This month’s instalment in the women’s orchestra series looks at Cuban orchestra, Camerata Romeu, founded by Zenaida Romeu in 1993 with sponsorship from the Pablo Milanés Foundation.
Romeu, who belongs to the third generation of a family of remarkable Cuban musicians, was the first Cuban woman to graduate from Havana’s music conservatory as an orchestral conductor. After working at Estudio Lyrico and Bellini Theatre Company, she returned to Cuba to form her chamber orchestra, Camerata Romeu, aiming to show off the parity between men and women that she saw in her country and hoping to share it with the world. Romeu stated “I was in Spain, and I felt that the woman was not involved in society as we had here, in spite that we are third world, and a tiny country. I felt that we had something to share with the world.”
The group’s name pays homage to the generations of musicians on the maternal side of her family, and its mission is to dedicate itself to the recognition and promotion of Cuban and Latin American music. True to its mission, the orchestra has been involved in many award-winning performances and recordings of works by the best composers from Cuba, Latin America and North America, but it also explores the classical repertoire of the string orchestra, providing a broad-spectrum of repertoire from Baroque to Rumba. The group has also gained recognition for its recordings of soundtracks for several cartoons and feature films by Cuban and Mexican filmmakers and for featuring in documentaries showcasing their professional work, such as Portrait of a women’s orchestra (2002) by Cecilia Domeyko.
Since 1994, Camerata Romeu’s home has been in the Minor Basilica of San Francisco of Asís in Old Havana, but in the 25 years since its foundation, it has participated in many international music festivals and concert tours, appearing in venues and universities across Cuba, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, France, Mexico, Canada, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Colombia, Costa Rica, Brazil and the United States.
Young women coming out of music conservatories, as well as those from other avenues, make their way into the orchestra for its notoriety as an all-female production and for its reputation as a valuable opportunity for training, with many ex-members now playing as part of important orchestras in Cuba and all over the world.
However, many players choose to stay with Camerata Romeu, such as Yadira Cobo Rodriguez, 14-year veteran of the orchestra and leader of the 2nd violins, who shared her experience of the orchestra as “more angelic, more comfortable” than it would be with male counterparts.
A first for an orchestra in this series, Camerata Romeu are still going strong and more information about them, as well as their recordings, can be found on their website and social media.
If you’re enjoying these blogs please feel free to get in touch to ask more about women’s orchestras or request my full dissertation to read.
References:
Camerata Romeu (no date). About: The Orchestra. Available at: https://camerataromeu.com/en/the-orchestra/ (Accessed: 9th August 2023).
Holubiak, Ian (2016). ‘Cuba’s All-Female Orchestra, Camerata Romeu, Has “Something to Share.”’, Classicalite. Available at: http://www.classicalite.com/articles/40147/20160331/cubas-femaleorchestra-camerata-romeu-something-share (Accessed: 2nd August 2023).
Tsioulcas, Anastasia (2016). ‘Meet Cuba’s All-Female Orchestra’, npr. Available at: http://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2016/03/26/469944530/meet-cubasall-female-orchestra (Accessed: 12th July 2023).
Comments