Cuban pianist Ivette Hernández dies in New York

New York, Jun 3 (EFE) .- Cuban pianist Ivette Hernández died last week in New York City at the age of 88, as reported in the last hours by the Cuban Cultural Center of the Big Apple.

The classical pianist, who already emerged as a child prodigy in her native Cuba, began playing the piano at the age of 3 when she lived in Guantánamo, the city where she was born.

The Cuban Cultural Center, of which Hernández was a member of the Advisory Bureau, highlights that in 1945, at the age of 12, he performed with the Havana Philharmonic Orchestra, interpreting ‘Capriccio Brilliant’, by Mendelssohn, under the direction of the Austrian conductor. Erich Kleiber.

Hernández was awarded in 1950 with the grand prize for music and piano at the Paris Conservatory and 20 years later, in 1970, she won the Louis Mureau Gottschalk international piano competition, organized by Dillard University in New Orleans.

In 1968, Hernández and her husband, the diplomat Armando Flórez, disenchanted with the Cuban revolution, went into exile in Spain and four years later emigrated to the United States, where the pianist continued to perform and teach young performers.

That same year he recorded in Spain with the RCA signature the album ‘Danzas cubanas para piano’ by Ignacio Cervantes, a work that with some less songs he had recorded in Cuba shortly before, but which fell apart due to his desertion.

The gold medal obtained in the Gottschalk contest allowed him to move to the United States, and in 1972 he offered his first concert in New York at the prestigious Carnegie Hall.

He also performed as a soloist in different symphony orchestras such as the Milwaukee, Minnesota and Miami orchestras and held concerts all over the world.

The prestigious brand of pianos Steinway includes her in its list of pianists and collects a phrase of praise from her for her instruments.

Hernández, who died on May 26, will be buried this Saturday in New York, after a private ceremony to be held at Margaret of Cortona Church, in the Bronx neighborhood. EFE

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