Boat of Tolerance Sets Sails at the Havana Biennial

Havana, May 11. – The Boat of Tolerance, an initiative that allows children to draw on the sails their views on peace and tolerance, will be inaugurated on Friday in this capital. The Boat arrived here as part of projects of the Biennial of Havana, the festival of visual arts that will open here within a few hours.

The arts-education initiative, formulated by Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, has joined in Havana talented teenagers from three nations(Russia, Cuba and U.S.), who performed pieces of classical music international repertoire, the Cuban one and the cradle jazz and blues of New Orleans.

On Thursday, musicians from the Youth Symphonic Orchestra of New York and the Foundation Spivakov, from Moscow, offered a concert for tolerance as part of the Russians-Americans Kabakov, who carry their messages of peace and reflection for various parts of the world.

The duo of pianist Dina Ivanova Russian and American oboist Artemiy Cholokyan was cheered by their performance of Latin-American dance, by Igor Frolov.

A quartet of violin, viola and cello, by Joseph Morag, Ausar Amon, Christian Barros and Jake Taylor raised the public from their seats with the Adagio-Allegro Vivance, of the String Quarter no.2, by Felix Mendelsshn.

Special ocassion was the performance of the young Cuban trumpeter Santiago Ceballos and his version of Rhapsody in Blue, by George Gershwin.

To close, an ensemble under the direction of the Cuban Noila Ortega brought together all the musicians in La Bella Cubana, by Joseph White.

The project of Kabakov has toured countries such as Egypt, Switzerland, Italy, and now Cuba.(Prensa Latina)