REVIEW Pianist stirs audience at festival

Watching Nachito Herrera's fingers fly at the piano is like seeing a hummingbird up close.
By DEBORA SHAULIS
ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
YOUNGSTOWN -- Only Superman could visit San Juan, Lima, Santo Domingo and Havana in a day.
So local, state and national Latino arts supporters brought some of the sights, sounds and flavors of those cities to Youngstown, which is hosting the Ohio Latin Arts Association 2004 Conference.
The culmination of events on Friday was a dinner, concert and dance that several hundred people attended at Stambaugh Auditorium. Workshops, folk dance performances and discussions are planned today at La Organizacion Civica y Cultural Hispana Americana on Shirley Road.
Youngstown State University's College of Fine & amp; Performing Arts was a partner in this "Latin Arts Explosion" as well, since YSU has coordinated an annual Afro-Cuban festival in recent years. This year's event grew to reflect not just Cuba but many Latino countries -- namely, Puerto Rico, Peru, Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Spain.
Featured performer
The featured performer Friday, Cuban-born pianist Nachito Herrera, could be called a Superman of the ivories. His fingers fluttered like a hummingbird's wings as he, his bass player and two percussionists roared their way through many Cuban musical styles. They struck moods of elation, then reflection, then elation again in the course of one hour.
The hallmarks of Herrera's performance style are his ever-present classical piano training -- he performed Rachmaninoff's Concerto No. 2 with Havana Symphony Orchestra when he was 12 years old -- and sheer love of rhythms that inspire people to move. This was supposed to be the sit-down concert of the evening, but Herrera brought out yearnings to dance even in people with two left feet.
This was a purely instrumental performance, although there are vocals on Herrera's 2002 CD, "Live at the Dakota," which he recorded at a club near his home in St. Paul, Minn.
Dance group
As Herrera's performance ended, attention turned to dancers from Las Ni & ntilde;as del Caribe. The OCCHA-sponsored group consists of girls ages 8 to 18 who have ties to Puerto Rico and Peru, director Nellie Gonzalez said. They choreograph their own dances and, in one segment, provided visuals as Gonzales described how Puerto Rican women have used hand fans and body language to communicate.
Afterward, attendees danced to the music of Sabor Latino, a locally-based band that had as many as 14 musicians and singers on the stage at one time.
The Caribbean influence on the menu Friday night was evident, from fried plantains with garlic dipping sauce to rum pound cake. The best dishes were fish in mojito isle & ntilde;o sauce, a Puerto Rican recipe consisting of mild white fish with a tomato, onion and olive dressing; chicken with rice; and a green salad garnished with roasted red pepper strips, corn and peas.
Besides Herrero & amp; Puro Cubano, guests at the Latin Arts Explosion hailed from Denver, Washington, D.C., Miami and Georgia, among other places.
shaulis@vindy.com