HAVANA (AP) -- Despite a last-minute hitch, the Milwaukee Symphony
                  Orchestra, the first major U.S. orchestra to visit Cuba in 37 years, delighted
                  dozens of Cuban schoolchildren Friday with the strains of "Peter and the
                  Wolf" and "West Side Story."

                  The free performance at Havana's Amadeo Roldan Theater drew a standing
                  ovation and cheers from music students and teachers and provided a
                  momentary thaw in recent testy relations between the U.S. and Cuban
                  governments over young Cuban rafter Elian Gonzalez. A second concert
                  was set for Friday night.

                  "It was super good -- marvelous! It touched me right here," enthused Nelly
                  Miranda, a 15-year-old student, as she pointed to her heart. "I don't have
                  many words to describe it."

                  The concert was delayed an hour while workers rushed percussion and bass
                  instruments, a harp and much of the musicians' sheet music from Havana's
                  airport to the theater. A cargo plane carrying the bulky equipment was
                  initially denied permission to land in Cuba on Thursday, then arrived after
                  Cuban customs had closed, said orchestra spokesman Joe McKaughan.

                  The instruments could not be picked up until after customs officials arrived
                  on Friday.

                  The brief wait was worth it.

                  "This is universal," said a beaming Ana Verdecia, an 18-year-old violinist. "I
                  have never seen an orchestra like this. These are big people -- this is
                  special."

                  As music director Andreas Delfs led the 88-member ensemble, Cuban
                  playwright-director Hector Quintero animatedly narrated Serge Prokofiev's
                  orchestral fairy tale "Peter and the Wolf" -- "Pedro y el Lobo" in Spanish.
                  Selections from Leonard Bernstein's "West Side Story" followed.

                  Afterwards, uniformed schoolchildren scrambled to the stage to have their
                  programs signed by Delfs and the musicians. Children and orchestra
                  members also exchanged letters from music students in Cuba, Wisconsin
                  and elsewhere.

                  "It's a way of getting to know other people and to express our gratitude and
                  friendship," said flutist Emilio Gomez, 17, clutching a batch of letters from
                  fellow Cuban students for delivery to American pen pals.

                  The Milwaukee musicians were to tour Havana's historic Old City before
                  Friday night's performance, then return home Saturday.

                  Their visit was the latest cultural exchange since U.S. President Bill Clinton
                  loosened travel restrictions in January with a view to strengthening Cuban
                  civil society while maintaining the U.S. economic embargo.

                  Other U.S. music groups have visited Cuba in recent months; the New
                  England Youth Philharmonic Orchestra performed with Cuban student
                  musicians here in June.

                  But the MSO said it was the first major U.S. orchestra to play in the
                  communist-ruled island since 1962. The U.S. Treasury Department
                  approved the privately funded $150,000 trip.

                  The German-born Delfs emphasized the importance of such
                  people-to-people exchanges, especially given the international controversy
                  over Elian Gonzalez.

                  The Cuban boy, now 6, was found clinging to a raft last month off Florida
                  after his mother and stepfather perished. He was placed in the custody of
                  relatives in Miami while authorities consider whether he should be returned
                  to his father, who lives in Cuba.

                  "If we contribute this little bit to diffusing the political aspects of this problem
                  and reducing it to what it is, a human problem, by playing our music from
                  humans to humans, I think that would be nice, and that's how I felt today,"
                  Delfs said. "We felt very welcome, very appreciated."

                  "It's a shame most Americans can't experience what I have today -- the
                  beats of music flowing from people in the street," said percussionist Joe
                  Conti.

                    Copyright 1999 The Associated Press.