Archive for category: Philarmed News

With different instruments, but united by the same dream, music has touched the lives of Mariana and Miguel Ángel, members of the Urabá Children's and Youth Philharmonic Orchestra. A group that began as a dream and that has come to fruition thanks to the talent of its 62 students. In 2022, the orchestra performed fourteen presentations accompanying events in the region and twenty ensemble meetings.

This mission of bringing music to all the people of the region is what has motivated the Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra to deliver a life full of hope to children and young people in Urabá, Antioquia.

Sow music with love

Mariana Ayala, she is 14 years old, she is the principal second violin of the orchestra. Her voice expresses deep love for the violin more than anything else in life, she even longs in the future to be a professional musician and perhaps play as a soloist in orchestras around the world. But before realizing his dream, he knows that he must finish school and graduate. Mariana says that her favorite subjects are artistic and livestock and agricultural, the latter because she has had the opportunity to plant plantains and bananas, and explore the types of livestock, which are necessary tools for life and work in the countryside.

The student alternates her school classes with music rehearsals, because both are important in her life, she says; He practices his instrument for an hour a day, with the same discipline with which he frequently sings in his neighborhood church. “I like the way the violin sounds, it gives me peace of mind. With it I can express feelings like affection, love, even sadness. When I have had the opportunity to be a soloist I get very nervous, but it makes me happy to know that the public can feel and hear life through my instrument.” Although he likes to look through books, he prefers to read his scores and his love for music came when he was 8 years old, when a teacher visited his school and invited several students to take free music classes. “There I learned recorder, xylophone, metallophone and even staff. I also had the opportunity to practice French horn and trumpet, but all my attention and heart was on the violin.”

Mariana, born in Chigorodó, was embraced by music before she was born because Mercedes, her mother, stimulated her with romantic songs and universal classics.

Chigorodó, located in the Urabá subregion, means “Guaduas River” in the Katía language. It is a hot municipality, but with large cool rivers. Next to it rises the Serranía de Abibe, a large water reserve in the Uraba subregion.

An instrument that shines like the sun

“If you ask me what my favorite toy is, I will say the trumpet, because I always have fun with it, discover, play and rehearse.” Miguel Ángel Rengifo

The first trumpet of the Urabá Symphony Orchestra is led by 14-year-old Miguel Ángel Rengifo; His life in music began in 2019 with percussion because at first there were no brass instruments; And he loves that family of instruments for their strength and sonority and even because within the orchestra it shines like the sun, he says, “if my instrument were a character it would be someone strong, elegant, beautiful, but very boisterous.” He also really likes the instrument's pistons because they fit easily over his fingers.

He considers himself a very disciplined young man and knows that he must practice the various trumpet methods for at least forty-five minutes each day. “Music is a life project. Since I was little I identified with her, I remember that at family parties we all danced to the rhythm of salsa and merengue, and we sang rancheras,” says the trumpeter.

Miguel, who was born in Apartadó, wants to be a professional musician, but also a trumpet teacher because he dreams that many young people will make music a life purpose. She is currently in ninth grade and loves Spanish, especially when she practices spelling and calligraphy. She even recently found another passion: reading. And although he doesn't like numbers, he says that his favorite book is Damned Mathematics by Carlo Frabetti. “…I like it because they explain mathematical concepts to me in an easier way, and, on the other hand, I think it's a fun story in which Alice arrives in a world of wonders that shows her the beauty of numbers.”

The Almond Tree in Blossom, an oil on canvas painted in 1890 inspired by Japanese woodcut, was one of Van Gogh's favorites and is also the favorite of Marisol López, cornist at Filarmed. And the flowering branches against a blue sky are the objects that she admires most in this work of art. Like his neighbors in the San Javier neighborhood, a group of trees—which he can see right in front of his house—visited by woodpeckers that frequently drill their stems.

The cornista deeply loves nature, because it inspires her, especially the trees, which give her shade and oxygen. She says: “I am amazed by what I see in everyday life, I like to paint landscapes, take photos of clouds, of the dogs or cats that I find in my path, of the flowers.”

Marisol is a thoughtful woman, who expresses gratitude to her family, especially her mother, because she has always supported her in her career as a musician. Passionate about her instrument, her pets and especially about photography, she dreams of having a home for animals. He began his musical life with lyrical singing, with a few semesters in high school. He then went on to study the horn professionally, because his family, classmates and professors at the University told him that this instrument suited him well and he had the talent to play it.

She participated in the orchestra in 2009, as a guest musician, with Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 “Pathétique” and Grieg's Piano Concerto under the direction of the Russian maestro Guerassim Voronkov. In addition, he was part of other productions for large orchestra: Mahler, Strauss and Holst, “Composers who created large-format works, which require six cornists and even more in a row!”, expresses Marisol with emotion. That same year, with the Seresta philharmonic fusion concert, she debuted as a Filarmed staff musician.

The instrumentalist also loves her pets; the cat Tito and his dogs Lucas and Fruna. “I adopted Fruna in particular in Fredonia when I accompanied the orchestra on a tour of the southwest, it was love at first sight! Even my classmates encouraged me to adopt her. I received her with love and even with fear, because I didn't know how they were going to welcome her at home; “Some musicians nicknamed her the Filarmed mascot,” said the musician.

Marisol is one of the few women in Colombia who plays horn in a professional orchestra. She was assigned to it by pure coincidence when she was in the Medellín Music School Network at the age of 17. He liked it because it seemed like a strange instrument, its shape, its shine, because it was a different instrument.

“You can find music in everything, even in nature, in the singing of birds, the movement of trees, the sound of the wind, a river.”

About the instrument

The French horn or French horn is a metal wind instrument with a conical mouthpiece, very versatile, since its tessitura has a wide variety of musical notes since its cylinders allow it to produce various types of sounds that range from the lowest to the highest. .

With music life sounds BRUTAL.

It elevates, transforms and takes us to a higher state.
It is there when we need it most, no matter if we are sad or happy, there is always a perfect song for each moment.

There is music to relax, to dance until our feet hurt, to dedicate and others that make our hearts sing. There are songs to concentrate, and even to do cardio... of any kind 😏

The music is there waiting for us to play it to make us forget everything for a few minutes.

And if they ask us what music is, we may not know very well what to answer, but if they ask us what it makes us feel, we will say it by singing.

Because with Music life sounds BRUTAL.

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This is a collaboration with Mattelsa to celebrate 40 years of Filarmed with a super cool look.

Price of all t-shirts: 79.000

January

January 21, 8:00 pm I Hay Festival

The Day You Love Me tells the last days of Carlos Gardel in Medellín through his music, in a stage show with actors, dancers and live music with the Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra. This production combines tango and history in a moving and fun staging that will take attendees to live an exciting time.

Free entrance

February

February 18, 6:00 pm Metropolitan Theater

First concert of the season under the baton of our principal conductor David Greilsammer.

Symphony No. 3 by Ludwig van Beethoven

The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky

Ticket office coming soon

February 25, 6:00 pm Metropolitan Theater

*Symphony No. 7 by Jean Sibelius 

*Tannhäuser Overture by Richard Wagner

Moon Serenade by Carlos José Castro 

Symphony No. 5 by PI Tchaikovsky

Director: David Greilsammer

*Repertoire subject to change

Ticket office coming soon

The Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra has been selected in the mentoring program of the Association of British Orchestras and the British Council. María Catalina Prieto Vásquez, executive director of Filarmed will have the director of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra as a mentor. Michael Eakin, director and CEO of the oldest professional symphony orchestra in the United Kingdom, which in addition to its concerts, is a leader in the development of educational, artistic and community projects, will accompany the director of Filarmed for 12 months in the search for innovations and strategies in the orchestra's management model, to aim for its sustainability and permanence over time.  

The second cohort, this mentoring program carried out by the Association of British Orchestras with the support of the British Council, also benefits the Medellín Philharmonic and three other orchestras located in Ukraine, Poland and Qatar.  

For María Catalina, this program allows not only to have feedback from the executive director of one of the most important orchestras in the United Kingdom, but will also give Filarmed the possibility of analyzing the trends of British orchestras, even creating strategies to confront some phenomena. such as the post-pandemic and globalization. “We will learn from the best. The mentoring will allow us to be in contact with a country and an association that has a very great orchestral tradition, this points to the strategic line of the Medellín Philharmonic to become a reference in all of Latin America,” explains the executive director. 

In addition to personalized work with Michael Eakin, Filarmed is invited to the Annual Congress of the Association of British Orchestras, in February 2023, a space in which it will continue to strengthen networking with other organizations and disciplines.