Cuba has a very well respected education system that is free for everyone through to the end of University. Education is seen as a human right in Cuba. Cuba has 65 Arts Schools! When a music student is ready they can audition to attend an arts school (sometimes as young as eight years old). If they are accepted they go to a school where they receive four hours of music instruction per day.

The presence of the incredible musicians in Los Primos ’98 and 2000 turned Acadia Jazz Camp on its ear. It will never be the same. The instruction in Cuban music schools is totally in classical although there is a lot of interest in starting jazz and traditional music study within the curriculum.

Ivan Garcia started the Los Aragoncitos band as a pilot program to teach traditional Cuban music in the Beny Moré School of Music in Cienfuegos. They have become very successful, (winning the Cuban Music Award for best student group) and are well known throughout Cuba.

For the Canadian Primos, working with Ivan during their 2004 trip to Cienfuegos was their first experience with Cuban music and the way that it is put together. Then Los Aragoncitos came to Canada and performed for elementary school audiences in Nova Scotia. The entire exchange was filmed by Curve Media and released as a one-hour documentary.

Manuel Saumell is an elementary music school in downtown Havana and accepts students between the ages of 8 and 15. The school now has their own jazz combo as a pilot program of the Los Primos Project. They are called the Saumell Primos of course. The students from this school will graduate to the Amadeo Roldan conservatory.