Teachers participated in the Edgardo Martín guitar festival in Cuba

Generación Siglo XXI magazine spoke with Juan Felipe, a virtuoso of the classical guitar who won a competition in 2020 that led to his appointment as a full-time professor. From this position, he has implemented the Transmodern Digital Educational Model, whose methodology aims to prepare students for life, moving beyond models that simply transmit knowledge and information. It shifts the focus from education for doing and work to education for being. For this reason, the university encourages faculty to innovate and reinvent themselves, and to seek new opportunities for personal growth abroad, as was the case for Juan Felipe.

Generation 21st Century Magazine: How did this opportunity to play in Cuba come about?

Juan Felipe Ávila: I know people there, and in my professional work, I've been able to connect with guitarists from different parts of the world. In this case, it was a Cuban friend who organizes a festival in the city of Cienfuegos called the Edgardo Martín Guitar Festival. This event has a competition for young people, and one day she called me with the idea of me being a judge, but virtually. Later, she invited me to other activities such as conferences and classes.

It also happened that I'm working with another teacher, Ana María Moreno, with whom I'm doing a Colombian music project, and I suggested to my Cuban friend that I was willing to travel with her and do some chamber music concerts there, to which she agreed. So we were there from April 18th to 22nd, and afterwards we performed in Havana, me as a soloist, and in a duet with my colleague Ana María.

Generation 21st Century Magazine: What professional expectations did you have for this trip?

Juan Felipe Ávila: It is important because it helped us strengthen the networks and also showed the students that their teachers have an active artistic career, which motivates them to follow that example.

Generation 21st Century Magazine: In terms of research, what did this trip contribute to your work?

Juan Felipe Ávila: This trip was part of a research project for a call for proposals that was launched some time ago, which I am leading. It's an initiative between our institution and the National University, consisting of researching and staging the repertoire of composer Luis A. Calvo using the transcriptions of Álvaro Bedoya Sánchez. These concerts I gave are part of this project.

This is Juan Felipe, a man passionate about music who graduated as a guitarist from the National University of Colombia with a focus on conducting. He holds a specialization in the instrument from the University of Chile and a master's degree from Germany, a country he traveled to, in his own words, "to learn, since I thought I knew the language, and when I arrived, I realized I didn't have a clue, but I learned it.".

Taken from Magazine 21st Century Generation