Jose Luis Cortés Granted 2017 National Music Award

The popular Cuban flautist said to be grateful for the prize and considered it an acknowledgment of Cuban popular music

The flautist and professor José Luis Cortés, artistically known as El Tosco, was granted the 2017 National Music Award of Cuba as an acknowlegdment of his vast career and contributions to the country’s culture.

The awarding ceremony took place at the theater of the National Museum of Fine Arts, where the Flute Orchestra, Peruchín Jazz and Tradition, Germán Velazco, Giraldo Piloto, Peruchín, Orlando Valle (Maraca) and NG (New Generation) La Banda, a group founded and directed by Cortés himself since the 1980s, performed.

The award was granted by a jury made up of Digna Guerra, Adalberto Alvarez, César Pedroso, Beatriz Márquez and Juan Piñera. They noted how difficult the decision was, due to the high quality of the work of the candidates for such an important recognition.

For his part, Alvarez recently highlighted the important artistic career of El Tosco, not only as a musician but also in other facets such as pedagogy, in allusion to the flute and singing academies created by Cortés, whom he described as an integral artist.

When the director learned that he had won the award, he thanked the gesture and considered it an acknowledgment of Cuban popular music.

This is one more grain to enhance that mountain that is popular dance music, that gesture makes me stronger and worthy to continue representing the genre, and as long as people love me, there will be El Tosco for quite a while, he said.