Cuba confirms visit by NYPhilharmonic

The visit to Cuba of the New York Philharmonic will be "a great cultural event," the daily Granma said Saturday, confirming the American musicians' trip. (See blog item below.)
Five members of the Philharmonic's board of directors, including its executive director, Zarin Mehta, arrived Friday in Havana "to work with us until Monday to leave everything in order, so the famous group may come in October," Alejandro Gumá Ruiz, vice president for international relations of the Cuban Institute of Music, told Granma.
The Institute invited the Philharmonic. Hosting the visitors will be Roberto Chorens, director of the Cuban Philharmonic Orchestra.
During their stay, the New York musicians will meet with members of the Cuban Philharmonic and welcome Cuban music students to their rehearsals, Gumá said. "We're trying to prepare a program for them that, while not excessively fatiguing, may allow them to learn a lot about the [Cuban] people's concert music and culture," he said. [UPDATE: Mehta told Reuters on Saturday that the trip is not yet a done deal. To read his reservations, click here. See also an Associated Press update published Sunday by clicking here. And for a commentary on the arts and diplomacy, in the British newspaper The Guardian, tap here.]]
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.