Last Wednesday I made a musical walk through time.
Today I bring it to this community as a contribution to the Tattoodjay initiative.
With my husband and daughter we went to enjoy a concert. It was held at 11 am at the Oratorio San Felipe Neri, in Old Havana. Strange day and time for this kind of events, but it was the Graduation Concert of the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) of the daughter of a friend of ours, in the specialty of Piano.
In the audience we were only a group of friends, family and the professors who were part of the jury.
The introductory piece was composed by her husband, a young man of exceptional talent.
The piece in question had the characteristic that inside the piano some of the strings were placed screws and nuts that gave a very peculiar sound. At the end of the performance, the pianist removed these elements and explained to the jury the cause of the sound, the whole program would be played with extended techniques. Perhaps at this point the expert judgment of 
She further explained, for those of us present who don't know about it, that these techniques also include playing directly inside the soundboard, plucking, rubbing or striking the strings; percussing all over the body of the piano with hands or other objects...this is what she would be doing during her concert.
So we kept listening to one piece after another. The pianist would take her hands off the keyboard, pluck the strings, strike the wood. The sound was enveloping. Through the chosen program we traveled in time. We went back and forth from one era to another. From classical to popular. From sad to happy. It was a roller coaster of sounds and emotions.
There was a part of the concert that was played entirely on the strings of the piano's soundboard, while her dad was stepping on the pedal. A very nice gesture of the artist to have invited her father on stage to be part of that special moment in her life. This way of playing gave the chosen piece a melancholic, deep, almost agonizing sound. During the 3 minutes that the theme lasted, I remained motionless, surprised with what I was listening to. It was something unknown to me that way of playing the piano and I found it beautiful and very powerful.
Unfortunately my connectivity does not allow me to publish the video, but I will leave you, although without much quality, some images of the moment.
After an hour of emotional concert, the jury gave her a score of 5 points with congratulations for the performance and curation. The selected program, according to the president of the jury, were very difficult and the extended techniques had been perfectly executed.
The young pianist was happy and we were all happy for her. I feel very grateful for the invitation and for having been part of this event.
The images and text are my own. I used DeepL for the translation because Spanish is my native language.
