Competition of Youth Orchestras Closes with Master Concert Open to the Public of Santa Cruz

(Santa Cruz, December 12, 2013). The five finalists of the First National Competition of Youth Orchestras of Bolivia "Music to Grow" are preparing their presentation in the master concert that will close the activity, where the winners in the symphonic and string categories will be defined on Friday, December 13th at 20:000 in La Mision Church in Santa Cruz de la Sierra. Entrance to the public is free of charge. 

The departmental Symphonic Orchestra of Tarija, the Youth Symphonic Orchestra of Urubicha, the Chamber Orchestras Municipal de Cuerdas San José Patriarca and Juvenil Paz y Bien de San Ignacio de Velasco, and the Chamber Orchestra of Oruro's Philharmonic are the finalists in the competition. 

The competition is a joint initiative of CAF -Development Bank of Latin America-, 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). 

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. 

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. 

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.