Zenaida Elvira González Manfugás was a Cuban-born American-naturalized pianist, considered to be one of the best Cuban pianists in history.
Biography
Manfugás was born on February 22, 1932 in Guantánamo, Cuba. Her father was Judge Amando González Veranés and her mother, Andrea Manfugás Crombet, was a renowned pianist and teacher. She had two sisters: Alicia and Aida Esther. Her mother is descended from Nene Manfugás, a renowned composer and performer of Sonnets in the early 20th century. Her family moved to Baracoa, where her father was appointed municipal judge and her mother opened a music school affiliated with the Conservatorio Orbón. Manfugás and her sisters began piano lessons at age five, under their mother's tutelage. At age seven, Manfugás was able to play Mozart "Coronation Mass", and Beethoven "Concerto 5". Manfugás debuted in 1949 in Havana, in the Anfiteatro de Avenida del Puerto, with the Municipal Band conducted by master Gonzalo Roig, playing "Concerto in A Minor" by Edvard Grieg. This became a frequent venue for Manfugás. She studied in Santiago de Cuba. Three years after her debut, Manfugás received a scholarship to study in Spain. Journalist Agustín Tamargo had directed the attention of the then President of the Colegio de Belén University in Havana, Father Joseph Rubino, to the pianist and persuaded him to give her the scholarship. Roig then invited her to give a concert at Havana's Cathedral Square. In 1952, at the age of 20, Manfugás left Cuba and enrolled at the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid. and she was under the tutelage of Professor Tomas Andrade de Silva. She performed concerts and premieres in Spain, where she released the Dos Danzas, by Cuban composer Harold Gramatges in 1953. She then traveled to Paris to receive lessons from master Walter Gieseking. On her return to Cuba in 1958, she was finally scheduled to give a concert at the Auditorium Theater on December 21 that year. The organizers advised her to postpone it until January 9, 1959, but by then the country was in the revolutionary ferment of the triumph of Fidel Castro's guerrilla movement and the pianist had to keep waiting for her big presentation in Cuba. It was not until 1960, when the theater had already been named "Amadeo Roldan," that she was able to play her music at the main concert hall of that country. In Cuba she was appointed professor at the "Alejandro García Caturla" Conservatory in Marianao. Manfugás was very active as a pianist in Cuba, and sometimes accompanied classical orchestras, such as the National Symphony Orchestra and the NationalChamber Orchestra. She performed concerts with the National Symphony Orchestra, and conducted multiple tours in Europe and Asia, for which she was widely praised. Later, she also played in Canada. The pianist came to occupy the position of national advisory in the cathedra of piano at the Amadeo Roldan Conservatory in Havana, until the early 1970s, when she traveled to Spain, not returning to the island. Manfugás came to United States in 1974, performing throughout the 50 states, settling in the country. In 1979, she visited Cuba for the last time. In exile, Manfugás played her music in places like Spain, Paris, Italia, New York City and Miami. She also performed as a soloist in the New World Symphony in Miami and was professor at Kean University of New Jersey, where she taught History of Music. In December 2010, already ill, she was honored by the Apogee Foundation on Cultural Center Cuba Ocho of Miami. At that time she could not perform, as she was recovering from a recent surgery. Her final performance in Miami, where she performed frequently, took place on May 22, 2011 with the musical work "Tres pianos, Tres intérpretes", a concert held at the Wertheim Center International University of Florida, where she alternated with the Jesus y Eugenia Ruspoli Armengol. She had cancer and suffered from several health complications. Zenaida Manfugás died on May 2, 2012, at 4:30 pm ET in Elizabeth, New Jersey, where she had lived since 1974. According to different sources, she died due to a cardiac arrest or cancer. His remains were cremated on Sunday May 13.
Personal life
She was established in Elizabeth, New Jersey in 1974. When she became a U.S. citizen, she adopted her mother's maiden name in her honor, since her mother had taught her how to play the piano. In 1955, she gave birth to a son in Spain, Andrés Montes, who over the years became one of the most popular sports journalists of radio and television in that country and who died in 2009 at age 53.
Curiosities
The musician Gonzalo Roig said that Zenaida Manfugás was the best interpreter of Cuban music, and one of the best pianists that Cuba had produced, and Lecuona regarded her as the best interpreter of his music, for the special talent displayed in her rendering of his compositions.
She was a great reader and she asked books from the library every month.
She never recorded a studio album. The recordings that exist were from live performances. Several compilation albums interpreting the works of Cuban composers were released. Two volumes were entitled Por siempre Lecuona , compilations from multiple live performances. Those volumes contain the most popular works of the composer.
At the time of her death, she lived in a modest apartment for the elderly and, like many other masters of classical music, died in poverty.
