EDITOR’S NOTE: The Chicago Harp Quartet visited Cuba May 29–June 8, 2017, less than two years after the U.S. reopened diplomatic relations with the island country. We asked Quartet member Catherine Litaker to give us a look behind the scenes of the group’s historic visit.

Catherine Litaker is a founding member of the Chicago Harp Quartet. She has performed across the globe as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral musician. She currently lives in Los Angeles.

It was still dark at 4:00 a.m. when Emily and I, still half asleep, took an Uber to the Chicago airport. We breezed through security, found the other half of our quartet, and boarded a plane to Miami to catch our connecting flight to our final destination: Havana, Cuba. On arrival, we were greeted by our Cuban liaison, Anabel, staff from Cuba’s Music Institute, and some hot, sticky air. After the requisite customs and security, we took a van to our casa particular (Cuba’s version of a bed and breakfast) run by our wonderful host, Mara. We had made it.

The journey to Cuba started long before we boarded that plane in Chicago. The Chicago Harp Quartet—Emily Ann Granger, Marguerite Lynn Williams, Julie Spring, and I—worked incredibly hard to make the project a reality. The initial idea came from a chance encounter with Cuban harpist Anabel Gutierrez while performing at Indiana University, my alma mater. At first, we discussed simply traveling to Cuba to perform, but the more we dug into the project’s context, the more we realized that harps are extremely rare in Cuba, and harpists there have limited access to resources and instruments. Even beginning to play the harp is difficult at best. We decided this was something that we wanted to help change with our trip. We decided to go to Havana, not only as harpists and performers, but also as musical and cultural ambassadors who would hopefully aid and inspire young harpists.

We had to submit a proposal to Cuba’s Ministry of Culture about 18 months prior to our trip, and luckily for us, it was accepted. We proceeded to organize, plan, and fundraise like crazy for the next year. Our efforts included an online fundraising campaign that asked for not only monetary donations but also physical donations of anything related to playing the harp that we could give to Cuba’s harp community. We also did a fundraising concert in Chicago, and we were able to raise enough money to buy two lever harps to donate to the Instituto Cubano de la Música for young harpists to play, an achievement that I am extremely proud of. Amid all of the preparation and fundraising, many changes happened in our lives. I moved to Los Angeles, Emily moved to Sydney, Julie was working full time, and Lynn excitedly told us that she was expecting a baby girl, which meant that she would not be able to travel with us. Luckily our amazing friend Alison Attar graciously joined us as a substitute.

So here we are during our first morning in Havana being escorted to the Teatro Nacional de Cuba, where we finally got our fingers on the harps we would be performing on for the week.

These instruments were very different than ours at home. With only four pedal harps in the entire country—two older Russian harps, one Aoyama, and one Salvi—we marveled at the resilience of the instruments. They sounded great despite the humidity, salty air, and everything else that comes with tropical island living. We were also lucky that Lyon & Healy sent one of its technicians, Papo, a week prior to our arrival to regulate the four harps and get them in tip-top shape. In the afternoon we did an interview for national TV, which would be aired for the next couple of days, leading up to our Friday and Saturday night concerts at the Teatro Nacional.

The next few days were a whirlwind combination of quartet rehearsals, with a Cuban youth orchestra that played Vivaldi’s L’Estro Armonico, Op. 3, Concerto No. 10, RV 580 arranged for four harps and orchestra, a masterclass with young Cuban harpists, and little bits of time to explore our neighborhood and walk on Havana’s famous Malecón. We laughed quite a bit about the amount of sweat and frizzy hair that was going on among the four of us Midwesterners, but, as they say, when in Havana! We took that same approach when it came to enjoying a Cuba Libre or two.

Thursday night was our first public performance at the grand re-opening of Fabrica de Arte Cubano, a must for any traveler to Havana. Filled with the work of Cuban artists, the FAC boasts an incredibly wide variety of art gallery rooms, changing exhibitions, multiple levels, various outdoor spaces, three bars, a restaurant, two large concert spaces, tons of millenials, and loads of fun. This was a collaborative concert where members of the quartet performed alongside other Cuban harpists in duos and solos. We also had the pleasure of hearing harpist Alfredo Rolando Ortiz play. The quartet has a special relationship with Alfredo because he wrote a piece for us in 2015 called Cuban Dream After the Storm. Little did we know when we premiered it at Carnegie’s Weill Hall that a couple years later we would be performing it in Havana, right at the heart of the work’s inspiration. And we never could have guessed that Alfredo, who was born in Cuba, would join us for our trip and return to his birth country after not having been there since childhood.

It finally came time for our Friday and Saturday nights’ concerts at the Teatro Nacional. Both were wonderful. The house was full, the audience was engaged, receptive, and appreciative, and our hearts were full. Most importantly, we were finally able to have a proper celebration.

The rest of the quartet left the following day, but I stayed with my best friend, Courtney, who came to hear our concerts and travel with me for the next couple of days. We saw the beautiful Cuban countryside and crystal clear water on the beaches of Varadero—another must for travelers to Cuba.

The entire trip seems far away now, but the experience of crossing cultural boundaries with music is something that will stay with me forever. •