Contemporary Cuban Composer & Pianist
Winner of the Cubadisco Award for Chamber Music

Javier Iha

Graduate in Composition from the University of the Arts (ISA) with a Gold Degree under Juan Piñera, and holder of a Master’s in Musical Heritage Management from San Gerónimo College, Havana.
His work focuses on the piano—including concertante pieces—and spans piano and chamber works, showcased in his recordings Retrato, Escenas Peregrinas (Cubadisco Award for Chamber Music), and Sounds of Christmas.
Iha’s musical language blends contemporary eclecticism with expressive depth, drawing inspiration from literature, visual arts, and everyday life. His compositions create distinctive sonic worlds, extending from piano pieces to chamber works, offering listeners a rich musical experience.

We are, therefore, in the presence of a creator who, in the arduous journey of every true artist, portrays his emotional surroundings through his voice.Juan Piñera

TWELVE REGARDS UPON THE SEATwelve Regards Upon the Sea is a four-hand piano cycle that invites listeners to experience the sea through sound. In its brevity and singularity, the sea embodies the same diversity that painters have long sought to capture with their brushes: the impressionist light of Monet, Van Gogh’s magical glow, Turner’s expressive color, Dalí’s surreal vision, Caspar David Friedrich’s emotional depth, and Sorolla’s luminous nuances. Twelve Regards Upon the Sea brings the visual and emotional essence of the sea to music

SOUNDS OF CHRISTMASConnects us with the cultural and spiritual diversity of different peoples around the world through music. The remarkable presence of music in human social life and the interpretation of Christmas as a direct bridge to memories, traditions, and the warm festive spirit inspired this album, which emerged like a Christmas star. Sounds of Christmas invites listeners to explore diverse sonic identities and savor their rich nuances, using Christmas as a beautiful pretext to connect with a world that sings and resonates.Record label: Ihacomposer, 2024

RETRATOS Y ESCENAS PEREGRINASPresents cycles of pieces with an inseparable dramaturgical interconnection. This recording invites attentive listening and contemplation; its greatest treasure lies in its ability to elevate the spirit through a sensitive and precise cohesion between literature and music.Chamber music | Record label: Colibrí Productions, 2019 | CUBADISCO Award, 2021

NUEVA MÚSICAPeregrine Tales (violin, clarinet, and piano)
I. Light Is Like Water
II. The Saint
III. The Sleeping Beauty’s AirplaneIncluded in the CD Nueva Música – Premios UNEAC de Composición | Record label: Egrem, 2019

TODO CONCUERDA MEJORSon del Llanoby Havana Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Daiana García | Record label: Colibrí Productions, 2018

NETZAJSonata for trumpet and pianoby Dúo NETZAJ | Record label: Colibrí Productions

WORKS

  • Ocean Scenes for piano four hands

  • Trio for flute, saxophone and piano, ca. 5’

  • Arrangements for Mandolin Orchestra | Includes: Hanacpachap Cussicuinin, Ay, Mamá Inés, Prea Comeu, Drume Negrita, La Bella Cubana, Bésame Mucho.

  • Sounds of Christmas for piano, ca. 23’

  • Concertino No.2 for Piano, Flute, Trumpet and String Orchestra, ca. 21’

  • Dúos for drums and piano

  • Danças do porto for clarinet and piano

  • Mariachis for piano, ca. 30’

  • Two Nocturnes for piano

  • Tango for piano

  • Preludes & Fugues III (XIII - XVIII) for piano

  • Vals de Violeta for piano

  • Retratos de Naipes III for flute and piano

  • Adagio for string orchestra

  • Preludes & Fugues II (VII - XII) for piano

  • Rondó for piano

  • Suite for clarinet quarter

  • El niño y el trigal for piano

  • Postales de viaje for piano

  • Jitanjáforas for mixed choir and piano. Text by Mariano Brill, Virgilio Piñera, Rafael Alberti, Emilio Ballagas.

  • Musical arrangements for the Cuban Christmas Concert for soloists, mixed choir, flute, horn, string orchestra, organ, and Cuban percussion.Includes: Noche de Paz (Silent Night), El Tamborilero (The Little Drummer Boy), Cuba le canta al rey, and Venid, fieles todos (O Come, All Ye Faithful)

  • Testamento del pez, for soprano, tenor, clarinet, piano, and percussion.

  • Si no existieras for soprano, clarinet, and piano

  • Habaneras for soprano, clarinet, and piano (text by Nicolás Guillén and Samuel Feijóo)

  • Colores en el mar for countertenor and piano (text by Carlos Pellicer)

  • Arial 12 for percusion trio

  • Motivos for flute, clarinet, violin, two guitars, two cellos, and piano

  • Tres toccatas  for piano

  • Gymnopédies for piano

  • Retrato de naipes II for English horn and piano

  • Cuentos peregrinos II for trombone and piano

  • Cuentos peregrinos I for violin, clarinet and piano

  • En homenaje a un plátano maduro for violin, cello and piano

  • Tres ideas for string quarter

  • El avión de la Bella Durmiente from Cuentos peregrinos I — version for oboe, bassoon and piano

  • Diálogos for piano

  • Tres preludios americanos for piano

  • Tres vacas cubanas for piano

  • Tres caricaturas for oboe and basson

  • La rebelión de los pequeños for flute, cello and piano

  • Sueño grande for soprano and piano (text by Samuel Feijóo)

  • Son del llano for string orchestra

  • Poema con interrogante for piano

  • Sonata de junio for piano

  • Berceuse campesina version arranged for clarinet & piano

  • Escenas a un anochecer for violin & piano, ca. 10’

  • Variaciones libres for celo & piano, ca. 5’15’’

  • Escenas para un amanecer for flute, violin and piano, ca. 6’40’’

  • Escenas de un atardecer for three clarinets.

  • Concertino No. 1 version for Piano, Marimba, and String Orchestra, ca. 20’

  • Te convido a que abraces a un árbol, para que te piquen las santanillas y así puedas ver las estrellas for piano, ca. 6’40’’

  • Preludes & Fugues I (VII - XII) for piano

  • Trío for flute, cello and piano

  • Concertino No. 1 for Piano and String Orchestra, ca. 20’

  • Trío for flaute, bassoon and piano

  • Historias absurdas for piano

  • Cinco cuentos for piano

  • Arcadas en el agua for piano

  • Preludio e invención for viola & piano

  • Son for tenor and piano (text Samuel Feijóo)

  • El pan del bobo for soprano and piano (text by Samuel Feijóo)

  • Lo que sucede ... for piano

  • Hechizos for piano, ca. 5’30’’

  • Berceuse campesina version arranged for viola & piano

  • Dos piezas for oboe & double bass

  • Sonata for bassoon & piano

  • Mi posadero for tenor and piano (text by José Martí)

  • Cuarteto de cuerdas No. 1, ca. 11’30’’

  • Two Movements for wind quintet and piano

  • Twenty-four preludes for piano

  • Kikirico for piano

  • Berceuse campesina y Final for piano

  • Sonatina for flute & piano

  • Two Sonatinas for violin & piano

  • Sonata for trumpet & piano, ca. 10’

As a musician and composer, I believe in the power of diversity; this idea, along with consistent work, has accompanied me since the beginning of my compositional journey, when I wrote the Twenty-Four Preludes for Piano, a work inspired by Maestro Juan Piñera. Following this path, I have developed other projects in constant evolution (working progress), including Cuentos Peregrinos, Twenty-Four Preludes and Fugues, Escenas, and Retrato de Naipes.The piano is my primary medium of creation, and I have dedicated much of my work to this instrument. The variety and combination of timbres have led me to a special interest in chamber formats. I compose with freedom and openness to extramusical stimuli, such as visual arts and literature. Guided by pictorial impulses, I created Retrato de Naipes, a sonic and narrative interpretation of the symbolism of the French playing cards. Observing everyday moments—dawn, sunset, nightfall—inspired Escenas, conceived for various instrumental ensembles. I am also interested in exploring the grotesque and caricatural in sound, which has led to works such as Homenaje a un Plátano Maduro and Historias Absurdas.Literature nourishes my vocal music, where words become sound. But I do not conceive it solely as singing or programmatic narrative: its evocative power has also inspired instrumental works, such as Cuentos para Piano and Cuentos Peregrinos. I am also drawn to classical forms, such as preludes, nocturnes, fugues, and habaneras, which always pose new challenges. I value technical learning but also give space to intuition. I seek to balance the rational and the fortuitous, creating an expressive environment even amid chaos. In the future, I hope to continue developing existing projects, embrace new creative challenges, and express in my sonic portraits all that I am fortunate enough to encounter on my peregrine journey.Javier Iha

MEDIA

[email protected]

(+971) 585100338

BIOGRAPHY

Javier Iha Rodríguez (Cuba)Composer, pianist, and pedagogue. He graduated in Composition from the University of the Arts (ISA) in 2017, earning the distinctions "Gold Degree" and top graduate by overall index. He holds a Master's in Management of the Historical-Documentary Heritage of Music from San Gerónimo College, Havana (2019). As a composer, he has participated in major music festivals in Cuba, including the Festival of Contemporary Music of Havana, the Festival of the Arts, the A tempo con Caturla Festival, and the Chamber Music Festival. Javier Iha has been awarded the Conmutaciones Creation Grant, organized by the Asociación Hermanos Saíz (AHS), and the Harold Gramatges Composition Prize by the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC) in 2013, 2014, and 2015.In his teaching career, he has taught Harmony, Analysis, and Orchestration. Since 2014, he has served as a Harmony professor at the Escuela Nacional de Arte (ENA) and, since 2020, as a professor of Orchestration and Analysis at the University of the Arts. He currently serves as a Yamaha Schools Supervisor in the Middle East.His professional experience as a composer includes works for piano, voice, choir, chamber ensembles, and electroacoustic media. He has dedicated several works to Cuban performers and ensembles, such as the Dúo Promúsica, Trío Emanuel, Trío Lecuona, and the Orquesta de Cámara de Las Tunas, among others. He has also collaborated with audiovisual creators and the theater company Gaia Teatro.Part of his work has been recorded under the Colibrí label, including the CD Nueva Música (a compilation of UNEAC Composition Awards) and Retrato y Escenas Peregrinas, awarded the Cubadisco 2021 Prize in the Chamber Music category.

PRESS

Centro Nacional de Música de Concierto CUBA's post

Premiere of “Trio for Flute, Saxophone, and Piano” — Concert at the Basílica Menor del Convento de San Francisco de Asís, Saturday, June 14 by Niurka González & Dúo Brillance

De lo irreal maravilloso: Retrato and Escenas Peregrinas by Javier Iha Rodríguez
Published in La Jiribilla — Cuban cultural magazine

https://www.lajiribilla.cu/de-lo-irreal-maravilloso-retratos-y-escenas-peregrinas-i-de-javier-iha-rodriguez/

Del proyecto al hecho: el estudio del música electroacústica del ISA by Javier Iha Rodríguez
Published in El Sincopado Habanero — Cuban cultural magazine

https://www.lajiribilla.cu/de-lo-irreal-maravilloso-retratos-y-escenas-peregrinas-i-de-javier-iha-rodriguez/

Retrato y escenas peregrinas" del joven compositor Javier Iha, fue uno de los CDs galardonados en la presente edición del Cubadisco 20-21.

https://www.facebook.com/centronacional.demusicadeconcierto/posts/retrato-y-escenas-peregrinas-del-joven-compositor-javier-iha-fue-uno-de-los-cds-/1824151294422611/

Docencia, investigación y creación: Fondo documental del Estudio Carlos Fariñas
de Arte Electroacústico Musical (ISA)
Master’s thesis in Historical-Documentary Music Heritage Management

Entreclaves... Notes on Nueva Música: Cuentos Peregrinos by Javier Iha
Published in Del canto y el tiempo, a space for reflection and the exchange of ideas on Cuban music — by Brenda Lorenzo. CIDMUC

Des-concierto 9. El banquete
Published in El Sincopado Habanero — Cuban cultural magazine

https://www.lajiribilla.cu/de-lo-irreal-maravilloso-retratos-y-escenas-peregrinas-i-de-javier-iha-rodriguez/

"Pentagramas literarios" presented as part of the Contemporary Music Festival at the Hispano-American Center of Culture. Texts by Samuel Feijóo and Nicolás Guillén, with music by Javier Iha, performed by students from the Vocal Department of the University of the Arts.

SCORES

CHAMBER MUSIC

PIANO SOLO

PIANO DUET

ORCHESTRA

VOCAL

PIANO SOLO

Sounds of Christmas

Sounds of Christmas invites us to celebrate the rich tapestry of cultural and spiritual traditions from around the world through music. Throughout human life, music has always been a companion of memory, ritual, and shared joy. Christmas, with its warmth and familiar magic, became the spark that inspired this collection of piano pieces.
Through Sounds of Christmas, listeners are invited to wander among diverse musical landscapes, savor their subtle colors and textures, and rediscover a world that sings, resonates, and unites us in the joy of the season.

DETAILS
Instrumentation: Piano
Format: Full score; 43 pages
Duration: 22'10"
Recorded on: Sounds of Christmas

Cuentos

Cuentos (Tales) for piano solo draws on five short stories by Virgilio Piñera. Their wandering narrative trajectories, permeated by irony and exaggeration, shape a musical language that unfolds within the logic of the absurd.

DETAILS
Instrumentation: Piano
Format: Full score; 26 pages

Mariachi I

Mariachi I opens the piano cycle Mariachis. The piece evokes the sound world and expressive spirit of mariachi—nostalgic, gallant, festive, and playful—reimagined through the piano and animated by vibrant rhythms and shifting meters.

DETAILS
Instrumentation: Piano
Format: Full score; 13 pages
Duration: 4'00"
For My Aunt Reyna

Toccata I

Toccata I from Three Toccatas for Piano features an arabesque and broken melodic contour, blending lyrical expression with rhythmic drive. Its pulsation unfolds into a subtle resonance, only to reemerge with telúric force, creating a dynamic interplay between rhythm and resonance

DETAILS
Instrumentation: Piano
Format: Full score; 13 pages
Duration: 4'30"
Dedicated to: Lisa María Blanco

Hechizos

Hechizos (Spells) for piano explores three manifestations of magical power, as inner forces that transform time, space, and perception. Each of its three movements evokes a distinct entity—the wizard, the fairy, and the witch—revealing three facets of enchantment: knowledge, light, and shadow.

DETAILS
Instrumentation: Piano
Duration: 6'35"
Format: Full score; 17 pages
Dedicated to: Yoibel Montes de Oca

PIANO DUET

Departure of the winged ship

Departure of the Winged Ship explores the symbolic interplay between the sea and butterflies, evoking joy and the beauty of the world while awakening a longing for distant journeys. In this work, the sea becomes a symbol of freedom. Inspired by Kush’s surrealist imagery, the music suggests a dreamlike atmosphere infused with frenetic motion. This re-creation for piano four hands blends an impressionistic palette of sound with minimalist structure and a clear sense of lyricism. This work is part of the cycle Twelve Regards Upon the Sea, inviting listeners to experience the sea’s visual beauty and emotional depth through music.

DETAILS
Instrumentation: Piano four hands
Format: Full score; 13 pages
Duration: 4'05"
Dedicated to: Tatiana Mecías

The Mönch am Meer

The Monk by the Sea (Der Mönch am Meer) is a masterpiece by Caspar David Friedrich. It reveals the austerity and vast expanse of nature in contrast with human solitude, while evoking the mystery and immensity of the surrounding universe.
Drawing inspiration from the painting, the composition translates into music the sense of emptiness that fills the artwork—a void that is, paradoxically, completely full.
Part of the cycle Twelve Regards Upon the Sea, this piece invites listeners to journey beyond the visual realm and fully immerse themselves in the ever-changing energy, depth, and resonance of the ocean.

DETAILS
Instrumentation: Piano four hands
Format: Full score; 11 pages
Duration: 3'10"
Dedicated to: Tatiana Mecías

La Nuit étoilée sur le Rhône

La Nuit étoilée sur le Rhône (Starry Night Over the Rhône) is a masterpiece by Vincent van Gogh, painted in Arles, France. It depicts the riverbank beneath a star-filled sky, illuminated by shimmering urban lights.
Inspired by this painting, the composition unfolds through a post-impressionist musical language intertwined with minimalist techniques, evoking the quietude and luminous serenity of a warm, magical summer night.
This work is part of the cycle Twelve Regards Upon the Sea, inviting listeners to journey beyond the visual, immersing themselves in the ever-shifting energy, depth, and resonance of the ocean.

DETAILS
Instrumentation: Piano four hands
Format: Full score; 9 pages score
Duration 2’52"
Dedicated to: Tatiana Mecías

Fischzauber

Fischzauber (Magic Fish) reflects Paul Klee’s distinctive style, where abstraction, symbolism, and surrealism interlace. The painting inspired this composition, with minimalist gestures and intermittent flashes of “fluorescent” harmonies that convey in sound the vibrant color palettes Klee utilized. This work is part of the cycle Twelve Regards Upon the Sea, inviting listeners to journey beyond the visual, immersing themselves in the ever-shifting energy, depth, and resonance of the ocean.

DETAILS
Instrumentation: Piano four hands
Format: Full score; 9 pages score
Duration 2’50"
Dedicated to: Tatiana Mecías

神奈川沖浪裏

神奈川沖浪裏 (The Great Wave off Kanagawa) stands as one of the most iconic expressions of the sea’s power and vastness. The ocean, embodied in a towering wave, surges forward to command the scene before curling into a near-perfect spiral. Its sweeping motion frames the distant Mount Fuji, whose serene immobility contrasts the wave’s immense force.
In evoking this image through sound, micropolyphonic textures and polymetric patterns—echoing the innovations of György Ligeti—merge with impressionistic harmonies, crafting a sonic landscape that flows, swells, and breathes like the sea itself.
This work is part of the cycle Twelve Regards Upon the Sea, inviting listeners to journey beyond the visual, immersing themselves in the ever-shifting energy, depth, and resonance of the ocean.

DETAILS
Instrumentation: Piano four hands
Format: Full score; 7 pages score
Duration 1’38"
Dedicated to: Tatiana Mecías

Mar de las Antillas

Mar de las Antillas (The Antillean Sea) portrays an insular landscape, where palms and mangroves withstand the force of Caribbean winds. With a simple, iconic style and an expressionist color palette, Flora Fong depicts a shared space of the Antilles, seen from the sea. Inspired by this image, the music reflects this vision through motif simplicity and a frenetic rhythm, expressing primitivist gestures tinged with subtle humor. This work is part of the cycle Twelve Regards Upon the Sea, inviting listeners to experience the sea’s visual beauty and emotional depth through music.

DETAILS
Instrumentation: Piano four hands
Format: Full score; 9 pages score
Duration 2’25"
Dedicated to: Tatiana Mecías

Promenade sur la falaise, Pourville

Promenade sur la falaise, Pourville, a painting by Claude Monet, presents a fascinating interplay of color, light, and movement, diffused through the textures and brushstrokes of Impressionism. The fresh and open sensation it conveys, evoking the freedom and contemplation of the sea view from the cliff, was a decisive factor in selecting it for the cycle Twelve Regards Upon the Sea. This cycle invites listeners to experience the sea’s visual beauty and emotional depth through music.

DETAILS
Instrumentation: Piano four hands
Format: Full score; 8 pages
Duration: 2'50"
Dedicated to: Tatiana Mecías

The Fighting Temeraire

The Fighting Temeraire, one of J. M. W. Turner’s most celebrated paintings, inspired this piano four-hands work. It captures the painting’s radiant colors, luminous atmosphere, and striking contrasts, while evoking the end of the age of sail and the dawn of industrialization, tinged with quiet nostalgia. Part of the cycle Twelve Regards Upon the Sea, the piece invites listeners to experience the sea’s visual beauty and emotional depth through music.

DETAILS
Instrumentation: Piano four hands
Format: Full score; 8 pages
Duration: 2'45"
Dedicated to: Tatiana Mecías

La noia en la finestra

La noia en la finestra (“Young Woman at the Window”) is an early work by Salvador Dalí, hinting at his surrealist imagination. This painting inspired the present composition for piano four hands. The music evokes a calm blue atmosphere, gently carried by a fresh sea breeze. It is the first piece of the cycle Twelve Regards Upon the Sea, inviting listeners to experience the sea through sound, capturing its visual and emotional essence.

DETAILS
Instrumentation: Piano four hands
Format: Full score; 8 pages
Duration: 3'10"
Dedicated to: Tatiana Mecías

Niña en un mar plateado

Niña en un mar plateado (Girl in a Silver Sea), a painting by Joaquín Sorolla, shows a girl standing at the shoreline, swept by the waves, while a radiant sun dominates the beach, enveloping it in a silvery glow. Light, a central element in Sorolla’s work, inspires this piece, which subtly recalls minimalist techniques and impressionistic harmonies. This composition is part of the cycle Twelve Regards Upon the Sea, inviting listeners to experience the sea’s visual beauty and emotional depth through music.

DETAILS
Instrumentation: Piano four hands
Format: Full score; 8 pages
Duration: 2'10"
Dedicated to: Tatiana Mecías

VOCAL

Si no existieras

“Si no existieras”, for soprano and piano, is a song of love to Havana that, drawing on the poem by Fayad Jamís, expresses a deep sense of belonging reflected in the verse: “Si no existieras, yo te inventaría.” (“If you did not exist, I would invent you.”)

DETAILS
Instrumentation: Soprano and Piano
Text: Fayad Jamís
Format: Full score; 12 pages
Duration: 4'30"
Dedicated to: Havana, on its 500th Anniversary

ORCHESTRA

Concertino I
for Piano, Marimba and String Orchestra

Concertino I for Piano, Marimba and String Orchestra is a three-movement work, dynamic in character and both rhythmic and lyrical in nature.
The piano at times bursts in capriciously in a polymetric relationship with the orchestra, while at other moments it contributes to the creation of a distant, resonant soundscape. Bartókian and Debussyan contours, along with sonorities reminiscent of Messiaen, combine with a telluric rhythmic impulse rooted in the natural vitality of Cuban music, driving the work’s expressive energy.
The marimba plays a distinctive role, frequently entering into dialogue with the piano soloist while at other moments blending into the orchestral texture. It was added in this 2016 version, derived from the original work Concertino for Piano and String Orchestra (2015), written and dedicated to Abel Figueredo, Giudel Gómez, and the Chamber Orchestra of Las Tunas.

DETAILS
Instrumentation: Piano (soloist), Marimba, and String Orchestra
Duration: 20'00"
Format: Full score and parts included; 87 pages score + 113 pages parts
Written and dedicated to Abel Figueredo (piano), Janet Rodríguez (marimba),
and the Orchestra of the Lyceum Mozartiano of Havana.
Recorded on: Retrato y Escenas Peregrinas – Chamber Music; Colibrí Productions, 2019
Awards: CUBADISCO Award, 2021

CHAMBER MUSIC

Escenas de un atardecer

Escenas de un atardecer (Scenes of a Sunset) is a three-part work for clarinet trio that captures the light and energy of the afternoon. Through the clarinets’ transparent sound, pastoral, lively, and contemplative elements unfold, inviting the listener into the fleeting atmosphere of the afternoon.

DETAILS
Instrumentation: Two Bb Clarinets and Bass Clarinet
Format: Full score and parts included; 20 pages score + 18 pages parts
Duration: 5'05"
Dedicated to: Trio Clave
Recorded on: Retrato y Escenas Peregrinas – Chamber Music; Colibrí Productions, 2019
Awards: CUBADISCO Award, 2021

Variaciones libres for cello & piano

Taking as a starting point a theme from one of Béla Bartók’s Mikrokosmos, this piece unfolds a journey of connected variations that ascend in a dramatic progression. Meanwhile, the rhythmic pulse remains as a kind of perpetuum, enriched with Bartókian nuances intertwined with other sonic environments: Impressionist colors and elements drawn from Cuban popular music.

DETAILS
Instrumentation: Cello and Piano
Duration: 5'15"
Format: Full score and parts included; 27 pages score + 11 pages cello part
Dedicated to: Alejandro Martínez
Recorded on: Retrato y Escenas Peregrinas – Chamber Music; Colibrí Productions, 2019
Awards: CUBADISCO Award, 2021

Escenas para un amanecer

When the Classic Trio Emanuel invited me to write a piece for their ensemble, my creative interest turned toward the natural environment and the most ordinary aspects of our daily lives: the different phases of the day and humanity’s interaction with each of those moments. This is how I began the cycle of pieces titled Escenas... (Scenes...), the first of which was Escenas para un amanecer (Scenes for a Sunrise).
The work is structured in three movements and portrays the various nuances and emotions of the morning.

DETAILS
Instrumentation: Flute, Violin and Piano
Duration: 6'40"
Format: Full score and parts included; 29 pages score + 18 pages parts
Dedicated to: Classic Trio Emanuel
Recorded on: Retrato y Escenas Peregrinas – Chamber Music; Colibrí Productions, 2019
Awards: CUBADISCO Award, 2021

Escenas a un anochecer

What are the colors of the night?Is night a realm of stillness and taciturn serenity, of darkness and hidden fears? Or is it a space of restless movement, urban pulse, and secret vitality?
These questions lie at the heart of Escenas a un anochecer (Scenes at Nightfall), a work conceived as an invitation to reflection. Through shifting atmospheres and contrasting gestures, the piece explores the night not as a single emotional state, but as a spectrum of experiences — intimate, shadowed, luminous, and vibrant.
This composition was written for the distinguished Dúo Promúsica, whose artistic excellence has made them a reference within the Cuban musical scene. The work is grounded in the trust, creative dialogue, and friendship shared with this remarkable ensemble. Their musicianship has made possible a language that moves fluidly between structural clarity and emotional intensity.

DETAILS
Instrumentation: Violin and Piano
Format: Full score and parts included; 33 pages score + 14 pages violin part
Duration: 9'56"
Dedicated to: Dúo Promúsica
Recorded on: Retrato y Escenas Peregrinas – Chamber Music; Colibrí Productions, 2019
Awards: CUBADISCO Award, 2021

Cuentos Peregrinos II

Cuentos Peregrinos II, for trombone and piano, draws inspiration from three stories in Strange Pilgrims by Gabriel García Márquez. The narrative atmosphere of these tales — suspended between reality and the uncanny — resonated in my imagination with a distinctive sonority.
The dark, vocal depth of the trombone and the shifting, luminous textures of the piano became the ideal medium through which to transform these literary impressions into sound.
Seventeen Poisoned Englishmen, The Ghosts of August, and Tramontana form this trilogy — three soundscapes shaped by mystery, irony, and the subtle tension between memory and fate.

DETAILS
Instrumentation: Trombone and Piano
Format: Full score and parts included; 19 pages score + 8 pages trombone part
Duration: 6'33"
Dedicated to: Marisel González
Recorded on: Retrato y Escenas Peregrinas – Chamber Music; Colibrí Productions, 2019
Awards: CUBADISCO Award, 2021

EVENTS

August 14th, 2025 Mandolatino 2025 Summer Workshop

Mandoleers and Friends perform their Mandolatino Summer Workshop program at Clarendon United Methodist Church. All music arranged for the Mandoleers by Javier Iha.

July 30th, 2025 Concert for piano solo 'Flores, Formas y Fiestas'

Solo Piano Concert by Javier Iha at the National Concert Music Center, Havana, Cuba.

June 14th, 2025 Premiere of “Trio for Flute, Saxophone, and Piano”

Premiere of “Trio for Flute, Saxophone, and Piano ”Concert at the Basílica Menor del Convento de San Francisco de Asís by Niurka González & Dúo Brillance

April, 2019 Premiere of Testamento del Pez (The Fish’s Testament), at Basílica Menor de San Francisco de Asís

Premiere of Testamento del Pez (The Fish’s Testament) for soprano, tenor, clarinet, piano, and percussion, with text by Gastón Baquero, at the Basílica Menor de San Francisco de Asís, during the Havana Chamber Music Festival.

November 16th, 2018 Recital for voices and piano 'Pentagramas Literarios'

Texts by Samuel Feijóo and Nicolás Guillén, with music by Javier Iha, performed by students from the Vocal Department of the University of the Arts.