Music as a weapon. Yes! Send A Piana To Havana has shown a way. Use a piana to protest the embargo on cuba by America. Music speaks here. Read here…

There’s an aspect of the U.S. embargo on Cuba that we don’t consider: Cuban musicians struggle on antique American pianos, strings rusted through, or on Russian pianos half-eaten by termites. Cuba’s music pedagogy produces famous results, but as few new pianos are imported to Cuba, and parts are unavailable, Cuba’s musical community suffers.

In 1995 we began rounding up used pianos – plentiful in the USA – and sending them to Cuban schools. We’ve sent 237 used upright and grand pianos and tons of related supplies, donated from across the USA. The instruments are distributed to the wonderful broken-down music schools that dot the island. Occasionally they’re awarded to individual students.

We’ve established the Havana Workshop/School of Instrument Repair at the National School of Art. Visiting experts train students in modern rebuilding techniques. The school ensures that the instruments we bring will last, that existing pianos will be saved, and that young Cubans learn tuning. In the fall of 2001 our school was inaugurated when twelve students from six provinces began to learn piano and woodwind repair.

-Ben Treuhaft