the same to look up and see a conductor in front of you, as it is to look for the leader (in this case me) to see the cues."
"It is beautiful, but complex at the same time. Every day, besides playing, I have to prepare for it. The rehearsals are very intense because we have to adapt to playing in this way, to the sonorities and changes, as well as emphasizing the recent graduates of Artistic Education, who are in a kind of training," she explains.
She is one of the founders of the Chamber Orchestra and, along with Ángel Ochoa and Danilo Lozada, has been active in the ensemble since its inception, as well as Giudel Gómez, who, I repeat, now has other functions. With the noble pride of seeing the melodic harvest grow, she says: "The genesis of the group was conceived at the EPA, with the influence of Manuel Lluesma Vidal, a former teacher at that center.
Giudel took on other tasks and professionalized it, which we take as the date of its birth in September 2013."
When asked what distinguishes it, she quickly replies: "It has always been made up of young people and we have drawn from artistic education. Occasionally, we have even added students during their pre-professional internships, which means that when they graduate, they are already familiar with our work. This is something very special, that the students themselves now feel part of the orchestra and become part of its roster. It may sound trite, but we really are like a family. We respect each other, we have affection for each other, and there is harmony.”
Certainly, camaraderie is one of the spices that make up this ensemble, but that doesn't mean that rigor isn't another of its key characteristics. "In both the chamber orchestra and the symphony orchestra, the work is very demanding, because it's not just a matter of mounting a particular work and that's it, we have many rehearsals beforehand, which we do separately (by groups of instruments) and together. That, of course, involves a lot of work at the table. It is something very exquisite that requires a lot of details to guarantee quality. To illustrate, rehearsals can last up to three hours and require individual studies because the works are difficult to perform.”
"And this is important because the orchestral mass of the Symphony Orchestra is mainly composed of strings, in other words, we are a base and a quarry. In short, working with the Las Tunas Chamber Orchestra has been another school for me. Now the conception and staging of the works as such is my responsibility, logically, with the collaboration of the others," she adds.
Many satisfactions have accumulated in these 10 years of dedication and self-improvement, among them having been led on occasions by great masters of the pentagram at national and international levels. However, triumphalism is not a vice for the 20 or so members, on the contrary, in the face of shortages such as the need for their own rehearsal space (although the EPA has always opened its doors to them unconditionally, and they are grateful for this), they have grown to bring the good work to the public. Hoping that the reopening of the Tunas Theater is near, and planning another concert for this long-awaited event, Clarissa says goodbye to 26 for now, knowing that she is an essential part of our culture.
