Knowledge manager won music competition

The results were announced on the cultural institution's website last October. More than seventy proposals were submitted across various categories and evaluated by the jury. Among the selected candidates was León Salcedo, a knowledge and learning manager with a passion for research—an aspect promoted by the Transmodern Digital Educational Model, which trains teachers for life, empowering them to be active and transformative agents in our community.

UCundinamarca News spoke with this research coordinator, for whom the classical guitar has been the instrument that has taken him to different concert halls in Colombia and around the world. A lover of jazz, popular music, and classical music, this man comes from a family with a musical tradition; his mother was his first teacher, instilling in him a foundation, and later, Alejandro Montoya in Colombia and Martín Pedreira in Cuba contributed to his training. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Music from the Technological University of Pereira and a Master's degree in guitar performance from Carnegie Mellon University in the USA, which explains this significant achievement.

UCundinamarca News: What was the participation process like in this call for proposals?’

León Salcedo: I found out there was a call for submissions to play at the festival; so I sent a summary of my resume, a concert proposal, and a ten-minute video. The jury then evaluated all the candidates, and I was selected. The theme of this call was music from the Americas in the 20th and 21st centuries.

UCundinamarca News: What proposal did you submit?

León Salcedo: I participated with a piece I titled Aya Guitar, which is a guitar recital with African influences. The name Aya is part of a West African system of symbols called adinkra; these are symbols they use to represent aphorisms or concepts. The image is of a fern, which is a symbol of resilience, as it's a plant that grows in harsh environments despite adversity. I found all of this to be a beautiful metaphor for that culture in the Americas, and that's why I used it in the title.

UCundinamarca News: What is the importance of participating in these types of activities?

León Salcedo: For me, it's key because it allows me to stay musically active. It's separate from teaching and research, which is what I do most within the institution. However, it's very important for me to remain dynamic in the creative and artistic aspects, as this benefits my teaching of students; that's why I constantly participate to stay relevant, and what better way to do so than with the Julio Mario Santo Domingo Theater, which always has a great program.

UCundinamarca News: When will the performance take place and what works will be performed?

Leon Salcedo: The presentation will be in 2025 and I will play a repertoire originally written for guitar by composers from Haiti, Colombia, Cuba, the United States, Brazil and Argentina.

In this way, the university reaffirms its mission, which speaks of being a democratic, autonomous, educational, and transmodern social organization of knowledge, which encourages its knowledge managers to project themselves from their professions for the benefit of the students.

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