Minnesota’s Cuban American Youth Organization (CAYO) provides chamber music collaborations, lessons, and immersive educational exchange programming for students.
Transcript
Opening: This is Minnesota’s Legacy: A look at the organizations and people who have benefitted from Minnesota’s unique Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment
Traditional Cuban music
Amira Warren-Yearby: Can you guess the unsuspecting commonalities between Minnesota and Cuba? Well, one thing is …orchestra music.
Record scratch sound
Rena Kraut: We found such a hunger to get to know each other between us Minnesotans and students and musicians in Cuba.
Warren-Yearby: That’s Dr. Rena Kraut, Founder and Executive Director of CAYO, the Cuban American Youth Orchestra, supported in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural heritage fund. Dr. Kraut says orchestra music can transcend any language barrier.
Classical music
Kraut: it just makes it the perfect platform for us to connect with strangers and become friends in a very short amount of time
Warren-Yearby: CAYO hosts week-long music exchanges for youth throughout the year, bringing Minnesotans to Cuba, and Cubans to Minnesota.
Kraut: We get a chance to experience Cuban rhythms and learn more about Cuban culture and share the universal things that we all know, for instance, we can all collaborate on Beethoven, but we can also benefit from the different ways in which we play it.
Classical music
Warren-Yearby: The opportunity to learn from one another began with the Minnesota Orchestra Tour to Cuba in 2015.
Kraut: I think Minnesotans really embody this curiosity about the world and in desire to engage with the wider world.
Warren-Yearby: Find more information at CAYO music dot org
Closing: Minnesota’s Legacy is a production of AMPERS, with support from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, more at ampers dot org.