With a moving inauguration began the Portillo International Music Academy and Festival 2021. Alejandra Urrutia, artistic and musical director of the festival from Portillo with the Andes mountains and Laguna del Inca as a backdrop, started the online version of the festival.
During the day, ten classes and master classes were held, all taking place in the morning. In the master classes -which were open to the public- they exhibited Sabine Bretscheiner Jochumsen, violinist with the Danish National Orchestra, Katri Ervamaa, cellist and professor at the Residential College of the University of Michigan and Gorgias Sánchez, clarinetist with the UNCuyo Symphony Orchestra, Argentina.
Talks
During the afternoon a talk by doctor, neuroscientist and musician Charles Limb, who spoke about Neuroscience and Creativity live from the University of San Francisco
Then the festival continued with a dialogue between the teacher Kent Nagano, director of the Hamburg State Opera and festival director Alejandra Urrutia, who at the end of the conversation asked him to send a message to the scholarship musicians of the festival.
For young people, Nagano commented that the important thing “is to realize that through classical music – if we take it seriously – it is much more than just becoming good musicians. We grow up with classical music, because it increases our existential awareness, puts us in a different context (…) Part of the skills they develop is to exercise leadership and practice different ways of making decisions and I think the most important thing is that it connects us with fundamental human values that are freedom, equality, brotherhood, those three basic human values are what classical music embodies“.
And the last guest in this open series was Scherto Gill, intellectual, educator, writer who works in different contexts as a researcher and advisor on ways to move towards healing and peace on a collective and systemic level. Scherto believes that music, and classical music in particular, deeply reflects our human journey from conflict to peace. For example, Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde opening. There is a lot of tension and drama. Most symphonies also take us through human journeys of deep emotion and eventual resolution. It is healthy that we know that the conflict will always be there, but we are part of a single humanity and our notes, although different, can find harmonyScherto noted.
Closing of the first day
Before the evening concerts, the teacher Alejandra Urrutia paid a heartfelt tribute to the Argentine composer Claudia Montero, who died unexpectedly in Spain last Saturday. One way to honor her was with her own work: “Tres Colores Porteños”.
To end the day a series of archival concerts from last year was presented, where the first part was performed by students participating in the festival during 2020 and ended with the American String Quartet, who are the festival’s stable string teachers.
The festival is being broadcast in Spanish and English and is completely free and will continue until Sunday, January 24. If you want to be part you can register in this link.
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