The Cuban Cultural Center from New York reported that the Cuban pianist Ivette Hernandez He died last week at 88 years of age.
The classical pianist she was known as a child prodigy in her country. From the age of three, when I lived in Guantánamo, began to play the piano.
The center Cuban Cultural, of which Hernández was a member of the Advisory Bureau, highlights that in 1945, at the age of 12, he appeared with the Havana Philharmonic Orchestra, interpreting Capriccio Brilliant, from Mendelssohn, under the direction of the Austrian director Erich Kleiber.
In 1950 Hernández was awarded the grand prize for music and piano of the Conservatory of Paris and 20 years later, in 1970, he prevailed in the international piano competition Louis Mureau Gottschalk, convened by the Dillard University, on New Orleans.
In 1968, Hernández and her husband, the diplomat Armando Flórez, disappointed in the cuban revolution they went into exile in Spain and four years later they emigrated to USA, where the pianist continued to perform and teach young performers.
That same year he recorded in Spain With the signature RCA the disc Cuban dances for piano of Ignacio Cervantes, a work that with some songs less had recorded in Cuba shortly before, but that failed due to his desertion.
The gold medal of concurso Gottschalk allowed him to move to USA, and in 1972 he offered his first concert in New York in the prestigious Carnegie Hall.
As a soloist he participated in different symphony orchestra like the Milwaukee, the of Minnesota and of Miami. The brand of pianos Steinway He includes her on his list of pianists and collects a phrase of praise from him for his instruments.
Hernández, who died on May 26, will be buried this Saturday in New York, after a private ceremony to be held at the Margaret of Cortona church, in the neighborhood of the Bronx.
With information from EFE
