Important update:

Due to circumstances beyond our control, the Gala Concert to Send a Piano to Cuba this Saturday 3 June has had to change venues and will now take place at:

October Gallery 24 Old Gloucester Street Bloomsbury, London WC1N 3AL
Nearest tube: Holborn and Russell Square

Saturday 3 June 2017 - 7:30 PM

This is a benefit concert for the Send a Piano to Cuba project, initiated by Cuban pianist Eralys Fernandez and supported by Cubanos en UK. For more information, or to make a donation see:
www.gofundme.com/pianotocuba

Tickets £15 on the door, online £12

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Musicians

Eralys Fernandez (piano)

www.eralysfernandez.com

Eralys studied piano in Cuba at the Guillermo Tomas Music Con­servatory, the Amadeo Roldan Conservatory and the Higher Institute of Arts. In London she completed a Masters in Advanced Performance (piano and harpsichord) at the Royal College of Music and a post­graduate course in harpsichord at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.

Eralys’ repertoire includes early music, classical, Latin jazz and flamenco. She is also an arranger and composer and in 2010 she released an album, An Afternoon in Havana, to critical acclaim. Click here to read more about Eralys Fernandez

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Neus Guiu Ritort (piano)

www.fb.me/neus.guiuritort

Neus Guiu Ritort was born in Tarragona, Catalonia. She started playing piano at the age of six and entered the local Conservatory of Music at the age of seven where she finished with distinction. She also studied organ and flute at the same time.

In 1996 she entered the Conservatory of Music in Barcelona and spend the next three years focussing on piano and chamber music studies with Miquel Farré, Albert Giménez Attenelle and Liliana Maffiotte.

In 1999 she entered the Rotterdam Conservatory, Netherlands, to study piano with Michael Davidson and organ with Bernad Winsemius. After graduating, she continued her studies with pianist Jan Gruithuyzen at Tilburg's Conservatory where she obtained her postgraduate degree. In September 2006 she commenced a Master degree in accompaniment at the Royal College of Music with John Blakely and Roger Vignoles finishing in June 2008.

She has participated in courses and masterclasses with pianists Monique Deschausées, Edith Fisher and Jan Wijn (amongst others). Neus has performed both as soloist and accompanist in Spain, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK.

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Magdalena Hirsz (piano)

www.lena-hirsz.com

Born in 1978, Magdalena HIRSZ began her musical training in her hometown of Skierniewice, and then continued her education at the Joseph Elsner National School of Music in Warsaw.

She received her diploma in piano from the Geneva Conservatory while studying musicology at the Geneva University with a distinguished Professor Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger.

Thanks to a scholarship from the Rothschild Foundation, she further improved her pianistic skills in Basel with pianist Paweł Kamasa. In 2011 Magdalena also graduated from postgraduate studies at the Academy of Music in Łódź with Professor Beata Cywińska. She has also participated in numerous master classes ran by such esteemed musicians as Alexei Golovin, Lev Naumov, Dina Joffe, Eugene Indijc and Alexander Tamir. Click here to read more about Magdalena Hirsz

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Yamile Cruz Montero (piano) www.yamilecruzmontero.com

The Cuban pianist Yamile Cruz Montero has recorded her debut album at Bavarian Broadcasting (BR) and will be released by Grand Piano-Naxos Records in 2017.

She is a graduate of the piano master course (Master of Music) at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich (class of Prof. Adrian Oetiker, 2014). Besides classical European repertoire she devotes herself particularly to the modern age among the Latin-American composers. In this tension field she presents to her audience unknown, rhythmically rousing world sounds and contrasts.

Born in Havana in 1985, she began studying piano at the age of 7 with Professor Lazaro Hernandez. Then she continued her studies at Manuel Saumel Conservatory, after at the Amadeo Roldan Conservatory where she graduated under the guidance of María Teresa Pita and finally at the Superior Institute of Art ISA. There she studied with the respected instruction of Andrés Alén, Miriam Cruz and Patricio Malcolm and she received her diploma with highest honors in June of 2009. During her studies she taught at the Conservatory Guillermo Tomás. Click here to read more about Yamile Cruz Montero

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Christos Asonitis (drummer) www.christosasonitis.com

Christos Asonitis was born in Athens-Greece on December 14, 1974. As a child and as a teenager he was drowned into rock music but he never thought that one day he would play a musical instrument. One day one of his classmates proposed him to make a rock band and everything began from that point on. At the age of 16 he bought his first drum kit and started playing with his friends making his first rehearsals and recordings.

From 1994 to 1999 he studied drums at the Conservatory of Filippos Nakas in Athens (Greek Department of Berklee College of Music). There, under the influence of his educator and drum mentor Spyros Panagiotopoulos, he listened to jazz music for the first time and his musical concerns were starting to be changed.

He made his first live appearances with the rock band Suddenly and in 1998 he joined the rock group of Petros Theotokatos. Together they played for three years all over Greece, made appearances on the Greek TV, participated in Rock Festivals such as Athens Rockwave Festival 1998, 23th River Party Festival 2001 and recorded Theotokatos’ second album “I Eleytheria De Nikietai”. He played also for the rock bands Lefkes Nichtes, Positron and Skies.

After many years as an independent professional musician (collaborations with Mario Frangoulis, Manos Lidakis, Dimitris Maramis, Vasilis Kazoulis etc.), he decided to dedicate his career to jazz and latin music. Click here to read more about Christos Asonitis

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Contact Cubanos en UK: info@cubanos.org.uk | www.cubanos.org.uk
Concert suported by the Institut Frédéric Chopin, www.institutchopin.com the Embassy of Cuba and the Embassy of Venezuela in London.