~ Chucho Valdes
Watched the fabulous and uplifting documentary 88 STRINGS ATTACHED, at the Galway Film Fleadh, yesterday!! ~ breathtaking ~ it describes the project Una Corda, a project where teams of Irish musicians & piano tuners travel from Ireland to Cuba to restore old pianos.
The reason for these unique travels is due to the desire to keep the art of music making in Cuba alive. For so long the country has had so little and due to US Sanctions piano tuners have been unable to find the tools and equipment to fix the pianos. Many old piano tuners from the National Workshop of Instrument Repair workshop set up by the Russians in the 70's have retired, are too old or have passed away.
In 2006, Ciaran Ryan began the Una Corda to create a movement to restore & retune old forsaken pianos of Havanna. The film describes the journey from its first fundraising efforts in Galway, to the music schools and concert halls of Havana, and back. Ciaran is filmed, along with fellow tuners from Ireland, meeting young piano tuners and teaching them how to repair pianos. He visits the key musicians and composers of the land, fine tuning their disbabled and broken piano keys, eventually interviewing the legendary five time Grammy Award winner Cuban pianist, Chucho Valdes.
Today tourists continue travelling back and forth from Ireland contribute to the project by becoming Una Corda's mules, carrying a packages of piano parts with them in their luggage when they go. So far over three hundred kilos of parts have been carried in luggage. One such mule is Catherine Bruton of Galway who travelled there last month taking a bag of felt and nails. It was her fourth trip ~
The reason for these unique travels is due to the desire to keep the art of music making in Cuba alive. For so long the country has had so little and due to US Sanctions piano tuners have been unable to find the tools and equipment to fix the pianos. Many old piano tuners from the National Workshop of Instrument Repair workshop set up by the Russians in the 70's have retired, are too old or have passed away.
In 2006, Ciaran Ryan began the Una Corda to create a movement to restore & retune old forsaken pianos of Havanna. The film describes the journey from its first fundraising efforts in Galway, to the music schools and concert halls of Havana, and back. Ciaran is filmed, along with fellow tuners from Ireland, meeting young piano tuners and teaching them how to repair pianos. He visits the key musicians and composers of the land, fine tuning their disbabled and broken piano keys, eventually interviewing the legendary five time Grammy Award winner Cuban pianist, Chucho Valdes.
Today tourists continue travelling back and forth from Ireland contribute to the project by becoming Una Corda's mules, carrying a packages of piano parts with them in their luggage when they go. So far over three hundred kilos of parts have been carried in luggage. One such mule is Catherine Bruton of Galway who travelled there last month taking a bag of felt and nails. It was her fourth trip ~
"I don’t think you can separate Cuba from music. Music is central to the lives of Cubans,the people there don’t have many material things, so everything is celebrated through music. People don’t go out and buy a new car to celebrate, for instance, since there aren’t new cars to buy.” ~ says Catherine, via To Havana on a string, in The Irish Times.
“One of the reasons I keep going back to Cuba is because of the music,” she explains. “It’s unique. A lot of the music is untouched and pure, because it hasn’t had the same levels of influence. I get the impression it’s very authentic to the roots of what it’s always been.”
"The piano players of Cuba face challenges that musicians in Ireland can scarcely imagine. It’s an island famed around the world for its music, but in a climate that is particularly hard on strings and wood, Cuba’s pianos need plenty of tender loving care. But pianos are not always a priority on an island raked by hurricanes and struggling to overcome the effects of years of the US trade embargo." ~Una Corda
David Creedon of Cork, Ireland, has taken an ethereal series of photographs of the National Workshop of Instrument Repair warehouse. David is an internationally acclaimed conceptual documentary photographer
Next week, Chucho Valdés will play a solo concert at the Cork School of Music on July 20th, and with a full band, at Vicar Street on July 21st.
Una Corda hope set up a training school for Cuban Piano tuners in Galway, where they will have intensive training and return to Cuba to carry on the skills that were once fading and restore music back to the communities. The term Una Corda means "one string" its amazing how out of one persons passion for music a whole participation across countries can begin...
It only takes one string ~
Elizabeth C. Jones directed 88 strings attached ~
Elizabeth, started her career as a reporter for Newsweek magazine. In 1992 she bought a small video camera and a Land Rover and travelled across Africa to start making television news features. Aside from covering many of Africa's wars, she has also worked in Afghanistan, Iraq and the West Bank. She has played a part on a number of award-winning series and programmes, including directing BBC's Holidays in the Axis of Evil, which won a Foreign Press Association Award and was shortlisted for a Grierson Award. She has been a finalist for the Rory Peck Award five times since the award was founded nine years ago, and for her work in Jenin in 2002, she was shortlisted
Elizabeth C. Jones directed 88 strings attached ~
Elizabeth, started her career as a reporter for Newsweek magazine. In 1992 she bought a small video camera and a Land Rover and travelled across Africa to start making television news features. Aside from covering many of Africa's wars, she has also worked in Afghanistan, Iraq and the West Bank. She has played a part on a number of award-winning series and programmes, including directing BBC's Holidays in the Axis of Evil, which won a Foreign Press Association Award and was shortlisted for a Grierson Award. She has been a finalist for the Rory Peck Award five times since the award was founded nine years ago, and for her work in Jenin in 2002, she was shortlisted
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