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After COVID nearly killed him, renowned musician reflects on return to stage and new album

"It's been really hard." Nachito Herrera says he's happy to be back playing, but each return brings anxiety.

MINNEAPOLIS — As the pandemic wanes, music venues across Minnesota are beginning to reopen their doors and stages to crowds, but as the state lifts indoor capacity restrictions for live entertainment on Friday, some musicians say the thrill of retaking the stage is often mixed with anxiety.

"Yes, emotionally, it's been really hard," said Nachito Herrera, the Cuban-born pianist who has called Minnesota home for the last 20 years.

Late last March, Herrera nearly died from COVID-19. After spending 14 days in a coma he emerged from life support wondering whether his career was over.

"When I woke up in the ICU room, I couldn't even play fast," Herrera said. "I wasn't even able to play slow or with both hands together, which is something we have to do on the piano almost all the time."

By the time KARE11 caught up with him last April, Herrera was back playing his piano in his home, but still feeling the effects of a leg aneurysm.

"I even couldn't play my piano in my house for more than 10 minutes because there was so much pain all around my body," he said. "But my faith said, no, this is going to go away. Let's get working."

After rehab and plenty of practice to regain his strength, Nachito began playing virtual concerts and then got back to work finishing a new album he recorded in Cuba prior to the pandemic.

"It's Havana Jazz," Herrera said. "I composed several songs and recorded with the Cuban National Symphony and Cuban National Choir. We had 250 musicians working together, proving music is a wonderful language to unite a people, to always get together."

Herrera knows the album will lead to more live shows eventually, and he says he's working through the emotions that come with that.

"Specifically, when you sit at a different piano, or play the piano, and that memory when I wake up at the ICU room comes to me again," he said. "Psychologically, you think, I don't want that to happen again in my life, because I really don't want to go through it anymore." 

But as difficult as those emotions are, he says he'll continue to lean on his faith to take the stage with a greater mission in mind: bringing people, cultures and countries together through music.

"I feel stronger in my faith and I know that I am ready," Herrera said. "That's what I am looking for, getting back to the stage. I'm ready to go. I can't wait, honestly."

Nachito Herrera's new album has just been released Cuba, but he says it will be several weeks before it is available in the United States. For more information on the album and his upcoming live shows, click here.

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