Elio Villafranca Masterclass:
Music from the Root Up

Elio Villafranca is a pianist, educator and composer who was born in Cuba. In this lecture he discusses that to truly understand Cuban music one needs to at least be familiar with some of the foundations of Cuban culture. He introduces the viewer/listener to a glimpse of the essential roots of Cuban music. Embedded in the presentation are homemade videos that he produced during visits to his home region of San Luís, Cuba, an area dominated by people of Congolese descent. In these videos (included in the masterclass) Villafranco shows several factors about the relationship between Cuban drumming and everyday life, even demonstrating how the drums are tuned using fire to stretch the skins. Villafranca’s concept of Cuban music is that it is constructed in a layered structure from the bottom up (starting first with the lower, bass tones). He compares this to Western music which is conceived of more from the top down – with the melody being the guide of the music’s structure. Villafranca then makes connections between certain jazz musicians, like Monk or Ellington, who also emphasized the low end of the piano. Villafranca makes connections between Cuban music and Caribbean music from other countries, illustrating the relationship between the music of Cuba with the music of New Orleans, Haiti and Puerto Rico such as observable strains of Congolese origin.

~Eugene Uman

Note: This masterclass and the entire 2021 Solo Piano Festival took place during Covid. As a precaution, the Festival was livestreamed without an audience with just the tech team and the performers in attendance.