One year after her beloved “Mozart y Mambo,” project, Berlin Philharmonic French horn player Sarah Willis returns to Havana. But due to the coronavirus pandemic, she and the Cuban musicians she is reunited with are faced with tough challenges.
"Mozart y Mambo" was a huge success in 2020, entering the German classical music charts at number one. The album also reached the top of the charts in other countries, including the UK. "Mozart y Mambo" was a worldwide hit. This album, created by Sarah Willis and performed with the young musicians of the Havana Lyceum Orchestra, was the result of an idea that Sarah came up with after her first visit to Cuba in 2017 and combines Mozart and Mambo - classical music with Cuban rhythms.
One year after the project, Sarah returns to Havana, planning to present the successful album live to a Cuban audience. The concert is planned, but the coronavirus intervenes as the pandemic has also hit the Caribbean country with full force. The queues in front of grocery stores are now even longer than they often are in socialist Cuba and the orchestra is no longer allowed to perform before a live audience.
Sarah has to change her plans. Rehearsals are still possible, as is the planning of a continuation of the project with new repertoire, but the planned orchestra concert has to be cancelled. This is a big disappointment for all, but the unexpected extra time gives Sarah the opportunity for new Cuban discoveries.
She wants to explore other Cuban musical traditions, and accompanies conductor José Antonio Méndez Padrón to his hometown of Matanzas. Here, Sarah learns more about Cuban dances like Rumba and Danzón and is even shown how to get different sounds on a conga drum.
Of course she returns to her passion for the Cuban mambo. Sarah plays an improvised concert in the evening sun of the capital Havana with musicians from the "Mambo y Mozart” project and also joins in a spontaneous mambo with some brass players in Matanzas.
And finally, after weeks of quiet on the streets, she discovers a trumpet player who makes Havana happy again with the soundtrack that has become a trademark of this otherwise pulsating city. It is a glimmer of hope. Cuba - like the rest of the world - is waiting for the end of the pandemic. Although her trip turned out differently than planned, Sarah Willis broadened her musical horizons despite the coronavirus and finally saw her "Cuban family" again.
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22 авг 2024
