On May 19 at L’Auditori del Conservatori Liceu, the 20th anniversary of the Ibero-American Collaboration Program was celebrated with a concert featuring students and alumni. The event especially highlighted the collaboration with the Carolina Foundation, as well as the special relationship with Colombia as the country that inspired and inaugurated this project.
During the last twenty years, the Conservatory has continued to work on the international dimension of its studies as one of its priorities, where the links with Latin America have been of great importance. Over the years, the Liceu Conservatory Foundation has signed 88 collaboration agreements with Conservatories, Universities and Cultural Organizations in several countries such as Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina, Cuba, Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Brazil. Thanks to the programs developed through agreements with these institutions, 1.380 young musicians have studied at the Conservatory.
A very important aspect was the patronage initiatives, scholarship funds and alliances with important entities such as the Carolina Foundation, an institution that promotes cultural relations and cooperation in education between Spain and the countries of the Ibero-American Community of Nations
The Conservatory has maintained a close collaboration with the Carolina Foundation since 2002, which has made it possible, through its scholarship program, for 131 talented musicians to study at our Center and are now contributing with their art and music in various cultural and educational projects throughout Latin America.
On the other hand, Colombia, the country that inspired this program, inaugurated the long series of institutional collaboration agreements, occupying a special place not only because of the large percentage of young Colombians among the Latin American musicians who have studied with us (30%), but above all because of the richness of the cultural and educational projects that have been built over the years.
At the ceremony, Maria Serrat, General Director of the Conservatorio Liceu Foundation, welcomed all the attendees and celebrated these 20 years of collaboration with all the attendees who filled the Liceu Conservatory Auditorium to give way to María Andrea Torres, Minister Counselor of the Embassy of Colombia in Spain, and José Antonio Sanahuja, General Director of the Carolina Foundation.
After the speeches, the concert began, with the participation of distinguished alumni specially invited for this celebration, such as the Venezuelan cellist Cecilia Palma, the Colombian guitarist Edwin Guevara, the Argentine pianist Hugo Schuler, the Colombian singers Andrea Niño and César Cortés, and the percussionist Uriel Andrés Marín, also from Colombia. They were accompanied on stage by a saxophone quartet, the Latin American Chamber Group and the Latin Jazz Combo of the Conservatorio Liceo, with the participation of several current students from Latin American countries, among them the scholarship holders of the Carolina Foundation.
Pieces by Alberto Ginastera, Edwin Guevara, Gaetano Donizetti, Georges Bizet, Gioacchino Rossini, Justin Hurwitz, Astor Piazzolla, José Barros and Alain Pérez, among others, were performed.
The concert was attended by various personalities, authorities, directors of academic and cultural centers in Latin America, members of the consular bodies in Barcelona, students and the general public. It was a great celebration, based on the belief that through music and art, values, sensitivities and cultures of people from both sides of the ocean can be united.