Cuba is suffering a nationwide blackout after the collapse of its electrical grid on Friday, days before Tropical Storm Oscar hit the island as a Category 1 hurricane on Sunday. The first night of the blackout, a handful of Minnesotans — along with other American and Cuban classical musicians and teachers — were set to play a concert celebrating a diplomatic exchange between young Cuban and American performers. Let’s just say the concert did not exactly go as planned.

MPR News host Cathy Wurzer talked with Minnesota high school sophomore and violinist Mary Hess and her mother, Anne Marie Hess. They were in Cuba through the historic Cuban American Youth Orchestra program, also known as CAYO.