The virtuoso horn player Sarah Willis, a member of the Berlin Philharmonic, brings her original musical proposal "Mozart and Mambo" to the Canary Islands, in which she combines pieces by the genius of Salzburg with others by contemporary Cuban composers. A curious cocktail that the artist recorded after visiting Cuba and that immediately took first place on the charts, both classical music and pop and Latin. The accompanying video clip has had more than 10 million views on the Internet.
An internationally renowned instrumentalist, passionate about the dissemination of classical music, television and radio presenter, and even recognized by Queen Elizabeth II of England, Willis will appear before the public of the islands together with the Sinfónica de Las Palmas, on a tour programmed by the Canary Islands Music Festival within #EnParalelo, organized by the regional government.
The concerts will be this Wednesday, January 15 at the Auditorium of La Gomera; the 16th at the Palacio de Formación y Congresos of Fuerteventura; the 17th at Los Jameos del Agua, in Lanzarote - with tickets already sold out -; and Saturday the 18th at the Teatro Circo de Marte in La Palma - a concert for which very few tickets are available -. The locations are available at www.festivaldecanarias.com and at ecoentradas.com.
Sinfónica de Las Palmas, with Cuban direction and soloist
In the Canary Islands, she is presented together with the Sinfónica de Las Palmas and under the baton of the Cuban José Méndez, who is the director of the Mozart-Havana Festival. They will be accompanied by the pianist, and also composer from the same Caribbean island, Jorge Aragón, arranger of several of the works that appear in the repertoire of this tour.
The Sinfónica de Las Palmas, with whom Sarah Willis is rehearsing these days at its headquarters in Agüimes, has more than twenty years of experience and, among its most acclaimed projects is the Popular New Year's Concert that has been held for several years at the Alfredo Kraus Auditorium, where tickets are always sold out.
Milestones in Sarah Willis' career
Of American origin and with four nationalities at present, Sarah Willis has been the first female brass instrumentalist to achieve a position in the Berlin Philharmonic, where she has been for almost 25 years.
In 2017, the horn player traveled to Cuba and was captivated by the enthusiasm of the Cubans for music. She discovered the statue of Mozart in Havana and heard one of her musicians say that "Mozart would have been a good Cuban". That was the origin of the 'Mozart and Mambo' project, which is now presented in the islands. The first album was recorded in Havana in January 2020 and was released on July 10, 2020. Two more albums followed: Cuban Dances in September 2022 and La Bella Cubana in September 2023. All three were released by Alpha Classics.
Willis began playing the trumpet at age 14 and in 1991 became the second horn of the Berlin State Opera with Daniel Barenboim. During this time, Sarah played as a guest with many of the world's finest orchestras as a soloist and in various chamber music ensembles.
In 2001, she joined the Berlin Philharmonic, combining it with master classes around the world and the recording of several albums.
She is passionate about music education and makes full use of digital technology and social media to reach audiences around the world. She was chosen to be one of the first testers of Google Glass and used this experience to see how new technologies could be used in classical music.
