Students win IDECUT competition

The discipline and constant work of the two students and one graduate of the Music program at UCundinamarca was rewarded, after being chosen by a technical team from the Departmental Institute of Culture and Tourism (IDECUT), to be part of the Cundinamarca Pilot String Orchestra 2021.

Iván Antonio Suárez López and Natalia Catalina Cely Triana, who play the tiple, and Pierre Mateo Daza Astros, who plays the cuatro, will participate in this pilot program aimed at revitalizing, promoting, and showcasing culture in the department. “It was a call for applications open to instrumental musicians, and our students achieved excellent scores. We hope they have much more success and that other students see that it is possible to achieve results with consistent effort. From the program coordinator, we congratulate them and encourage them to continue on this path as music teachers trained at our institution,” stated Juan Manuel Urrego, coordinator of the Music program.

“For the competition, I had to make three videos: one where I played some major and minor scales, both harmonic and melodic. The second video featured a free-choice Colombian or Latin American theme, and the third featured Colombian music,” explained Natalia Catalina Cely Triana, a graduate and tiple player.

Natalia Catalina also stated that in her audition she put into practice the knowledge acquired during her training as a Music Teacher and this allowed her to give a great performance that obtained the best results.

Pierre Mateo Daza Astos explains that his teacher supported him in applying for this opportunity and that he practiced the repertoire with him. “I found out about it through a university group and decided to take the plunge. It was a different process overall, and I enjoy those challenges. I hope we can achieve the goals and objectives with the orchestra and that it will go from being a pilot program to a permanent position.”.

This experience of being part of an orchestra will be new for many of these young people; however, the institution has given them the support and knowledge to bring out the best in themselves and their talent.

A project for Cundinamarca

According to IDECUT: “It is vitally important to have the Cundinamarca Plucked String Orchestra as an experimental pilot project, developing activities such as workshops, small, medium, and large ensembles, and concerts. For this reason, we have worked on a repertoire of Cundinamarca music, Colombian, classical, and international musical works, conducting instrument workshops, fingering techniques, tuning, and interpretation for each of the plucked string instruments, aimed at musicians belonging to student groups, trios, quartets, as well as traditional and rural music groups from Cundinamarca.”.

Likewise, the call for proposals made it clear that this strategy will support the cultural and tourism reactivation of Cundinamarca. It also stated that this initiative allows for the continuation of concerts, training workshops, and ongoing support for musical groups and their directors. Furthermore, it emphasizes the importance of this initiative because it provides spaces for community integration, fostering the preservation of Cundinamarca's popular traditions and strengthening the social fabric, thus contributing to healthy recreation and civic engagement during these times of crisis.

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