Iván Valiente, a distinguished Cuban double bassist and orchestra conductor, was born in 1950. For many years of his artistic career, he worked tirelessly as general director of the Ensemble Solistas de La Habana. With this project, he brought a representation of our national culture to several countries in the Americas and the Old Continent, a fact that attests to his important work as a performer.

He also deserves recognition for his work as an instrumentalist, as he has made excellent recordings in the discography and filmography of the Caribbean island. Among the most notable examples are El Gran Barroco del Perú, supported by the Music of Andahuaylillas, and El Gran Barroco de Bolivia.

He is an advisor to the National Program for the Development of Chamber Music at the Cuban Institute of Music. He is also the director of the Havana Soloists Orchestra, a group he founded in 1998.

His orchestra is made up of twenty young musicians who graduated from art schools. With it, he strives to rescue the multi-format tradition. Hence, one of the group’s defining characteristics, in addition to its excellent chamber work, is that it is divided into soloists, duos, trios, and quartets for the performance of other works. It also performs premieres and revives little-known or previously unheard works in Cuba, regardless of the style, period, or even popular music.

In 2009, he toured throughout Cuba with Solistas de La Habana. The tour was divided into three parts: in April they toured venues in the western region; in May, the central region; and in October, the eastern region. In the latter region, the tour began in the province of Guantánamo, where they performed two concerts, in the cities of Guantánamo and Baracoa, at the Guaso Theater and the Casa de la Cultura, respectively. There, they joined flautist Axel Rodríguez Lora to perform Adriano Galliussi’s Cortejo fúnebre and Bufón; a performance that was a world premiere. In Granma province, they performed at the Bayamo Theater.

Iván Valiente also worked with the Exaudi Choir, under the BMG label, and on the Cuban Classics of the 19th Century project, on the Colibrí label in 2009.

The following year, also with the orchestra, he participated in several projects. Among them, we can mention the recording of an album of songs by Gerardo Alfonso, with works composed fourteen years earlier. He also recorded a trilogy of albums with songs by Silvio Rodríguez, alongside singer Augusto Enríquez.

Iván Valiente and Solistas de La Habana have shared the stage with important figures and groups in the world of music, such as Chucho Valdés, Frank Fernández, José María and Sergio Vitier, Leo Brouwer, Kenneth Nafziger (American), Natalie Martín (French), Francesco Belli (Italian), Yoshikazu Fukumura (Japanese), the Exaudi chamber choir, and the Ars Longa Early Music ensemble.

Likewise, alongside Solistas de La Habana, he has participated in the soundtrack, composed by Sergio Vitier, for the film Roble de olor by director Rigoberto López. He has also made his mark on the documentary Misión contra terror (Mission Against Terror). They recorded José María Vitier’s song Misa Cubana (Cuban Mass); and he has also collaborated on several works with Leo Brouwer and Gerardo Alfonso. He has recorded albums with Silvio Rodríguez, the Exaudi Choir, and Augusto Enríquez.

Recently, Iván Valiente had an outstanding and praised pedagogical participation with a group of American artists, teaching various classes that included a workshop on Cuban music at the San Felipe Neri Oratory (Aguiar corner Obra Pía, Old Havana. Havana).