by David Creedon
'…Pianists in Cuba face challenges that most people in other countries can't imagine…'
Tucked away in the back streets of old Havana in a run-down, dusty old warehouse, and a world apart from the tourist trade, is the National Workshop of Instrument Repair. When I arrived my taxi driver pointed to the building and I looked at him as if to say, 'Are you sure?' A man came out of the workshop and looked at me, then disappeared only to return 30 seconds later waving an Irish flag.
When the Russians became Cuba’s close ally in the 1960s and 1970s they used
the workshop as a training centre for what is now the current generation of
Cuban piano tuners and technicians. Two classes of blind and partially
sighted tuners graduated from here – the first in 1970, and another class
two years later. However, with the fall of the Soviet Union, this training
programme ceased, and the workshop fell steadily into disrepair.
Due to the US trade embargo, piano technicians on the island cannot buy the
tools and materials they need, and as the older generation of Cuban tuners
retires, the skills that go with the tools are also disappearing.
Pianists in Cuba face challenges that most people in other countries can't
imagine. The island's tropical climate is particularly hard on things made
from wood. Now an Irish group is helping to restore thousands of pianos that
have fallen into disrepair
Una Corda is also the name of a non-profit organization run by volunteers
from Ireland’s music community, that works to train and equip Cuban
piano-tuners. They are now in the final stages of being awarded charitable
status as a cultural and educational exchange project.
Since 2006 Irish piano tuners have been going to Havana to tune and help
train the local technicians and, working in conjunction with the Havana Arts
Authority and the Cuban Ministry of Culture, they have now been given the
responsibility of restoring and re-equipping the National Workshop there.
The organization has three objectives: sending a small number of
piano-tuners to Cuba to tune pianos and train people locally; to help
restore Havana’s National Workshop of Instrument Repair; and to encourage
Irish people travelling to Cuba on holidays to carry piano parts with them,
which Una Corda supplies.
Over the last number of years tourists travelling to Cuba have made a real
contribution to the project by becoming 'Una Corda's' mules. Volunteers
simply carry a package of piano parts or tools with them in their luggage
when they go. So far over 300 kilos of parts have been carried in luggage,
all with the approval of the Cuban authorities.
The pianos that are being repaired and restored with the parts Una Corda is
sending to Cuba belong to Havana’s music schools. Up to 20 of them are in
the workshop at any one time. Word has gone out across Havana, and there are
many more pianos in the queue that are in need of restoration. The workshop
itself is to be restored over time with money raised in Ireland.
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