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UNESCO and the European Union bring together young Caribbean musicians in Havana for International Jazz Day
On Tuesday 29 April 2025, Plaza Vieja in Old Havana came alive with a vibrant concert showcasing the talent and creativity of Caribbean youth. The programme Transcultura: Integrating Cuba, the Caribbean and the European Union through Culture and Creativity, implemented by UNESCO and funded by the European Union, celebrated International Jazz Day by bringing together young artist beneficiaries for a concert, under the artistic direction of renowned Cuban pianist Roberto Fonseca, accompanied by his band. After five years of implementation and soon to conclude in June 2025, the Transcultura programme has promoted training and career opportunities for over 2,700 young cultural professionals from 17 Caribbean countries.
Representing this community, the Transcultura band was composed of eight young musicians: David Brandon Webber, from Trinidad and Tobago, on the violin; Marie Francia Sterlin, from Haiti, as a singer; Yarima Blanco, from Cuba, on the tres; Yasel Muñoz, from Cuba, on the flute; Mauricio Núñez, from Cuba, on the piano; and Jorge Coayo, from Cuba, Kiara Margarita RodrÃguez, from the Dominican Republic, and Claudia Navarro, from Cuba, on percussion. In addition to celebrating cultural diversity and the unifying power of jazz, the concert also celebrated the inauguration of the first phase of the restoration works of the former Santa Clara Convent and the Santa Clara College of the Office of the Historian of the City of Havana. These renovated spaces will now serve as a hub for heritage restoration training and will continue to host the Transcultura programme’s capacity-building activities.
This concert summarizes everything I have learned since participating in the Transcultura courses. I am very grateful to this programme for giving me the opportunity to meet such talented people and to share music and grow alongside them. It is a dream come true.
Motivated to get to know 'how the Caribbean sounds' more closely, Sterlin participated in the course 'The instrument and its interpretation on stage' in Havana in October 2023.
'Taking part in the October 2023 course has helped me a lot in my musical life. The training has allowed me to have more materials and resources for my personal projects. It has helped me grow as a Caribbean musician and as a person. It has given me more confidence to be on stage,' she said.
For Roberto Fonseca, the concert’s artistic director, the event was an opportunity to highlight the importance of music as a bridge between cultures and a force for unity.
This concert was very important to me. The intention was to show that music is a bridge and a reason for gathering. Therefore, we created a repertoire where the musicality in Cuba and the Caribbean, and the musical bridges between the Caribbean and Europe, could be felt.
'I feel very fortunate to be part of this band and to collaborate with young talents,' said Cuban tres player Yarima Blanco. In October 2021, she participated in the International Music Fair WOMEX (Worldwide Music Expo), held in Porto, Portugal, with Transcultura’s support.
The concert marks the culmination of a programme that has served as a platform for many young people from the Caribbean, an initiative I’ve been privileged to be part of. In 2021, I had the opportunity to participate in one of the world's most prestigious platforms, WOMEX, and it changed my life. Performing live and presenting my album, at a crucial moment after the pandemic, gave me the chance to show my vision of Cuban music and playing the tres as a woman.
Yarima said, referring to the Cuban instrument traditionally played by men. For David Brandon Webber, the concert was a highlight of the transformative journey he has experienced through the opportunities provided by the Transcultura programme.
This performance followed my first cultural exchange, made possible with the support of the Transcultura programme. I had the honour of playing under the direction of Tabea Zimmermann in Siena, Italy, in August 2024. From that moment, my drive and enthusiasm to pursue a career as a professional orchestra musician grew tremendously.
His participation in advanced courses at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana, which for the first time trained eighteen young musicians from the Caribbean, was an experience that, according to David, 'made all the difference.'
The show also included the special presentation of Caribbean poets VÃctor Andrés de Óleo, from the Dominican Republic, and Ar Guens Jean Mary, from Haiti. With the support of Transcultura, in June 2023 the young poets were part of a delegation of 10 Caribbean poets to participate in the Marché de la Poésie (Poetry Market), held in Paris, France. For the first time, the Caribbean region was the guest of honour at the event.
Poets are messengers of a world that is still possible. And there is an urgency to listen to what poetry has to say, especially when it comes from the islands.
At Plaza Vieja, the audience enjoyed the poems 'Ciudad tuya' and 'Déjà j’aurais voulu te dire les chooses,' accompanied by the authors' voice-overs. These poems were intertwined with jazz melodies, in a moment of shared beauty,' as Ar Guens Jean Mary described the concert.
