"Music is the most beautiful form of beauty"
Jose Marti
With the premise of this Martí's thought, I dedicate the following lines to Ovidio González Castellanos, a talented singer, actor and teacher.
Ovidio was born in July 1961, in San Antonio de los Baños, Artemisa. He studied at the Higher Institute of Art, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Music, specializing in singing. He began his career as a professional singer in 1984. He appeared on the popular Cuban music programs: "Joven Joven", "Contacto", "23 y M", "Sabadazo", and "Álbum de Cuba". He also attended "Frecuencia Total", "Así", "FM", and other Cuban radio programs. Titles like: "Donde crece el amor", "Como hace un año", "Con la ternura de tu voz" y "Una declaración de amor", among many others, were the people's favorite songs.
Ovidio worked as a professor at the Higher Institute of Art, from 1985 to 1991. During an academic course, he taught popular music at the Ignacio Cervantes Professional Training School, in Havana.
The prestigious singer, actor and teacher, has been living for some years in Ecuador, a South American nation where he performs a laudable work in television, radio and teaching. From 1995, Ovidio González worked as a singing and theater teacher at the University of the Hemisphere, and a professor of theater and corporal expression at the National Conservatory of Music in the Ecuadorian capital. Until 2002, he was an vocal technique institutor, in the Mixed Choir '' Ciudad de Quito '' in the Metropolitan District of Ecuador.
Despite the geographical distance, Ovidio González Castellanos maintains professional ties in Cuba; and a copy of each of his albums is donated to Radio Ariguanabo, the voice of his native town.
The talented musical performer, actor and singing teacher, emerged from the Movement of Artists of the Higher Institute of Art, in Cuba, includes in his curriculum several national and international tours. He participated in the Festival of Song in Dresden, Germany, in 1987, where he was awarded the Second Prize, and that of Popularity; the following year he attended the Festival Days of the Press. He participated in the 1991 edition of the Viña del Mar Festival in Chile. He also made artistic tours to Mexico and Spain; and in 1994 he joined the delegation that participated in the Day of Cuban Culture, in Portugal.
In 2008, Ovidio González recorded his album titled "Cuenta conmigo" in Havana, a production that contains about twenty works by Cuban and Caribbean authors; highlighting the musical genre Bolero. "Soy guajiro" and "Abrázame", are other CDs of the ariguanabense interpreter, who in 2016 recorded the album "Añorado Encuentro", with the guests: Silvio Rodríguez, Pablo Milanés, Omara Portuondo, Anais Abreu, and María Victoria Rodríguez, as well as Tania Pantoja, David Blancio, Amaury Pérez and Vicente Feliú.
The CDs by Ovidio González Castellanos, have the peculiarity of including musical works that radiate legitimacy and roots to the most authentic traditions of the sound history of a people, who proudly preserve the musical heritage as one of the most precious treasures.