Monte-Carlo - Orchestra Aragón, one of the most historic names in Cuban music will be the star entertainment at the prestigious 2007 World Athletics Gala in the Salle des Etoiles of the Sporting Club d’Eté, Monte-Carlo, on the evening of Sunday 25 November.

The annual athletics awards ceremony which is hosted by International Athletic Foundation (IAF) Honorary President HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco and IAF & IAAF President Lamine Diack, will witness the crowning of the World Athletes of the Year, and recognise several other athletic achievements with a variety of awards.

Cuba’s legendary Orchestra Aragón, now seven decades old, was founded in 1939 by the noted violinist Orestes Aragón and first performed in and around Cienfuegos, its city of origin, and since the 1950s have travelled the world spreading the sound and rhythms of charanga as ambassadors for Cuba's culture and values.

Charanga is a genre of Cuban dance music first popular in the 1940s and consisting of material performed on European instruments such as violin and flute. In the hot hands of Orquesta Aragon this produces a combination of a light, elegant, sprightly music which at its hardest features a mixture of overblown flutes, searing strings and percussion.

The line-up of today's Orchestra Aragón is one big family consisting of a mixture of old and new members, including the children and nephews of the original legends, who maintain the classic sound of the past, while incorporating the new flavours in Cuban music.

The Rough Guide to World Music dubbed the Orchestra Aragón "the seminal charanga band", and World Music Central described them as the “Orchestra of yesterday, today and forever”. Their hits include such classics as Sabrosona, Cachita, Bodeguero, Nosotros, Esperanza, Pare Cochero.

IAAF