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José María Vitier

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Since I was little I saw that in the world, specifically in music, the cult and the popular were so ingrained and so intertwined that it made me feel comfortable when I began to compose, trying to continue that relationship. I feel part of that kind of wave of all that generation to which I belonged and accompanied me. That spirit was in the Grupo de Experimentación Sonora del ICAIC, in the best exponents of the New Trova, in the great authors of popular music. It is that all the Cuban culture has always been fused musically. When I was interviewed to enter the Higher Institute of Art, I said that I wanted to be as educated as Sindo Garay and as popular as Ignacio Cervantes.
I was very lucky. At first, I had a teacher in the neighborhood in Víbora, which had the promising name of Cecilia. A few years later I went to the excellent hands of Margot Rojas, considered by many the best piano pedagogue at that time. In the Conservatory Amadeo Roldán,Master César López took charge of my career and defined me as a composer, unforgettable for all his students, an artist. From the first moment he focused on teaching us that music was connected with all other arts, with life, society, and the sense of service one owes to it.
At the end of my career I met Silvia. A year later we had José Adrián. The day I arrived at my house with the child in my arms, was also the day of the first piece I wrote. For everything in life it is good to be in love, but to compose music is a significant stimulus.
I wish that those who came behind had an image as stimulating as I felt with those who preceded me in my family, but that would be very difficult to achieve. Ideally, those who come after, children and grandchildren, feel that stimulus for some time. They could feel that they had a Cuban pianist who bet their life on three keys: Cuba, the search for beauty and fidelity to their emotions.