For Cuban viola student Karina Hechavarría Suárez, 2022 has kicked off in an excellent way, as she has received two awards in international competitions.

Just a few days ago, the young woman was awarded Third Prize at the Rocky Mountain Strings Competition, Winter Season 2022, Toronto, Canada in the category of Intermediate, 17-18 years old Advanced (highly competitive), in addition to the Audience Award, being the only violist who entered the competition and the only award in her condition.

Earlier this year, Karina won second prize at the King's Peak International Classical Music Competition Winter 2021-2022, in the Viola category (Group D-17-19 years old).

These distinctions are the result of talent, with a sustained and systematic effort in the technical-artistic mastery of her instrument. And this is corroborated by her teacher Raiza Valdés, MSc, assistant viola soloist of the National Symphony Orchestra of Cuba and professor at the National School of Music:

"Her grades are magnificent, which speaks of how disciplined and responsible she is in an integral way, and with the viola, she is passionate, she is a girl who expresses herself very well playing the instrument."

However, challenges mark the teacher-student relationship in the search for new goals, viola repertoires and the performance of chamber music.

And teacher Raiza adds: "Karina is always eager to explore, she has especially emphasized the contemporary Cuban repertoire, such as the works of Calixto Álvarez, Alfredo Diez Nieto, and the more recent composer and violinist Jorge Amado.

Of the latter, a very talented young man performed with pianist Lisa María Blanco the world premiere of the piece Paisaje (Landscape) at the 2019 Havana Contemporary Music Festival, at the Villena Hall of the Association of Writers and Artists of Cuba (Uneac).

In 2019, the Sonantas Habaneras Guitar Orchestra under the direction of maestro Jesús Ortega invited her as soloist to perform the Concerto in G major by George Philipp Telemann, in a version for viola and guitar orchestra, at the Hall-Theater of the National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana.

Along with her studies, Karina takes part in different events of Cuban culture such as the tribute to the teacher Alicia Perea at the Casa del ALBA Cultural in Havana, where she shared the stage with important musicians such as the pianist and composer Aldo López-Gavilán Junco, and the Con-Trastes Duo.

Also, he integrated the roster of the Chamber Orchestra of the University of the Arts of Cuba in the concert with the renowned multi-instrumentalist and composer Ray Lema, as part of the 33rd International Jazz Plaza Festival 2018.

He also performed Suite Habana -a work written in 1991 by Cuban guitarist and composer Eduardo Martín-, together with guitarist Zuleida Suárez, his mother, on the stage of the Basílica Menor del Convento de San Francisco de Asís, in the Historic Center of Havana, during the Contemporary Music Festival of the past edition.

In this period of the COVID-19 pandemic, artistic teaching classes in Cuba shifted from face-to-face to work through social media.

And Cuban television offered several of its spaces for the continuity of education at different levels of education, including artistic education. The novice violist was among the students who participated in the illustration of the classes taught nationwide by the teacher Raiza Valdés during the period 2020-2021.

Karina Hechavarría Suárez is 18 years old and is in her fourth year at the National School of Music; during her studies, she has been part of the school's Charanga, under the direction of maestro Enrique Lazaga.

For the Rocky Mountain Strings Competition, he presented the first movement Allegro Appassionato from the Concerto in A minor for viola and orchestra by the Czech composer Hans Sitt. When we probed the young instrumentalist's motivations for opus 68, she replied:

"What motivated me about this concerto was, first of all, to recover an almost unknown work of the viola repertoire, little performed and that has a great technical and interpretative difficulty, besides being able to create a useful recording of the piece, and to help other violists around the world who were interested in this one, to have a guide, since if you search on social media you will not find other videos.''

 "This score came to me in the hands of my beloved teacher Raiza Valdés Ortega, who has been my teacher since my early years of elementary level and to whom I am very grateful for all the work and dedication over the years. I want to emphasize that I had the privilege of being accompanied in the recording by the excellent pianist Marita Rodríguez, who is an authority in Chamber Music", she added.

New challenges inspire this charismatic young woman who has also won the public's favor by winning the Audience Award at the Rocky Mountain Strings Competition:

"My main incentive at the moment is to graduate from the Intermediate Level of the National School of Music, in which I plan to perform, among others, Boris Zeidman's Second Concerto for Viola and Orchestra. It is also among my goals to continue performing in international competitions, as well as participating in national events and concerts."

Enjoy the performance of Karina Hechavarría Suárez, accompanied on piano by Marita Rodríguez in Hans Sitt's Concerto for viola in A minor, opus 68, a romantic piece where she demonstrates the sound, expressive and technical possibilities of her instrument.