Cuban Pianist Aldo López-Gavilán
Live Concert & Documentary November 1 SOLD OUT
Join us for Aldo López-Gavilán Concert November 1 SOLD OUT
About Aldo López-Gavilán
pianist and composer
Cuban pianist and composer Aldo López-Gavilán was born in Havana to a family of internationally acclaimed classical musicians, his father a conductor and composer, his mother a concert pianist. Praised for his “dazzling technique and rhythmic fire” in the Seattle Times, and dubbed a “formidable virtuoso” by The Times (London), Aldo excels in both the classical and jazz worlds as a recitalist, concerto soloist, chamber-music collaborator, recording artist, and performer of his own electrifying jazz compositions.
He has appeared in such prestigious U.S. concert halls as New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln
Center, Boston’s Jordan Hall, Seattle’s Benaroya Hall, Washington’s Kennedy Center, and
Miami’s Adrienne Arsht Center, as well as at Amadeo Roldán (Cuba), Teresa Carreño
(Venezuela), Bellas Artes (Mexico), Royal Festival Hall (U.K.), Nybrokajen 11 (Sweden), The
Hall of Music (Russia), Duc de Lombard et Petit Journal Montparnasse (France), and venues in
Canada, Santo Domingo, Colombia, Spain, Greece, Hong Kong, Burkina Faso, Germany, and
Austria.
Aldo’s collaborators have included some of the greatest artists in the classical, popular music,
and jazz fields. The late conductor Claudio Abbado invited him to perform with Venezuela’s
Simón Bolivar Youth Orchestra in a special concert dedicated to the 250 th anniversary of
Mozart’s birth, and Maestro Abbado subsequently invited him to perform Prokofiev’s Piano
Concerto No. 1 in Caracas and Havana. More recently, Aldo joined with violinist Joshua Bell in
organizing Seasons of Cuba, a PBS special that took place at Lincoln Center in December 2016,
celebrating a new era of cultural diplomacy with a program ranging from Vivaldi to Piazzolla
and beyond. Among the prestigious artists joining them were Dave Matthews, the Chamber
Orchestra of Havana, singer-songwriter Carlos Varela, and soprano Larisa Martinez.
Aldo and his brother Ilmar Gavilán, first violinist of New York-based Harlem Quartet, are
featured in the new documentary Los Hermanos / The Brothers, which tells the story of their
shared childhood, their momentous first performances together, and their parallel lives as
musicians; it includes a genre-bending score composed by Aldo, concert footage of him
performing with Harlem Quartet, and guest appearances by such legendary musicians as Joshua
Bell. A Patchwork Films production by Marcia Jarmel and Ken Schneider, Los Hermanos is
screening at film festivals worldwide and will be nationally broadcast on PBS in the fall of 2021.
Ilmar and Aldo López-Gavilán are virtuoso Afro-Cuban musician brothers, born in Havana in the 70s. At 14, Ilmar outgrew his island teachers and was sent to the U.S.S.R. to study violin. He never lived in Cuba again, ultimately landing as a working chamber violinist in the U.S. Younger brother Aldo grew up mentored by Cuba’s impressive jazz and classical pianists, his extraordinary talent achieving renown on the island, but stymied elsewhere by the 60-year-old U.S. embargo. Though they see each other when family finances and visa restrictions allow, they’ve never had a chance to collaborate musically—something they’ve longed for all their lives. Tracking their parallel lives, poignant reunion, and momentous first performances together on stages across the U.S., Los hermanos / The Brothers is a nuanced, intensely moving view of nations long-estranged, through the lens of music and family. Join filmmakers for this presentation.
Trailer https://vimeo.com/522475539
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