Few Americans have been able to enter Cuba since American sanctions on the country began in the early 1960s, but four ISU music faculty members recently had that chance.

Pianist William David, violinist Mahlon Darlington, violist Jonathan Sturm and cellist George Work make up the Ames Piano Quartet. They traveled to Havana for eight days to teach and perform music for Cuban music students.

“This was a relatively groundbreaking project,” says Sturm, associate professor of music.

The quartet held a fundraiser to cover its costs, but also received a grant from Iowa State to help pay for travel expenses.

“We were privileged the university wanted to underwrite our trip,” Sturm says. “We were the first American chamber ensemble to be allowed in the country since the Cuban revolution.”

The quartet heard about this through their piano tuner, Lorlin Barber. Barber is a member of “Send a Piana to Havana,” the philanthropy group that gave the quartet the idea for the trip.

“The ‘Send a Piana to Havana’ group thought, ‘Why not send [us] down there to play and teach?'” says Work, professor of music.

The members of the quartet didn’t have much time to tour the city, but encountered the culture through their students.

“The students were tremendously enthusiastic and receptive,” Work says.

The quartet taught the students how to play as a group, and each professor also taught their respective instrument to individual students as well. Sturm says the students were in “prime condition,” but the students’ instruments were far from it.

“I’ve rarely seen people do more with less,” Sturm says. “They had pianos lined up end to end, just waiting to be rebuilt.”

Sturm says the conditions of the City of Havana weren’t much better.

“The windows didn’t have glass in them,” Sturm says. “They just had a screen with wooden louvers that you close to keep out the rain. They do nothing for the noise — this definitely added a little spice to the trip.”

The noise level in the Instituto Superior de Arte, the university in which the quartet members instructed students, also posed a problem for students trying to study and practice music.

“When a tympani player is banging away next to a viola player, it is nearly impossible to practice,” Sturm says.

Darlington, professor of music, says the language barrier also posed a problem. Many of the students spoke little or no English, and the professors in turn spoke little Spanish. To help bridge the gap, the group members hired an interpreter to assist during the teaching sessions.

“During the individual sessions, [the interpreter] would scramble from one room to the next,” Darlington says.

But through all of the distractions, Sturm says the students were very eager to learn.

“These students were there, ready to go,” he says. “[Determination] was a part of their education.”

Darlington says a Cuban all-female quartet seemed to be very attached to the professors while they were there. The women attended the professors’ concerts and wanted to learn as much as they could about music.

“They became almost like groupies,” Darlington says. “There seems to be a real hunger for knowledge down there. They couldn’t get enough of what we could offer.”

Darlington says many of the teachers in Havana are students themselves. Most of the trained instructors don’t live on the island, so they only visit for teaching purposes three or four times a year.

“The older students end up teaching the younger students,” he says.

The quartet performed three concerts during their stay. Two of the concerts were held in a large concert hall at the Instituto Superior de Arte, while the third was held in the Basilica Menor del Convento de San built in the late 1500s.

“[The Basilica] was a really inspiring place to play,” Darlington says. “The acoustics were really great in there.”

Sturm says the three concerts were well-received by the Cuban public.

“By the end of the concert, the place was full of people,” Sturm says. “We always played an encore.”