Havana, December 30 (RHC)—Music expert and researcher Jesús Gómez Cairo and trumpet player Marcos Antonio Urbay received the 2018 National Music Award in recognition of a life-time dedicated to music.   

The award was presented in Old Havana’s Saint Francis of Assisi Square, where the National Symphony had a concert conducted by maestro Joaquín Betancourt. Gómez Cairo -one of the most important researchers of the Caribbean island’s music- has taught and held lectures in prestigious universities from all over the world; as of 1997 he has been the Director of the National Music Museum. Urbay Serafín has played in several popular Cuban music bands, including the Riverside orchestra, the Tropicana cabaret orchestra and the National Symphony, of which he’s been a founding member.