Noel Nicola (*October 7, 1946 - †August 7, 2005 in
Havana
Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center. ,
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
) was a Cuban singer-songwriter and founder of the Cuban
nueva trova
Nueva Trova (, "new trova") is a movement in Cuban music that emerged around 1967/68 after the Cuban Revolution of 1959, and the consequent political and social changes.
Nueva Trova has its roots in the traditional trova, but differs from it beca ...
, along with
Silvio Rodríguez
Silvio Rodríguez Domínguez (born 29 November 1946) is a Cuban musician, and leader of the Nueva Trova movement.
He is widely considered Cuba's best folk singer and arguably one of Latin America's greatest singer-songwriters. Known for his int ...
,
Pablo Milanés
Pablo Milanés Arias (24 February 1943 – 22 November 2022) was a Cuban guitar player and singer. He was one of the founders of the Cuban nueva trova, along with Silvio Rodríguez and Noel Nicola. His music, originating in the Trova, Son and o ...
, Vicente Feliu Miranda and Sara Rosa González Gómez. He authored several songs of great significance within the Cuban music.
The first contact Noel Nicola had with music was in bosom of his family, because his father Isaac Nicola Romero was a guitar player and teacher, while his mother Eva Reyes was a violinist in the ''Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional'' (Cuba’s National Symphonic Orchestra) and a singer. Between the years 1954 and 1956, he studied under the guidance of Douane Voth (
piccolo
The piccolo ( ; Italian for 'small') is a half-size flute and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. Sometimes referred to as a "baby flute" the modern piccolo has similar fingerings as the standard transverse flute, but the so ...
), and Martín Quiñones (singing lessons).
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, he was a student of
Leo Brouwer
Juan Leovigildo Brouwer Mezquida (born March 1, 1939) is a Cuban composer, conductor, and classical guitarist. He is a Member of Honour of the International Music Council.
Family
He is the grandson of Cuban composer Ernestina Lecuona y Casado. ...
, Juan Elósegui, Federico Smith and Sergio Vitier, not in the traditional academic way but as part of a workshop that was known as the ''Grupo de Experimentación Sonora del ICAIC'' (a Group of Sound Experimentation that worked for the
Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry
Cuban may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Cuba, a country in the Caribbean
* Cubans, people from Cuba, or of Cuban descent
** Cuban exile, a person who left Cuba for political reasons, or a descendant thereof
* Cuban citizen, a perso ...
).
Nicola died of cancer on August 7, 2005, at the age of 58.
Cuban artists
1946 births
2005 deaths
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