Havana, May 27 (RHC)-- Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel today lamented through his Twitter profile the sudden death of musician Juan Carlos Formell, a member of the Caribbean island's popular orchestra Los Van Van.

Díaz-Canel said in his account on the social network that he shares the pain of the Formell family and the legendary musical group "which is to say the pain of Cuba, for the sudden death of Juan Carlos, guitarist, bassist, composer and, above all, Juan's eldest son, synthesis of Cubanness".

The Cuban Institute of Music (ICM) informed in the day on its social networks about the death, on Friday night, of Juan Carlos Formell Alfonso as a result of a heart attack.

According to the ICM note, the musician, who was on tour in New York with the Los Van Van orchestra, founded by his father, maestro Juan Formell, was 59 years old at the time of his death.

The guitarist was born in Havana in 1964 and had been living in New York since 1993; he studied music at the Alejandro García Caturla and Amadeo Roldán conservatories in Havana and completed his training at the Cuban National School of Arts.

He stood out for his peculiar style as an instrumentalist accompanying several Cuban jazz figures such as Emiliano Salvador, Guillermo Fragoso and Joseíto González, director of the emblematic Rumbavana Orchestra. (Source: PL)