The Symphony Orchestra of the University of Cundinamarca

The UCundinamarca Symphony Orchestra was formed in 2004 under the baton of Maestro Humberto Tovar, due to the need to involve and promote orchestral work among students of the Music program, encompassing universal symphonic repertoire, as well as developing the necessary knowledge for the development of musical research and the cultural approach to the environment, from diverse interdisciplinary perspectives, based on an understanding of music as an expression of art.

Currently, the Cundinamarca University Symphony Orchestra is made up of 60 musicians, including students and teachers, and is directed by a teacher from the Music program.

As a result of the initiatives proposed by the University, the Symphony Orchestra has shone instrumentally, and has stood out on different stages in the capital and in the country.

In 2011, at the "Opera al Parque" event, organized by the Bogotá Philharmonic Orchestra and the Mayor's Office of Bogotá, the orchestra presented the symphonic choral production of the opera Elixir de Amor, by the Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti, alongside the Choir of the Music program.

Likewise, in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the Music program, in 2012 the Symphony Orchestra performed works by Bach, Bizet, Mendelssohn and Lucho Bermúdez in the Salt Cathedral of Zipaquirá, under the direction of Maestro Iván Ricardo Tovar.

At the Cundinamarca Governorate, in the Zipaquirá Cultural Center, in homage to Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez, with the guidance of Maestro David Peralta, where music by Mendelssohn, Calvo and Fulgencio García was performed.

In 2016, the Symphony Orchestra performed at the VI International Sacred Music Festival of Bogotá, Fabio Lozano auditorium, of the Jorge Tadeo Lozano University of Bogotá, with 55 musicians from the symphony and 100 voices from the University choir performing the oratorio "The Seven Last Words" by the French composer and organist Théodore Dubois.

The oratorio “The Seven Last Words” is a work by Théodore Dubois (1867), and is a musical composition based on the phrases that appear in the Gospels and that Christ uttered from the cross until the last breath of his death: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing,” “Today you will be with me in paradise,” “Here is your son: here is your mother,” “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”, “I thirst,” “It is finished,” “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”.

For teachers and students, it is of great importance to have participated in the sacred music festival, considering that it is an international event that brings together musicians from Spain, Argentina, the Republic of Korea, South Africa, Poland, the United States, among other countries.

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Furthermore, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Rosarista Association of the University of Rosario, the UCundinamarca Symphony Orchestra delighted the audience at the Roberto Arias Pérez Colsubsidio Theater with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade..

The Scheherazade work performed by the Symphony Orchestra is divided into four movements and also formed a motivic structure and development, where literary passages are instrumentally linked:

1. «"The sea and the ship of Sinbad
2. «"The story of Prince Kalendar

III. The young prince and the young princess

1. «"Festival in Baghdad. The sea. The ship crashes against a cliff crowned by a bronze Horseman.".

Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade is a descriptive work, an illustrious example of Russian orientalism; director Oscar Vargas evoked and depicted the culture of the Orient with characteristic features.

The orchestral format of this piece includes flutes, oboes, English horn, clarinets, bassoons, 4 French horns, trumpets, trombones, tuba, timpani, a percussion set containing triangle, tambourine, snare drum, cymbals, large cassock and tam-tam, harp, first and second violins, violas, cellos, and double basses.

The León de Greiff and Fabio Lozano auditoriums, at the Jorge Tadeo Lozano University in Bogotá, are other musical venues where the Symphony Orchestra has performed and delighted audiences with its instrumental repertoire.

Read also: Outstanding participation of the U. in the meeting of Orchestras and Choirs organized by the UNAL

The UCundinamarca Symphony Orchestra is currently a benchmark among the main university orchestras in the country, thanks to the professional performance of its musicians and the high technical level of the teaching staff that make up the Music program.