Zenaida Manfugas
| Zenaida Manfugás | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Zenaida Elvira González Manfugás |
| Born | February 22, 1932 Guantanamo, Cuba |
| Died | May 2, 2012 Elizabeth, New Jersey |
| Occupation(s) | pianist |
| Years active | 1949–2012 |
Zenaida Manfugás (February 22, 1932 - May 2, 2012) was a Cuban born, American naturalized pianist, considered to be one of the best Cuban pianists in history.
Zenaida Elvira González Manfugás was born on February 22, 1932 in Guantanamo, Cuba. Her father was Amando González Veranés and her mother, Andrea Manfugás Crombet, was a renowned pianist and teacher. She had two sisters: Alicia and Aida Esther. Her mother is descended from Nene Manfugás, a renowned composer and performer of Sonnets in the early 20th century.
Her family moved to Baracoa, where her father was appointed municipal judge and her mother opened a music school affiliated with the Conservatorio Orbón. Manfugás and her sisters began piano lessons at age five, under their mother's tutelage. At age seven, Manfugás was able to play Mozart "Coronation Mass", and Beethoven "Concerto 5". Manfugás debuted in 1949 in Havana, in the Anfiteatro de Avenida del Puerto, with the Municipal Band conducted by master Gonzalo Roig, playing "Concerto in A Minor" by Edvard Grieg. This became a frequent venue for Manfugás.
She studied in Santiago de Cuba. Three years after her debut, Manfugás received a scholarship to study in Spain. Journalist Agustín Tamargo had directed the attention of the then President of the Colegio de Belén University in Havana, Father Joseph Rubino, to the pianist and persuaded him to give her the scholarship. Roig then invited her to give a concert at Havana's Cathedral Square.
In 1952, at the age of 20, Manfugás left Cuba and enrolled at the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid (Royal Conservatory of Music of Madrid). and she was under the tutelage of Professor Tomas Andrade de Silva. She performed concerts and premieres in Spain, where she released the Dos Danzas (two Dances), by Cuban composer Harold Gramatges in 1953. She then traveled to Paris to receive lessons from master Walter Gieseking.
On her return to Cuba in 1958, she was finally scheduled to give a concert at the Auditorium Theater on December 21 that year. The organizers advised her to postpone it until January 9, 1959, but by then the country was in the revolutionary ferment of the triumph of Fidel Castro's guerrilla movement and the pianist had to keep waiting for her big presentation in Cuba. It was not until 1960, when the theater had already been named "Amadeo Roldan," that she was able to play her music at the main concert hall of that country.
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