Pianist Enrique Chia to headline 10th annual Classically Cuban concert at FIU

Cuban pianist Enrique Chía will headline this year’s Classically Cuban: Musical Memories of Cuba concert presented by FIU’s University’s Cuban Research Institute (CRI). FIU music student Laura Martínez León will sing several songs accompanied by Chía’s piano and ensemble.

The concert, now in its 10^th year, will take place on Sunday, Dec. 7^th at 5 p.m. at the Wertheim Performing Arts Center Concert Hall, 10910 Southwest 17th Street, Miami, FL 33172 on FIU’s Modesto A. Maidique Campus.

“It’s an honor to have Enrique Chía as our invited musician this year. He has helped to preserve and divulge many of the most popular songs of his homeland for several generations of Cuban music lovers,” said CRI Director Jorge Duany.

Enrique Chía was born in Cienfuegos, Cuba, and immigrated to the United States in 1961. He studied piano in his native city and later earned a doctorate degree in metallurgy at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He has recorded more than 50 albums of instrumental music on the piano, accompanied by other instruments, and in 2001 was nominated for a Grammy Award.

The concert program will offer a journey through Cuban music from the late 19^th century to the present. It will include a wide selection of classic habaneras, danzones, congas, boleros, sones, guajiras, and chachachás.

For this concert, Chía will be accompanied by several accomplished musicians including: Orlando Forte, violin; Ramsés Colón, bass; René Lorente, flute; Mario Del Monte, trumpet; Tim Devine, keyboards; Rubén (Tuty) Jiménez, drums; and Alberto Palenzuela, percussion.

Admission is $35 for adults; $30 for students and seniors; and $15 for faculty, staff, students, and alumni of Florida International University. Tickets can be purchased online at http://wpac.fiu.edu. Parking will be available in the Blue Garage, across the concert hall.

Since 1994, the CRI has organized an annual concert series featuring music on Cuban themes by Cuban and other composers. For more information, call the CRI at 305-348-1991.