Batuta: A Historic Concert

(Bogotá, October 30, 2013).With the participation of the Batuta Metropolitan Symphonic Orchestra under the direction of renowned Venezuelan maestro Manuel Lopez-Gomez, new National Artistic Director of Batuta, the concert Tchaikovsky, Batuta, and the Transforming Power of Music, took place in the Teatro Mayor Julio Mario Santo Domingo. A concert dedicated to the music of the great Russian composer, with the participation of distinguished Japanese violinist Ryu Goto. 

The Batuta Metropolitan Symphonic Orchestra (OSMB, for its acronym in Spanish), which is supported by the Fundación Metropolitana de Música (Metropolitan Music Foundation), is made up by 90 youths younger than 20 years old, who come from all the Batuta centers of Bogota. This concert reflects the intense work that the orchestra has been developing through diverse itinerant workshops which use the methodology of the Venezuelan System, in the framework of CAF's Music to Grow program. 

The OSMB is directed by maestro Lopez-Gomez, recently appointed as Artistic Director of the Batuta Symphonic Orchestras at a national level, who was previously assistant director of Gustavo Dudamel and Charles Dutoit in large symphonic productions and operas in Europe and the United States. Among other first class orchestras, he has directed the Gothenburg Symphonic Orchestra and the Moscow Philharmonic, in addition, he is one of the most renowned young directors of the well-known musical program  El Sistema de Venezuela (The System of Venezuela). 

Japanese violinist Ryu Goto participated in the concert. At the age of 24, he already has a renowned career: his debut at Carnegie Hall in New York, soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra of the United States, the Munich Philharmonic, the London Symphonic Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Hamburg Symphonic Orchestra, and the Philharmonic of China, under directors such as Lorin Maazel, Tan Dun, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Fabio Luisi and Myung-Whun Chung, among others. 

How will the 2013 Campaign -Batuta, the Transforming Power of Music be?

After more than 20 years of intense work in all the departments of the country, and with close to 150,000 boys, girls, and youths which have transformed their lives thanks to music, for the first time since its creation, the Batuta National Foundation will carry out its 2013 Campaign under the name Batuta, the Transforming power of Music. 

Thus, several events, concerts, activities, and citizen actions will take place starting on October 26th, seeking to provide visibility and praise the national impact work that the Foundation has been carrying out for more than two decades in each one of the Centros Musicales de Colombia (Musical Centers of Colombia), through the Symphonic Orchestra Training Programs and the Initiation Ensembles made up by boys, girls, and adolescents between the ages of 2 and 18 years old.