Alvarez Presents Composition at Havana Music Festival By Rebecca Ringle
			At the opening of sides/lados, the electronic piece by Cèsar Alvarez ‘03, the voice of Alvarez’s sister Ana Maria Alvarez ’99 intones the words "When you’re not one hundred percent anything, you’re forced to be one hundred percent aware of both your sides." Cèsar Alvarez, a double degree junior with a Religion major in the College and his self-designed TIMARA/Jazz Performance major in the Conservatory, described the piece for tape and dancer as an "exploration of the pushes and pulls that result from a bi-cultural identity and specifically a Cuban-American identity." The two siblings from North Carolina will present the seven-minute piece by invitation at the Ninth International Electro-Acoustic Music Festival "Primavera en la Habana" in Havana, Cuba this March. Ana Maria Alvarez, currently a professional dancer in New York City, will perform her own choreography to the piece. Duality abounds in the concept for sides/lados. The making of the piece involved Alvarez’s own contributions as instrumentalist and composer; the second half of the tape portion of the installation gives us samples of Alvarez himself on saxophone, the instrument he also studied at Interlochen Arts Academy before coming to Oberlin. Alvarez described his intention to "use the medium to collage and depict the conflict and harmony that comes out of a distinctly split cultural heritage." At first objectifying and opposing English and Spanish speech samples in a rhythmic dissonance to reflect the dancer’s struggle for bi-lingual as well as bi-cultural identity, the tape then dissolves into its second section of languid, improvisational sax riffs electronically woven on each other. The composition is largely the fruit of a semester Alvarez spent studying in Cuba with the SIT program this past fall. "The first thing I learned when I went to Cuba was that despite the fact that my father was born in there, I didn’t know anything about the country. More and more Cuban-Americans who were born in the United States and have restricted access to learning about and traveling to Cuba are coming of age artistically." In Cuba, Alvarez attended a performance of a contemporary piece for tape and saxophone, which he described as influential. "There is immense ignorance about Cuba in our country and vice-versa. The current American perception of Cuban music centers around long-standing groups like the Buena Vista Social Club, which, while they’ve increased people’s awareness of Cuban music, have not necessarily expanded their knowledge. Actually, these musicians are just as modern and interested in contemporary music as we are, though because of economic factors it can be difficult for them to get the technology they need. This festival helps to improve that situation."
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