With 14 years of experience, the first all female Chamber Music Ensemble in Cuba is still considered a novelty to its audiences. Here are some stories and confessions from the founder and conductor, Zenaida Romeu.
Arriving in Ottawa for her first time, playing at the Parliament of Canada and dining with the Speaker at the same oval table where other important personalities like John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, and Fidel Castro have dined, has been one of the greatest privileges for Zenaida Castro Romeu.
Confident, dynamic, and very perceptive, the first Cuban woman to graduate 
from an orchestral conducting program is very proud of her family of renowned musicians.
Her great-uncle, Antonio María Romeu, was a pianist and composer. He was a composer of Danzones, Cuba's national dances, a teacher and the first promoter of Charanga, the music heavily influenced by Son and performed on European instruments such as violin and flute.
Her grandfather, Armando, was also a conductor of Charanga orchestras, composed many popular Danzones, taught wind instruments, and held the position of Captain with the Cuban Navy Band in the 1930's.
Eight of Armando's nine children devoted themselves to music. The oldest of them, Zenaida's mother, was a pianist, teacher, an expert in opera and Spanish operetta, and worked at Radio Cadena Azul, a radio station where many of the most important musical artists of Cuba were launched.
Zenaidita, as Romeu is popularly known, comes from a lineage of talented artists who ennobled, dignified, and praised Cuban culture. Here are her words about her artistic life.
The Piano, My Natural Environment
My mother had me at an older age and I knew my grandfather was very old. In a way, I could have been
