Roni Ben-Hur

2025 Havana Camp Faculty

Camp Director, jazz ensemble & guitar workshops

Alejandro Falcón

Piano, band director

Alejandro Falcón stands among the most outstanding Cuban pianists and composers of his generation. He is widely regarded as one of the leading promises of contemporary Cuban music and a worthy heir to the legacy of masters such as Bebo and Chucho Valdés, Emiliano Salvador, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, and many other iconic figures of Cuban piano tradition.

His music seamlessly weaves together elements of Cuban and Latin American styles—most notably danzón, son, and Afro-Cuban rhythms—fused with jazz to create a sound that is unmistakably his own. Renowned for his exceptional interpretive versatility, Falcón moves with ease across Cuban popular music, jazz, and concert music, demonstrating both technical mastery and a powerful artistic voice.

Ruy López-Nussa

Drums

Ruy Francisco López-Nussa is a renowned Cuban drummer, percussionist, educator, and cultural figure whose career spans decades of deep engagement with Afro-Cuban rhythm and jazz. Widely respected in Cuba’s music community, he has become known as one of the island’s master drummers and a teacher of generations of percussionists.

López-Nussa is not only celebrated for his powerful performances and command of Cuban rhythmic traditions—rumba, tumbadora, and other folkloric forms—but also for his role as a mentor and cultural advocate. He has led his own project La Academia, through which he explores innovative blends of jazz with Yoruba and Cuban rhythmic heritage while passing on essential rhythmic knowledge to young musicians.

As a member of the esteemed López-Nussa musical family, he has contributed significantly to Cuba’s vibrant music scene and helped shape the artistic paths of his sons—pianist Harold López-Nussa and drummer Ruy Adrián López-Nussa—who continue the island’s rhythmic legacy on stages around the world.

From jazzcuba.com

Roberto García

band director

Roberto García is a world-class Cuban trumpeter and the musical director of The Academy. He has performed with iconic Cuban artists including Chucho Valdés, Emiliano Salvador, Omara Portuondo, Alexis Bosch, Pablo Milanés, Silvio Rodríguez, and Ernán López-Nussa.

A former member of the legendary group Afrocuba, García has toured internationally, including multiple performances in London, and has appeared as a soloist with the Guayaquil Symphony Orchestra in Ecuador, where he also led workshops on Cuban music and improvisation. He currently serves as a professor at the Higher Institute of Arts (ISA) in Havana.

Octavio Rodríguez

percussions

Octavio Rodríguez is a celebrated Cuban master percussionist, songwriter, vocalist, and cultural scholar. A longtime member of the Afro-Cuban fusion ensemble Grupo Mezcla, led by Pablo Menéndez, Rodríguez is widely recognized as a guardian of Afro-Cuban musical tradition. With a career rooted in the rhythms of rumba, batá, and Cuba’s rich percussive heritage, he has devoted his life to preserving, teaching, and elevating the island’s most essential musical expressions.

On stage, Rodríguez is known for his virtuosity, commanding presence, and deep spiritual connection to the cultural foundations of Cuban percussion. As both artist and author, he serves as a vital link between past and present—keeping the voices of the rumberos alive while inspiring new generations to follow the rhythm of their roots.

Javier Zalba

saxes and flute

Javier Zalba is a renowned Cuban saxophonist, flutist and clarinetist known for his work in jazz, classical and Cuban popular music. He trained at the National School of Art in Havana and has played with major groups including the Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna, Irakere, Cubanismo, Afrojazz and the Buena Vista Social Club Orchestra, performing worldwide. Zalba is also a respected educator and composer, and has taught at the Amadeo Roldán Conservatory and the Instituto Superior de Arte.

Mayquel Gonzales

trumpet

Born in Artemisa, Cuba, Mayquel González is an acclaimed trumpeter, composer, arranger, and professor at Havana’s Higher Institute of Arts. A 2005 ISA graduate, he has worked with many of Cuba’s most important contemporary artists, including Chucho Valdés, Ernán López-Nussa, Harold López-Nussa, and Pablo Milanés, performing at major festivals such as Jazz Plaza, Marciac, Montreal, Toronto, EnjoyJazz, Barranquijazz, and North Sea Jazz, as well as at world-renowned clubs like Ronnie Scott’s and Blue Note Tokyo.

From 2008 to 2016, he toured internationally with Lizt Alfonso Dance Cuba, and in 2008 contributed to Fernando Trueba’s award-winning film Chico y Rita. He later toured with Colombian salsa star Yuri Buenaventura, and in 2022 joined the band of Cuban salsa icon Isaac Delgado. A recipient of the JoJazz Award (2002) and the Cubadisco Opera Prima Award (2019) for his album Tiempos de paz, González is also a member of UNEAC and SGAE.

Annys Batista

vocals

Annys María Batista is a vocalist and instrumentalist trained at the Manuel Muñoz Cedeño Vocational Art School (2008). She has performed with Compacto, RiverJazz, the female quintet Nueva Imagen, and the ensemble of Cuban musician Raúl Torres.

Batista has earned major awards, including the Grand Prize at the Sindo Garay Cuban Song Festival (2010, 2012), the Boleros de Oro International Youth Festival (2016), and the Adolfo Guzmán Cuban Music Contest (2019). She also won First Place in Berlin’s Diamonds Voice competition (2019).

She has collaborated on recordings by Luna Manzanares, Ivette Cepeda, Toques del Río, and Luis Alberto Barbería, among others. In 2021, she received the Elena Burke Performing Scholarship from the Hermanos Saíz Association.

Jose Arnulfo Guerra

bass

José Arnulfo Guerra is a Cuban bassist best known for his work with Ruy López‑Nussa y La Academia, a leading jazz‑afro‑Cuban ensemble that blends Cuban rhythms with jazz and has been a significant presence in the island’s music scene for over a decade. He performs the bass within the group’s instrumental fusion repertoire and has appeared with them in major concerts celebrating the band’s milestones.