Maestro Bobby Ramírez Celebrates Ignacio Cervantes with New 12-Video Solo Flute Series

Twelve intimate performances bring the music of one of Cuba’s most important 19th-century composers to a new generation through the voice of the flute.

In the weeks leading up to the July 31, 2026 anniversary of the birth of legendary Cuban pianist and composer Ignacio Cervantes, flutist Maestro Bobby Ramírez undertook a special musical project: recording a series of twelve short videos, each featuring a different composition by Cervantes performed on solo flute.

Recorded over approximately two weeks, the series was conceived as a musical birthday tribute to Cervantes, who was born in Havana, Cuba, on July 31, 1847. Rather than presenting the music as one extended concert, Ramírez chose the intimacy of individual short performances, allowing each composition to become its own musical portrait and inviting listeners to discover Cervantes one piece at a time.

The complete Ignacio Cervantes Concert Series can be viewed on YouTube through the official playlist.

Celebrating a Pioneer of Cuban Concert Music

Ignacio Cervantes Kawanagh (1847–1905) occupies an important place in the development of Cuban concert music and is widely recognized as one of the leading figures of 19th-century Cuban musical nationalism. Born in Havana, Cervantes studied with important teachers including Nicolás Ruiz Espadero and Louis Moreau Gottschalk before continuing his education at the Paris Conservatoire.

His career emerged during a period when Cuban musicians were increasingly discovering ways of expressing a distinctive national identity within the traditions of European concert music. Cervantes became one of the composers who helped give that developing Cuban musical voice an unmistakable artistic personality, combining the sophistication of Romantic piano writing with rhythms, melodic gestures and characteristics rooted in Cuban culture.

Bobby Ramírez and the Flute Legacy of the Danzas Cubanas

Maestro Bobby Ramírez holds a unique place in the performance history of Cervantes’s music. He is the first musician in history to record the Danzas Cubanas on flute, beginning with his 2019 release “Ignacio Cervantes” (Spotify), followed by his 2020 solo flute album “Cervantes: Danzas Cubanas para Flauta” (Spotify).

These landmark recordings reimagined Cervantes’s iconic piano miniatures through the expressive voice of the flute, opening a new interpretive path for the repertoire. Both albums are available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music, and others, making this unique flute perspective on Cervantes accessible to listeners worldwide.

Among Cervantes’s compositions, his Danzas Cubanas remain his best-known and most enduring body of work. Originally associated with the piano, these brief pieces often accomplish a remarkable amount within a very small musical space, moving between elegance, tenderness, humor, nostalgia, rhythmic vitality and unmistakably Cuban character.

Titles such as Adiós a Cuba, Los tres golpes, Soledad, La carcajada, Picotazos, Ilusiones perdidas and many others reveal something of the expressive range Cervantes explored through these musical miniatures. The dances have remained an important part of the Cuban piano tradition and continue to attract performers interested in the meeting point between European Romanticism and a developing Cuban musical identity.

For Ramírez, however, the Danzas Cubanas also present another fascinating possibility: what happens when this distinctly pianistic music is allowed to speak through the flute?

Cervantes Through the Voice of a Solo Flute

Performing these compositions on solo flute changes the listener’s perspective. Without the full harmonic texture of the piano, attention moves toward Cervantes’s melodic contours, rhythmic turns, phrasing and emotional character. The flute becomes almost like a storyteller, revealing the melody one breath and one phrase at a time.

That approach is particularly meaningful for Ramírez, whose artistic work frequently moves between classical music, Cuban musical heritage, jazz and improvisation. The twelve-video series is therefore not intended simply as a historical recreation. It is an interpretation of Cervantes from the perspective of a contemporary Cuban-American flutist seeking to preserve the music while allowing it to live through a different instrumental voice.

From Performance to the Printed Page

Ramírez’s exploration of Cervantes extends beyond these recordings. He is also the editor of The Music of Ignacio Cervantes on Flute, a music publication that makes selections from Cervantes’s Danzas Cubanas accessible to flutists through flute transcriptions while also including the corresponding piano parts.

The edition creates an important bridge between preservation, performance and education. Flutists can study Cervantes’s melodies from the perspective of their own instrument and can also perform the repertoire with piano, making these historic Cuban compositions accessible beyond their original solo-piano setting.

For Ramírez, projects such as the book, the recordings, and the new video series are closely related. The printed music preserves and shares the repertoire with musicians, while the recordings provide listeners and students with another way to encounter Cervantes and become curious about the larger history behind the compositions.

Keeping Cervantes’s Music Alive

Nearly two centuries after Ignacio Cervantes was born in Havana, his Danzas Cubanas continue to speak with remarkable immediacy. They provide a musical window into 19th-century Cuba while demonstrating how composers of that period were already shaping a concert tradition that could sound sophisticated, cosmopolitan and unmistakably Cuban.

Through twelve short solo-flute performances, Maestro Bobby Ramírez offers his own personal birthday tribute to that legacy. It is also an invitation—to flutists, musicians, students, Cuban families and listeners everywhere—to rediscover an extraordinary composer whose music deserves to continue being performed, studied and shared.

Watch the Complete Video Series:
Ignacio Cervantes Concert Series – Maestro Bobby Ramírez on YouTube

About Maestro Bobby Ramírez

Maestro Bobby Ramírez is a Cuban-American flutist, saxophonist, composer, arranger, educator, bandleader, author and publisher whose artistic work encompasses classical music, jazz and the musical heritage of Cuba. As a performer and educator, Ramírez has dedicated an important part of his work to sharing music through concerts, recordings, publications, lectures and educational projects. His continuing exploration of historic Cuban composers such as Ignacio Cervantes reflects a broader commitment to preserving cultural heritage while introducing this repertoire to contemporary musicians and new generations of listeners.

#MaestroBobbyRamirez #IgnacioCervantes #DanzasCubanas #CubanMusic #CubanClassicalMusic #Flute #Flutist #SoloFlute #CubanComposers #MusicHistory #MaestroRamirezPublishing #CubanHeritage

Maestro Bobby Ramírez
Email: info@maestrobobbyramirez.com
Website: MaestroBobbyRamirez.com

"One of the top flutists in Afro-Cuban jazz...flute players can learn a bit by watching Ramirez improvise", 3-24-2020 review by Jazz Journalist Scott Yanow

Bobby Ramirez is one of the best flutists and saxophonists from Cuba. His recording (Pan Con Bistec) is an example of a new and fresh sound in Latin Jazz fusion." Elvira Dominguez, El Diario La Prensa (NYC)

"What an incredible performance by Bobby Ramirez tonight at Arts Garage! Thank you for an exceptional and very memorable night." Alyona Aleksandra Ushe, Executive Director, The Arts Garage in Delray Beach