Florida Folklife Program Presents Free Public Performance by Cuban Musician Renesito Avich at Mission San Luis

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. –

Secretary of State Ken Detzner and the Florida Folklife Program invite the public to a free performance of traditional Cuban music in Tallahassee at Mission San Luis on Thursday, September 27, 2018 from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. This performance, featuring “one-man Cuban band” Renesito Avich, is part of the 2018 Folklife Artist-in-Residence Program sponsored by the Florida Folklife Program and the Florida State University Center for Music of the Americas.

"We are pleased to welcome the public to Mission San Luis for this free performance to experience traditional Cuban music," said Secretary Detzner. "Renesito Avich is an accomplished musician whose performances exemplify the diversity and depth of Florida’s cultural heritage.”

Cuban musician Renesito Avich. Photo courtesy of Avich.

Renesito Avich hails from the culturally rich Santiago, Cuba where he began singing and playing the tres guitar. As a teenager, Avich performed with some of Cuba’s hottest groups. He toured internationally before settling in Sarasota in 2014. Considered a virtuoso of the tres, a guitar featuring three sets of two strings, Avich has mastered the son, or traditional folk music of Cuba, and continues to explore the related styles of nengon, changui, and kiriva in original compositions that have helped him win several national competitions. Avich recently released the album A Solo (available on Amazon and iTunes), which features songs inspired by his homeland.

This free public concert concludes a three-day residency in Tallahassee in which Renesito Avich will present traditional Cuban music for students and the community at Florida State University School, West Gadsden Middle School and at the Westcott Building on Florida State University’s campus.

For more information about the residency and public activities, visit flheritage.com/preservation/folklife/outreach.cfm.

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About the Florida Department of State’s Florida Folklife Program

The Florida Folklife Program, a component of the Florida Department of State's Division of Historical Resources, documents and presents Florida’s folklife, folklore and folk arts. The program coordinates a wide range of activities and projects designed to increase the awareness of Floridians and visitors alike about Florida’s traditional culture. Established in 1979 by the legislature to document and present Florida folklife, the program is one of the oldest state folk arts programs in the nation. For more information visit dos.myflorida.com/historical/preservation/florida-folklife-program.

About Mission San Luis
Florida’s Apalachee-Spanish Living History Museum was the western capital of Spanish Florida from 1656 to 1704. Today, the Mission brings the early 1700s to life with living history interpreters in period dress, reconstructed period buildings, exhibits, and archaeological research. The site is managed by the Florida Department of State, Division of Historical Resources, Bureau of Archaeological Research, and support is provided by the Friends of Mission San Luis, Inc. Mission San Luis is Tallahassee’s only National Historic Landmark. Mission San Luis is located at 2100 West Tennessee Street in Tallahassee, Florida, and is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mission San Luis is pet-friendly to animals on leashes all year round. For more information visit www.missionsanluis.org.