A great human being of infinite kindness, pleasantness, and sympathy; an instrumentalist with great technical and performing skills, a very demanding and a great piano teacher in chamber music, these are some of the qualities of the maestro Maria del Henar Navarro, who celebrated her birthday on January 21.

A new anniversary of life that we greet with joy, knowing of her prolific and fruitful chamber music work characterized by professional rigor and the untiring search for interesting repertoires taken on with taste and depth.

María del Henar Navarro graduated in 1984 from the University of the Arts in Cuba. From the beginning of her professional life, the caliber she possessed was known, and she has had a remarkable career alternating performance with teaching, as she is a member of several chamber ensembles as a pianist and a teacher of that specialty.
Young students have found in her a paradigm, since for years she has made her knowledge available to future artists in the position of pianist in the saxophone chair at the Havana House of Higher Studies of the Arts.
 

With her proverbial mastery, she has accompanied various chamber ensembles, such as the acclaimed and well-remembered meeting in 1985 with the French saxophonist Daniel Deffayet or her praiseworthy duet with the Cuban Miguel Villafruela, with whom she was highly praised on various stages around the world, such as Poland, where she obtained a Diploma for Chamber Music Performance.

She has also collaborated with performers such as the saxophonist Javier Zalba, with whom she recorded the memorable CD-DVD Stand by, which allows us to delight ourselves with an artistic work of excellence marked by versatility and ductility in the approach to complex contemporary works. Also with the guitarist Jesús Ortega, as she is an essential participant of the Havana Guitar Festivals directed by the maestro Leo Brouwer.

Brouwer has praised María del Henar's mastery on two occasions, when he took on her Concierto de Toronto and Concierto Elegíaco, at the VII and VIII Concurso y Festival Internacional de Guitarra de La Habana, respectively.

However, María del Henar Navarro's most sustained and profound performance is with the Ondina Duo, of which she has been a member since 1997 together with the Cuban flautist Niurka González, and which is recognized as one of the most famous chamber ensembles in Cuba and whose prestige goes beyond the frontiers of the American continent.

Both instrumentalists, in total harmony, offer the public pleasant encounters with the art of sound and with two timeless recordings such as Flauta Virtuosa, awarded the 2004 Cubadisco Prize for the Best Opera Prima and the divine lyricism of the composers and maestros of the Paris Conservatoire in the CD Havana-Paris, as well as in the unforgettable collaborations in the CD Música de Cámara by maestro Jorge López Marín and in the CD Homo Ludens by maestro Leo Brouwer.

With performances considered by the critics to be masterly and very high-flying, these two artists challenge, in each concert, our ear and imagination in a delightful confraternity, the result of a close friendship and the combination of two virtuoso performers.

We approach María del Henar Navarro, a renowned Cuban instrumentalist who has been appreciated in Germany, Poland, Russia and Mexico, among other countries, through the special prism of the flautist Niurka González, who has worked with her for almost a quarter of a century and who amusingly states: "Marileni is the youngest member of the Ondina Duo, because since we started playing together I have always been the eldest."

Genesis of Ondina Duo

When asked about the beginnings of the Ondina Duo, Niurka González explained that long before the founding of the chamber ensemble, she had been familiar with the work of María del Henar Navarro and had also seen her, at the University of the Arts, working as a pianist in the saxophone chair there.

"On my return from Paris, after my studies, I went to work as a soloist at the Centro Nacional de Música de Concierto, and at that time Roberto Chorens was the director of that institution", the famous flautist told us.

The then young soloist went to Maestro Chorens' office and he asked her who she was going to work with, which musician or pianist she had in mind; and Niurka honestly admitted that she didn't know.

"He said to me, 'wait a minute, I'm going to find you a pianist right now'. He picked up the phone and called María del Henar, and said: 'You already have someone to play with. I have someone here for you to work with. You're going to play with Niurka', to which Marileni replied: 'yes, that's fine', and that's how our duet began."

The performer reminded us that they were not called Ondina from the beginning, as that name came later and is a well-deserved tribute to the great Cuban flautist Roberto Ondina, who played this instrument in the Cuban National Philharmonic, and with this format they wanted to perpetuate his memory and pay tribute to him.

"From there began a working relationship that is more than twenty years old, because this happened at the end of 1997, when we began to work together. And that we came together professionally is something we have to thank Roberto Chorens, who put our paths in common and, Marileni, will not let me lie in this sense."

That delightful dialogue that has been going on for decades

Those who have the possibility to attend the rehearsals of the Ondina Duo or watch and listen attentively to one of their concerts, perceive that both performers demand a lot from each other from the technical and performing perspective, and that they have the gift of intuition, of full knowledge of the other, of that necessary identification that allows them to know in advance what their partner is looking for or requires.

In this respect, the maestro Niurka González acknowledged: "The connection, between the two of us, has always been very natural. It is true that I am a very demanding musician, but so is Marileni, in other words, we are two demanding artists with the same objective: to ensure that the music comes out as well as possible."

She added: "We really complement each other very well in our work and we have many years of experience. Marileni has a lot of experience in playing with other people, that is, it is very comfortable to play with her because you feel you have a solid backing, a person who is always listening and, depending on what is happening with the music. She assumes this important role with a tremendous mastery of the instrument with a very great competence in all the attitudes necessary for an extraordinary performance.

González acknowledged that she has never liked the term "accompanying pianist", as she considers that no artist accompanies another, but that they are two musicians and human beings who go hand in hand, and if one assumes the essence of chamber music, the idea of accompanying another performer does not exist.

"In chamber music it is always very important what is happening underneath as well as what is happening above. There are moments when the flute takes on another role than the soloist role, in that sense, I think we accompany each other," she said.

Niurka González describes it as an infinite pleasure to share, for years, with María del Henar Navarro: "we already have a very mature working relationship, it is a delight to work for a long time, to take on many repertoires marked by so many things, which allows us to find details that are not understood when we perform a new work, because we have been playing together for many years, and that is very pleasant."

Although both artists collaborate with other musicians, they do not abandon Ondina Duo, as this work is an essential part of their artistic lives, motivating new explorations: "we always come back to the duo because of this recurrence in new repertoires, this work of creating new pieces, of learning new sonatas; we are always in this search."

A rewarding and fortunate repertoire

The Ondina Duo has a very strong repertoire that covers practically all the most important works in the repertoire for flute and piano, from 1850 onwards, and we wanted to know how they select the pieces:

"For example, I like music from the baroque and classical periods, while Marileni has a preference for more romantic music, from the 20th and 21st century, and she likes more contemporary music. For this reason, we do one thing at a time, and suddenly we play a sonata, and later we take on a contemporary repertoire, in this way we balance the programs coherently."

This chamber ensemble has a basic repertoire to which they constantly add new contemporary works, a fact that distinguishes them by premiering important creations for flute and piano by Cuban composers.

"In that sense, the work is very enriching and gratifying when it is our turn to premiere works that have been dedicated to us. We worked on the extensive works of maestro Jorge López Marín, who dedicated many of them especially to us, as well as the two Elegías martianas by Leo Brouwer and the version for flute and piano of the Balada de Leo. We are very fortunate because several creators have dedicated their works to us and that is very stimulating", she said.