Directing a Cuban Children’s Choir: Mailan Avila Interview

By Helson Hernandez

HAVANA — Mailan Avila is the director of the “Solfa” children’s choir of the Schola Cantorum Coralina. As she commented, “This year we’re again on a CD that has been nominated for a Latin Granmy. The album is “Reir y Cantar,” together with the legendary songstress Omara Portuondo.”

HT: Have you always been linked to the choral movement?

Mailan Avila: As a child I was a founder of the “National Choir of Pioneers of Cuba,” and later when I was in my mid-level music studies I sang in the women’s choir of Professor Maria Felicia Perez. Also, along with other professors, I founded the Cantoria Escenica of the “Grand Theater of Havana.”