Creole Choir of Cuba sings of Haitian roots in Cuba

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The Haitian-Cuban choir group Grupo Vocal Desandann is coming to America-and changing its name.

A mix of six women and four men came together in 1994 and took the name “Desandann” to point to themselves as the “descendents” of the generations of Haitians who migrated to Cuba to work on local sugar and coffee plantations.

Now, as they begin a tour of the United States, they have released the new album “Tande-La” (which translates to “Listen to This”) and have changed their name to the Creole Choir of Cuba.

“This is a more commercial name for us,” admitted choir director Emilia Diaz Chavez during a brief interview. “We’ve been working for the past three years with an English manager, and this name just has a little more of an attractive hook. We started the tour in England and were using the name ‘Desandann,’ but it just suggested something else. Our manager didn’t want there to be any questions about what we are singing, so he asked us to make the change and use this name.”

The 10 individuals who make up the Creole Choir of Cuba are Rogelio Torriente, Fidel Miranda, Teresita Miranda, Marcelo Luis, Dalio Vital, Chavez, Yordanka Fajardo, Irian Montejo, Marina Fernandes and Yara Diaz. Trained musicians who were once members of the Provincial Choir of Camaguey, Cuba, the members of the Creole Choir of Cuba are known for revitalizing songs traditionally sung at first by enslaved Haitians and later by Haitians who traveled to Cuba on their own in search of work and in an effort to build a community.

Though they sing in Creole, French and Spanish, Chavez says they have yet to come across an audience that did not understand their music. “The experience that people have had who come to hear us but don’t understand the language-it has been very beautiful,” she said. “Because even without understanding the words, they understand the meaning of our music. We communicate our music with songs but also with movement. We sing directly from the heart, and people have come away crying because they understand the depth of pain and anguish we sing with.”

The Creole Choir of Cuba will be performing on Oct. 2 at 7 p.m. at New York’s Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway at 95th Street. Call (212) 864-5400 for more information.