Competition of Bolivia’s Youth Orchestras in the final stages

(Santa Cruz, December 09, 2013). The five finalists of the First National Competition of Bolivia's Youth Orchestras "Music to Grow"are participating in an orchestral training workshop in Santa Cruz, conducted by maestros from the Orchestral System of Venezuela. After the training workshop, the finalists will participate in a master concert where the winners in the symphonic and string categories will be recognized, in the presence of Enrique Garcia, Executive President of CAF -Development Bank of Latin America. 

The Departmental Symphonic Orchestra of Tarija, the Youth Symphonic Orchestra of Urubichá, The Chamber Orchestras Municipal de Cuerdas San Jose Patriarca and Juvenil Paz y Bien de San Ignacio de Velasco, and the Chamber Orchestra of Oruro's Philharmonic, were selected for this new workshop that started on Sunday 8th and will last until Friday, December 13th, with the participation of 187 musicians, including directors and teachers. The ages of the orchestras' participants range from 7 to 23 years old. 

The competition is a joint initiative of CAF, the Federation of Private Entrepreneurs of Santa Cruz (FEPSZ, for its acronym in Spanish), the World Bank (WB), and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Bolivia, and is supported by the government of the Department of Santa Cruz and the Municipal Government of Santa Cruz, the Entrepreneurial Council for Sustainable Development (CEDES Bolivia, for its acronym in Spanish) and i3 Impacto Social (i3 Social Impact). 

For the promoters of this competition, music is an extraordinary inclusion and social transformation tool that offers children and youths a wonderful opportunity to receive comprehensive training and achieve a better quality of life in the future for themselves and their families. 

The objective of the workshop, which is already considered a prize for the finalist orchestras due to the quality of the training imparted, is to work in a technical manner on the repertoire that will be presented in the closing concert, so the methodology to be used is to learn by playing.  Venezuelan teachers Solangel Yustiz (violoncello), Luis Guillermo Pérez Palencia (double bass), Richard Urbano (viola) and Borgan Ascanio (violin), are the specialists in charge of the master classes in the Santa Cruz Cultural Centre. 

During the concert, the jury, made up by well-known Bolivian musicians Ana María del Carpio, Grace Rodríguez and Freddy Terrazas, will evaluate the orchestras to choose the winners, and will announce the results at that moment. Both the best Symphonic Orchestra and the best String Orchestra will receive a prize amounting to BOB 42 thousand each, in addition to a recognition plaque. 

An innovating characteristic of this competition is that the evaluation not only considered the musical skills and technical work, but also assigned an important weight to the social work and transforming role that music has on children and youths from low income backgrounds that make up these orchestras. 

Evaluation criteria 

For the final evaluation, six technical musical criteria were considered:

• Tuning: Sound vibration based on the musical note A, 440Hz or 442Hz to relate it to all the degrees of the scale.
• Balance: Balanced sound relationship between the elements that constitute the musical structure.
• Phrasing and articulation: Metric unit which has a musical sense and is understandable (articulation) in the clarity of the transition from one sound to another.
• Flexibility and Expressiveness: Capacity to model the sound language to transmit, communicate, and create emotions. A musical element that depends on the personal response which varies according to the performers.
• Coherence in the Musical Discourse: Logical relationship between the different sound structures that make the musical piece understandable.

Precision: Accuracy in reading the musical score compared with the composer´s writing.