Program “Development phase 1” July 2018

Reminder

The project named “Development, Phase 2” started at the beginning of 2018 by the Foundation Clásica has received support from the ENGIE Foundation. The goal of this project is to strengthen the essentials acquired during 2017 around 3 themes: the development of the symphonic orchestra; the planning of intense workshops; the creation of an orchestra for young children. This project will be going on for 3 years.

Planning

the first workshop of 2018 took place from July 11 to 17 has planned. Classes were scheduled from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM and spread throughout several rooms of our education center as well in the college located next door. The classes were split in groups based on the type of instrument played (woodwind, brass, string, percussion) and row (violins, violas, cello, trumpets, oboe, etc). Final rehearsals of the full orchestra ensemble happened the last two days. A total of 360 hours of classes in addition to more than 5 hours of rehearsals took place during this workshop.

Program

Group classes are the core of the workshop; they allow each participants to refine their work, and they allow us to better evaluate their integration in the program, (behavioral and artistic wise). Our Musical Director then created an academic program, in order to get ready for our Anniversary Concert taking place on January 23rd, 2019. More complex pieces were selected to be performed by the students, which clearly indicates progress from the students in regards to their requirements and capacities. In fact, below is the classification created by El Sistema, our academic partner, comparing the pieces played during the 2017/2018 and those planned for 2018/2019.

Teaching staff

Our team of 12 teachers was involved, including: 2 violin teachers, 1 cello, 1 bass, 1 clarinet, 1 oboe, 1 percussions, 1 trombone & tuba, 1 French horn, 1 trumpet, 1 flute.

For the occasion, additional staff joined the ones listed above:

• Maestro Efrain Lara (Violin & Alto): with a diploma from the Royal School of Music in Music Performance (Royal Academy of Music & Royal College of Music of London), alumni of the Conservatory Hector Berlioz in Paris, member of the Symphonic Orchestra Simon Bolivar, teacher graduated from El Sistema in Venezuela.
• Maestro Victor Mitrov (trumpet & Trombone): graduated from the Sofia Academy (Bulgaria). Soloist of the National Symphonic Orchestra of Dominican Republic, teacher of contemporary music at the University Pedro Enriquez Ureña.

Assistance

The entire orchestra participated in this workshop, with the number of students varying from 70 to 76 depending on their personal commitments (details in the appendix). The various breaks scheduled throughout the day allowed the students to better cope with the intense pace that was required. In addition, the teachers held sessions of discussion and exchange during the classes with their groups in order to allow participants to express themselves and gain confidence. Indeed, in this phase of development, the main objective of these workshops is to facilitate the natural expression of the students and to allow them to gain confidence and to find a true motivation. Progress in the way they perform then comes more naturally. These processes were initiated according to the pedagogy developed by El Sistema of Venezuela.

In parallel to the workshop, an introductory class to learn violin with 11 students was taking place. This training is fully in line with our project to have an orchestra for young children by the end of 2019.