Program Fira B! 2023

The duo Alexey León & Antía Couto combines the elegance of classical music and the spontaneity of jazz, Afro-Cuban rhythms and Spanish folklore, the intense sound of tango and the joy of Brazil, and everything that reached the ports of the New World . The group was formed in 2020 when Antía (Vigo-Pontevedra) and Alexey (Manzanillo-Cuba) began to explore the possibilities of fusion between classical music and improvisation.

Since then they have developed three projects: “Lecuona, el color de Cuba” (with Carlos Sarduy and Reinier Elizarde as guests), “El Tango: Borges y Piazzolla” and “Brazil” (already in its final phase). “Ernesto Lecuona would be grateful to hear his music performed by a duo with color and flavor of Cuba.” (Pepe Rivero, pianist and composer) With the Lecuona project, the duo participates in the Berklee-Valencia call and the Fifty-Fifty Jazz and Poetry Festival of Avilés-Asturias. In the first edition of this Festival, in 2021, it premieres, including poetry by Nicolás Guillén, with the name “Lecuona, el color de Cuba”. The reception from the public and critics was so positive that the duo was invited by the festival to become Fifty-Fifty's “resident group.” After its premiere in Avilés, the project has been presented in Valencia, Madrid and Vigo, it has just become an album for the record company One World Records, and it has been selected, among a host of national proposals, for the cycle of Caixa Forum concerts.

For the second edition, the Fifty-Fifty festival commissioned the duo to produce the project “El Tango: Borges y Piazzolla”, which addresses the “encounter-disencounter” between these two universal geniuses and their peculiar visions of tango. On this occasion, the duo is joined by actor Paco Liván, who stars in a dramatized reading of Borges' poems. The premiere receives an enthusiastic response from the public and critics, and will be published as an album in the coming months. The duo's third project, “Brazil”, will explore the music of choro, samba and bossa nova, with an eye toward its premiere at the third edition of the Fifty-Fifty festival, in November 2023.