As the old English saying has it the Symphony Orchestra of the Higher Institute for the Arts, better known as the Cuban Art University, will be taking coal to New Castle. It has been invited to perform at the 2015 Mozart Week set for Salzburg, Austria, from January 22nd through February 1st.

The orchestra, attached to Havana’s Mozartem Lyceum, is celebrating the sixth anniversary of the lyceum with this invitation.  Famous Cuban flutist, Niurka González, has also been invited to play with the Cuban orchestra in a series of concerts at the Mozarteum University’s Master Lecture Hall and the Mozarteum Foundation Hall in Salzburg, Austria.

In January, close to Wolfgan Amadeus Mozart’s birthday, the Austrian Foundation holds a weekly festival called Mozart Week or Mozartwoche 2015 with presentations of operas and concerts by symphony, chamber orchestras and soloists. Internationally known players of Mozart’s music, orchestras and other music groups have been invited to the event since 1956. The Symphony of the Cuban Higher Institute for the Art, ISA, or Cuban Art University, attached to Havana’s Mozarteum Lyceum, was set up in 2009 as part of a joint project between the two institutions.

Lyceum Director, maestro Ulises Hernández, has directed the orchestra from Havana, with the direct sponsorship of Salzburg’s Mozarteum Foundation and Havana’s Historian. The symphony is a multi-generational group where young students have had the opportunity of exchanging with maestros and players of Mozart’s music, such as Ronald Zollman from Belgium, Jorge Rotter from Argentine and Austria, Walter Reiter from England and Virginie Robillard from France.