We caught up with the brilliant and insightful David Pérez a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi David, thanks for joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

That’s a very interesting question because my dad encouraged me to start taking piano lessons. From that moment forward, I fell in love with music and eventually pursued a professional career in the performing arts world.
The music education system in Cuba encourages parents and families to enroll their children in music from an early age. The system supports young artists in continuing their education from primary school, which spans from third to ninth grade. Then, music students would attend the conservatory, leading to four or five years of a bachelor’s degree at the University of the Arts.
My music path started differently than that. I spent most of my early music education with private teachers until I reached the minimum age to enroll at the conservatory. At that time, I was focused on being a concert pianist and eventually took a slightly different path by continuing my education as an organist in the U.S.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

In short, I am a professional soloist and collaborative musician with performance experience on the organ, piano, and harpsichord. I belong to the first generation of Cuban organists working to rediscover and revitalize the organ and its repertoire in Cuba and the U.S.
For more than sixty years, Cuba’s organ tradition has been forgotten, and that was a vital reason for me to focus my attention as a performer on rebuilding and broadcasting organ music and its humble contribution to the musical scene. Since I moved to the U.S. to continue my education as an organist at the University of Kansas, I realized I needed to bring attention to my heritage of Latin American music for the organ. Most of the time, the organ is associated with the church and has been that way for centuries. Still, one of my goals is to expand the organ repertoire outside the church and diversify it by rediscovering organ music from Latin American composers and infusing the unique colors of Cuban and Latin American music through my transcriptions by underrepresented composers from the region.
Very little work has been done about Latin American music for the organ. In some ways, I feel like a pioneer in the field, so I am very excited not only to teach future generations of students classical works that are generally taught to organ performance majors but also to allow them to explore and rediscover incredible music by lesser-known composers from Central and South America.
I am very proud to be working with the Wayne Leupold publishing company on my first volume of Cuban transcriptions for the organ, which will soon be available to the public. My most recent article, “A French Organ In Cuba,” was published in the American Guild of Organists magazine in August of this year.
Sometimes, it is scary because I always fight with the unknown. Still, I attempt to enrich and expand the horizons of classical music.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

The more I work to rediscover and expand the organ repertoire, the more I see that the classical music field has been whitewashed. Don’t get me wrong, I love and strongly believe in the power and impact of classical music in our society today. However, my main goal is to be more inclusive of Latin American composers in the canon and be able to promote their contribution to the musical arts through my medium, the pipe organ.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

We are driven to always listen to the music we are comfortable with. Still, I encourage society, in general, to open up their vision by educating themselves about new trends in music and its historical context. Music can be a hobby, but for some, including me, it is a real job and a serious business. So, I encourage people to respect the performing arts and start seeing it as any other professional job that can contribute to and impact our daily lives.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://cubanorganist.com
• Instagram: @david_cubanorganist
• Facebook: @davidcubanorganist
• Linkedin: David Pérez
• Youtube: @davidperez_cubanorganist