Introducing Afrocuba de Matanzas

Chicago TribuneReview

Contacting the Tour Management

Cuba y Puerto Rico
Together On Tour: Fall 1998

Dos Alas ~ Two Wings
Afrocuba de Matanzas and Los Hermanos Cepeda

An unforgettable night of Cuban Rumba, Puerto Rican bomba and more. Two legendary ensembles share the concert stage: Afrocuba de Matanzas & Los Hermanos Cepeda.

Available for concerts & residencies: Fall 1998

City Lore's Dos Alas/Two Wings project derives its theme from a well loved poem - Cuba y Puerto Rico - written more than a century ago, in which Puerto Rico and Cuba are depicted as two wings of the same bird. One hundred years later, this metaphor comes alive as Dos Alas/Two Wings brings the cultural and historical ties between Cuba and Puerto Rico into focus through a virtuosic program of Afro-Cuban rumba and Afro-Puerto Rican bomba.

The historic project brings together selected members of two widely celebrated vocal, percussion and dance ensembles: Grupo Afrocuba De Matanzas From Cuba and Los Hermanos Cepeda from Puerto Rico. The project, which has been supported by grants from the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Arts Partners Program, Meet the Composer International Creative Collaborations program and the National Endowment for the Arts, began with a month-long residency in New York City in October 1996 featuring concerts, master classes, workshops, lecture-demonstrations, block parties and more. This overwhelmingly successful program is now available for touring throughout the U.S. in Fall 1998.

Concert programs consist of Afro-Cuban rumba and Puerto Rico's African-based bomba -- living traditions that are rooted in West African music, dance and spiritual beliefs, blended with indigenous and Euro-Iberian influences. They are quintessentially Puerto Rican and Cuban, born out of the social, historical, economic and cultural conditions of their own soil. Bomba and rumba shape the lives of their practitioners and are constantly evolving even as their roots grow stronger and deeper.

Los Hermanos Cepeda and Grupo Afrocuba De Matanzas will close out each concert in the Grand Finale tradition-- performing together in a Rumbombazo - a spontaneous, sizzling combination of rumba and bomba in which the Cubans and Puerto Ricans play and dance their own and each other's traditions.

In addition to concerts, Dos Alas/Two Wings has a strong focus on professional interaction among touring artists and local practitioners -- bringing them together in workshops and master classes.

Lecture/demonstrations and informal activities between the touring artists and local communities are also available. For more information on the tour and date availability, please contact the Tour Management.