Aquiles Jorge

Born: January 10, 1966

Aquiles, trained in classical guitar, studied at the Esteban Salas Conservatory in Santiago de Cuba, where he has earned several provincial and national prizes in competitions. In 1982 he won a scholarship to study at the National School of Art in Havana, chosen among the five best students in the country. Upon graduation in 1986 he joined the Lauro Fuentes Music Academy, standing out as a teacher and concert player.

In 1998 Aquiles was invited to travel internationally to Paris, France performing in concert throughout the region. From this point forward, his professional life began to rise as he traveled throughout Cuba performing as one of the only concert soloist from Santiago de Cuba in the late-90’s and early-2000’s.  Aquiles has regularly been selected as the guest artist at major national events receiving olympic athletes, baseball teams, scientists and international guests and more. He has performed concerts in all the major music halls of Cuba. He has worked with popular Cuban dance groups such as Teatro de Danza del Caribe, Folklorico Kokoyé, Cutumba Ballet Folklorico de Oriente, and Ballet Santiago. Ballet Camagüey has choreographed dances to Aquiles compositions for guitar.  Though a dedicated classical guitarist, he has been passionate about American popular music since his earliest memories of hearing rock n’ roll radio broadcast from the USA’s Guantanamo Naval base in the 70’s.  He has played in many rock & blues bands with musicians from Cuba, Canada, Russia, and now with his friends from Montana in the USA.

Aquiles has also worked with American colleagues on multiple occasions.  He taught classical guitar and Cuban music for University of California at Esteban Salas Conservatory in Santiago de Cuba between 2000-2005. He also has worked on cultural projects with Mr. José Barreiro, assistant director of the National Museum of American Indians at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C.  In 2015, Aquiles joined efforts with Doug Wales and Jake Fleming as the Cuban liaison for the Montana~Havana Bridge Project.  Long having served as one of Cuba’s official judges of professional musicians, Aquiles access to Cuba’s music talent is deep and vast across genres.  He has garnered the support of his music school, Cuba’s cultural leaders and a large network of musicians dedicated to making the Montana~Havana Bridge Project and CUBUSA music a success.