The Montana~Havana Bridge Project and CUBUSA Music is an intercultural music collaboration between Cuban musicians from Santiago de Cuba and Montana musicians primarily based out of Bozeman. The project was co-founded by Doug Wales, who has served as director since its inception in 2015, and musician Aquiles Jorge of Santiago de Cuba.

 

Over the past 9 years, CUBUSA Music has grown into a significant intercultural people-to-people movement of established and rising young musicians from Cuba and the USA, hence the name (pronounced Koo-Boo-Sa). This group of musicians are dedicated to strengthening the bond and trust between the citizens of Cuba and the USA and building a bridge between nations through the power of music.

 

Through the creation and recording of a new fusion of Cuban and American compositions, CUBUSAmusicians draw from their individual, respective musical influences ranging from rhythm and blues and jazz to Afro-Cuban and Reggaeton. This grassroots project has grown to over 50 musicians, nearly three dozen from Cuba and 20 musicians from Montana. Blessed with many recognized and talented professional musicians, their goal is to build a wider audience, including more musicians, spanning a full range of genres through an international collaboration of artistry at the highest levels.

 

 In 2021 CUBUSA accomplished its first major goal by producing a 13-song album, titled Swapping Tracks. With new recordings this past Spring, CUBUSA will soon be releasing a new 5 song EP in 2024. This past December, CUBUSA was successful in getting the attention of Cuba’s national radio stations headquartered in Havana, garnering 6 interviews for national programming and now have their music being broadcast on 208 radio stations across the entire island of Cuba. Two of their most recent songs released in 2024 have hit the top #100 on Cuba radio stations: RaggaMatador hit #4 this February and Sincopa Remix hit #5 in January!

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This winter, CUBUSA received an official invitation for their group of Montana and Cuban musicians to perform together on stage at the 2024 Festival Del Caribe in Santiago de Cuba this July of 2024. This would be the first time that these musicians would even play together, let alone perform as a group. To date, with the exception of Doug Wales, most Cuban and Montana musicians have never met one another in person.

 

Due to the severe economic depression in Cuba, their festival organizers cannot offer any payment to the Montana performers in CUBUSA, nor money to cover the flights, transportation, lodging, or food while in Cuba, to travel and attend this week-long festival. Therefore, to cover these expenses to bring a half-dozen Montana musicians to Cuba this summer to perform at this festival, the group has embarked on a major fundraising campaign to support this effort.

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This March of 2024, MAMA became the official fiscal agent for CUBUSA’s fundraising program, providing an option for donors to help fund this exciting intercultural performance opportunity for Montana Musicians and

receive a tax deduction for their gift.