Augusto Enriquez

Augusto Enriquez is one of the most well known and charismatic singers and composer of popular music in the Cuban musical panorama. He is recipient of the highest Cuban cultural awareness award “Orden por la Cultura Nacional” (Order of the National Culture).
His career as an artist began in 1985 when, after graduating as a doctor of medicine in Havana, he joined one of the most popular music groups in Cuba. With Augusto as the lead singer for “Moncada”, the band began to have considerable success on the national and international stage. Beginning with big concerts at the University of Havana, where they would play to more than 20,000 people, they ended up having many years of concerts all over Cuban, Europe and North America.
After eight years of touring with Moncada, Augusto began a solo career which included singing traditional Cuban music, classical tenor, Rock, Blues, Jazz and touring with his own big band, Augusto Enriquez y su Mambo Band.
Teaching Experience (1996 to Present):
Vocal faculty at NSCC (Nova Scotia Community College) music program for 5 years.
Augusto has a degree in music (specialty in Vocal techniques and life performance) at Escuela de Superación Profesional Ignacio Cervantes, Havana, Cuba 1991.
In 1996 Augusto started to teach his own experiences about performing skills in courses that he called “A faster way to Own The Stage”. He first taught this course to some talented university music students in Havana, using techniques from drama theatre applied to musical performance. Since then he has been teaching and coaching many of young musicians obtaining excellent results.
He has offered clinics, lectures, and master classes in different colleges and universities in Cuba, Italy, México and Canada among others, and developed his own performing coach program for university as a result of his experiences of more than 20 years teaching and improving his techniques.
As part of his contribution to the Los Primos Project (Cultural Exchange with Nova Scotia and Cuba), Augusto has been giving clinics and master classes to students in the Canadian Primos, Nova Scotia Honour Jazz, community groups, and St. F.X. University.
Other Cultural Contributions:
2000 – Performed a concert in Toronto as a fund raiser for the Hospital for Sick Children
2012 – Artistic Director of the “Festival of Habanos”
2015 – President of the “Benny Moré International Music Festival”
2016 – Special 8 Week Guest Lecturer contract with NSCC Music Arts Choir.
2022 – Conductor and Artisitic Director of Annapolis Voices (Annapolis Royal Community Choir)
Career Highlights:
1985 – 1991
International touring as Lead Singer with Moncada band
1991 – 2000
Participated in many of the most important TV shows of Italian television (RAI):
“Fantastico”, conducted by Ana Oxa
“Stasera Lino”, conducted by Lino Banfi
“Pronto Rafaella” conducted by Rafaella Carrá
“Carramba che Fortuna” conducted by Rafaella Carrá
“Domani si gioca”, conducted by Gianni Miná; “Maurizio Constanzo Show”, conducted by Maurizio Constanzo
“Help” Conducted by Red Rodney
In Cuba he has worked with other important artists like; Leo Brouwer, Chucho Valdés, Frank Fernández, Juan Formell and Los Van Van, Omara Portuondo, Pancho Amat, Exaudi Choir, Enrique Pérez Mesa and Cuba’s National Symphonic Orchestra among others.
2000 – 2011
In January 2000 he started his own orchestra AUGUSTO ENRÍQUEZ Y SU MAMBO BAND which took him to some of the most important stages of the world.
He was invited by Maestro Luciano Pavarotti to participate in the live TV show, “Pavarotti and Friends”. In July 2004, he opened the Summer Season of the New Auditórium of Rome to great acclaim.
In January 2005 Augusto Enriquez performed in a big concert with his band and the Cuban National Symphonic Orchestra in the National Auditorium Amadeo Roldán, This event, that was broadcasted live by Cuban National TV, was a very important cultural event in Cuba.
Featured with other international artists including:
Mónica Naranjo
Joan Manuel Serrat
Phil Manzanera
Sting
Andrea Bocelli
James Brown
Lou Reed
Zucchero Fornacciari
Lorenzo Jovanotti
John Hendricks
Edin Karamazov
Jack Bruce
Mick Fleetwood
Paddy Maloney
Jimmy Buffett
Shared the stage with stars as:
Rod Steward
Tina Turner
Ray Charles
Didí Bridgewater
La Toya Jackson
Chico Buarque
Featured with Orchestras:
Orchestra Santa Cecilia di Roma
Orchestra alla Scala di Milano
Orquesta Sinfonica de Valecia España
Sinfonica Nacional de Cuba
Moscow Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra
Orquesta Sinfonica de Holguin
Quarteto Latinoamericano (string quartet)
Leo Brouwer Chamber Octet
2011 – PRESENT:
After his 2011 tour of Japan Augusto decided it was time to start
looking in other directions to continue his artistic career.
In 2011 he played, together with famous Cuban Chorus EXAUDI, closing the opening concert of the most prestigious classical music Festival in Cuba “Leo Brouwer Chamber Music Festival”
In the fall of 2011 he was invited to visit Halifax Nova Scotia to help promote the Los Primos Project. He fell in love with Nova Scotia and its people.
In the last three years he has resumed performing as a solo artist on stages all around the world.
In 2012 Augusto opened the Halifax Jazz Festival where he was featured with Paul Barret’s Back Alley Big Band in a very acclaimed concert.
In October of 2014 Augusto was featured in the Leo Brouwer Chamber Orchestra Festival singing the Elvis Costello opera, “The Juliet Letters”. He sang with the world famous Cuarteto Latinoamericano (string quartet).
In July 2015 was invited to play a concert in the very important Ravello Festival, Naples Italy.
2016-2018 Halifax Jazz Fest
Record Producer:
Augusto is not only a world class performer, he is also a world class producer. He produced all of the Moncada recordings which lead to the production of his record “Carambola” for RCA Victor. An ambitious project in which he recreated Cuban music of the 50’s using the sound of the Cuban Jazz- Band format, in collaboration with Maestro Demetrio Muñiz, Joan Manuel Serrat and Gianni Miná . It was this recording that lead to the creation of his Mambo Band.
The project, was designed to be three CDs and pays tribute to the Cuban music of the 50’s. It was combined with a book, called “The Prodigious Decade of Cuban Music” in which Augusto illuminates this period through anecdotes and interviews, made with the main musical visionaries of the time. The second CD was called “La Bolita” (RCA Victor 2004) and also included a Symphony Orchestra apart from his Cuban Jazz Band, to recreate some Boleros songs on the album. The third CD was called “Maracaibo Oriental” (RCA Victor 2008).
In 2009 he recorded the CD “Eclectic-us” for Colibrí Producciones and coproduced by Pucho Lopez. This was a very important recording that began to explore a fusion between Cuban music and the elements of jazz, rock and funk music.
In 2010 Augusto began work on the production of triolgy about great Cuban singer-songwriter Silvio Rodríguez. The 3 CD are called “Te doy Una Canción” and was completed in 2013.
Awards:
ORDEN POR LA CULTURA NACIONAL 2013
(Highest honour for cultural contribution in Cuba)
CUBADISCO Awards
(Cuban most prestigious record contest)
CUANDO YO SEA GRANDE
CARAMBOLA (also nominated for a Latin Grammy)
LA BOLITA
TE DOY UNA CANCIÓN
Recordings:
Moncada:
FUNDAR UNA ESPERANZA. RICORDI, ITALIA(1988)
NO COME CAIMÁN. FONITCETRA, ITALIA (1989)
MAMA HUÉ. WARNER, ITALIA (1991)
MONCADA MANZANERA LIVE AT THE KARL MARX.
EXPRESSION RECORDS, ENGLAND (1992)
Solo Recordings:
Cuban Productions:
SOLO PARA MI. RICORDI, ITALIA and EGREM, CUBA
(1993)
CUANDO YO SEA GRANDE. EGREM,CUBA (1998)
ECLECTIC-US (Colibrí 2010)
TE DOY UNA CANCIÓN (3 CDs in tribute to Silvio Rodriguez) (Colibrí 2010 , 2013)
Llover sobre Mojado
Llueve Otra Vez
La Gota de Rocio
RCA Recordings:
CARAMBOLA (RCA Victor 2000)
LA BOLITA (RCA Victor 2004)
MARACAIBO ORIENTAL (RCA Victor 2008)
Special Productions:
CUBANEANDO (Hampton Japan- Amigo 2011)
Other Recording Experience:
HERE COMES EL SON – 2000 (Capitol Records)
RHYTHMS DEL MUNDO – REVIVAL 2010
RHYTHMS DEL MUNDO – CLASSICS 2009
Augusto was the producer or co-producer of all of the above recordings
International work (Highlights):
Convocation Hall. Toronto 1986, 1987
Campden Theatre London (1986).
Winnipegg Folk Festival (1986).
Vancouver Folk Music Festival (1986).
Spanish Open Sea Folk Festival Seattle USA (1986)
International festival of Jazz, Montreal (1987).
Festival Mariposa, Toronto (1987).
National Auditorium, Berlin (1988).
Festival International Sanremo (1989).
Festival Sanremo (Competition, 1990).
Festival Sanremo (Competition, 1991).
Concert in the Stadium Sta Laura Stgo de Chile (1991).
European Tour with Phil Manzanera, guitarist of the English group Roxy Music(1992) that includes: London, Zurich, Berne, Basel, Frankfurt, Munich, Torino and Rome.
Concert in the Revolution Square, January of 1995, before more than 300 thousand people, Havana.
Concert Help Rwanda with Paul John, Miriam Makeba and Boys 2 Men, (June 1995).
Conductor and singer of a top TV program of Cuban television, (1997).
Artistic director, producer, conductor and singer of the concert for the Food World Day, sponsored by FAO, program transmitted Via Satellite to more than 82 countries from Rome and Havana simultaneously, (Nov. 17 1997).
Producer and artistic director of all the programs transmitted from Havana for Italian TV National Station RAI, with reason of the visit of the Pope to Cuba, (January of 1998) Member of “Music Bridges”, first encounter of North American artists and gathered Cubans one week in Havana to create songs together that culminated with a concert in the Theater Karl Marx the day March 28 1999. Augusto composed with Paddy Maloney (The Chieftains), Todd Smallwood and Mick Fleetwood (Fleetwood Mac) the song One World, one of the more successful of the event.
Recording and Tour 801 Latino with Phil Manzanera, England. (1999)
WOMAD. Festival of the living Treasures, Durban, Sudáfrica (1999)
Convocation Hall. Toronto (2000)
Pavarotti and Friends with Luciano Pavarotti (2002)
Concert Auditorium of Rome (2004)
Concert in Jumeirah Convention Centre in Dubai 2005
Japan Tour 2011 Augusto Enriquez presents: Buena
Vista All Stars
……. And many more