Frank Fernandez, pianist, composer and pedagogue, born in Mayarí province of Holguin, Cuba, on March 16, 1944, began playing the piano “by ear” at 4 years of age. A year later he had his mother, Altagracia Tamayo, director of the Orbón Academy in his hometown, as his first teacher.
Frank Fernandez como pianista de música clásica se formó con algunos de los mejores maestros del mundo. A lo largo de sus más de 40 años como artista, atesora críticas que le califican como “un ser tocado por la divinidad”, “uno de los magistrales intérpretes de los momentos más sublimes de la música universal” o “algo sin precedentes, un pianista inolvidable”, entre otras.
Frank Fernandez, the leading personality of Cuban piano music, has been recognized by the public and critics of 33 countries as a value of world music. This is reaffirmed by his artistic career as a performer of almost all classical and popular genres, his contributions to piano pedagogy in Cuba, his compositions, orchestrations, research, record productions and his work as a cultural promoter.
The Art of Frank Fernandez has its genesis in four fundamental pillars:
- The appropriation of the main elements of 19th century piano music, through his teacher Margot Rojas, a student of Alexander Lambert, a disciple of Franz Liszt.
- His knowledge of the famous Russian piano school, received during the 5 years of higher studies with the great pianist and Professor Emeritus Victor Merzhanov, at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, culminated with “Summa cum laude”.
- The mastery of the enormous wealth of tradition in Cuba during the 19th and 20th centuries through his research and recordings of the work of Manuel Saumell, Ignacio Cervantes and Ernesto Lecuona.
- The early connection with the best exponents of Cuban and Latin American popular music.
Since 1959, Frank Fernandez has maintained a brilliant career as a concert performer, performing in prestigious halls of musical tradition in Europe, Asia and Latin America such as: Moscow, Paris, Tokyo, Berlin, Madrid, Warsaw, Prague, Luxembourg, Barcelona, Riga, Osaka, as well as in concerts with orchestras from Russia, Japan, Bulgaria, Mexico, Brazil, Romania, Holland, Colombia, Germany, Korea, Yugoslavia, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Poland, Santo Domingo and Cuba among others.
Frank Fernandez, original pianist from the province of Holguin, has written more than 650 works for different formats, from ballets, choirs and symphonies to works for popular music groups, film soundtracks (including that of the film Strawberry and Chocolate ), television and radio. He has also worked with artists such as Silvio Rodríguez, Vicente Feliú, Pancho Amat and others.
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