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Santiago, Chile, June, 24, 2011
In four year composer Luca Belcastro (Como, Italy) has carried out more than 100 activities like free courses, workshops and seminaries in ten different Latin American countries in which thousands of young people have participated. He has created new spaces for education and gathering that have allowed the preparation, performance and play of contemporary music by young Latin American composers and artists. More than 250 new pieces of work have been composed as a result of the composition courses that he has given and organized. Besides, several (40) concerts within the framework of these activities.
Creator and founder of "Germina.Cciones... Primaveras Latinoamericanas" (Germina.Cciones... Latin American Springs) a cultural platform integrated by artists of Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Perú, México, Uruguay, El Salvador and Guatemala. Through his work in this institution he has promoted the interchange, creation, performance and play of musical work. Also he has worked hard in order to promote the communication between people and institutions. All this work have been done without any payment in a absolutely altruistic way, through free of charge activities, he himself paying the expenses, passages, etc.
He is who created and started "Germina.Cciones... Primaveras Latinoamericanas", an artistic and organizational platform with activities in ten Latin America countries.
Luca Belcastro also is in charge of managing "Germina.Cciones... Primaveras Latinoamericanas" from 2007 until today, an organization with activities in ten Latin American countries, which develops a cultural and musical program that promote collaboration between people and institutions that belong to different cultural realities in Latin America. This program develop activities in Argentina (Buenos Aires, Mendoza, Córdoba, Santa Fe, Mar del Plata), Bolivia (Cochabamba, La Paz), Chile (Santiago, Concepción, Valparaíso), Cuba (La Habana, Sancti Spíritu, Camagüey, Santiago de Cuba, Holguín), Ecuador (Quito, Guayaquil), Perú (Lima, Puno, Arequipa, Cuzco, Huánuco, Trujillo, Chiclayo), México (Puebla, Morelia, Mexico City, Monterrey, Chihuahua, Toluca, Guadalajara, Guanajuato), Guatemala (Guatemala City), El Salvador (San Salvador) and Uruguay (Montevideo).
"Germina.Cciones... Primaveras Latinoamericanas" has created a communication network between Latin American countries, and have established educational spaces but also gathering spaces for the interchange between artists and creators, generating instances of mutual support that allow them to participate and to share different visions and ways to create and accomplish their work.
Through "Germina.Cciones... Primaveras Latinoamericanas", Luca Belcastro has brought to life a organization formed basically by young composers, interpreters and creators of each country, that allows them to have an organizational platform to generate spaces of encounter, education and cultural development, not only within their countries but besides as an space of interchanges with its peers abroad.
Through his work in "Germina.Cciones... Primaveras Latinoamericanas", Belcastro, has develop an array of activities in order to promote and give impulse to the creation and musical interpretation, in a way that perhaps never happened before in Latin America. As a result of all this efforts and hard work, more than 250 new pieces of musical work in contemporary music have been created by young composers, based on the composition courses and workshop that he has given free of charge in different countries in Latin America. In addition to this, he has worked and stimulated, not only the creation but also he has organized ways where these new pieces of musical work can be play and perform. That is the case of the several concerts, that he has generated in which the new scores are released. Until today there are more than 40 concerts based on new scores, all of them achieved within the framework of the activities that Belcastro have carried out. As we see, he has achieved a vast work, through which, he has contributed to the search of new spaces for the composers and the relation between composers and interpreters. Perhaps there is not another composer in Latin America that has achieved this in such unselfish way, always giving priority to the work of young artist, instead of his own work as a composer.
Furthermore, he has organized musical gatherings, seminaries, conferences where important and well known musicians, artists, teachers and professors, have been able to engage and discuss different issues, and topics related to the musical field as composition techniques, use of contemporaries instruments, etc. Round tables, among others activities, on the subject of thematic musical comedies, compositional techniques and use of contemporaries instruments and also the discussion about the interactions between music and other art expressions. Within this framework have participated professionals from the musical field from different countries.
Thanks to the vision and management of Luca Belcastro, "Germina.Cciones... Primaveras Latinoamericanas" have carry out activities in collaboration with more than 60 of the most prestigious institutions, cultural festivals, schools of music in ten Latin American countries. In Chile, "Germinations" is a non Governmental Organization for charity with legal personality. In addition it has a internet website platform: www.germinaciones.org / info@germinaciones.org
Between 2007 and 2010, Luca Belcastro has given and organized 33 courses and workshops and more than 60 seminaries of contemporary music. Most of the courses have been on the 10 days basis, each day with a session of more than 8 hours, including breaks. All the activities have been free of charge and they have taken place in ten different Latin American countries. Belcastro has not profit from it, on the contrary he has paid himself for his expenses.
Since the first time that Belcastro visited Latin America in 2007, he has continued uninterruptedly, given seminaries like "Simetría o proporción: Naturalidad Aparente" (Symmetry or proportion: Apparent Naturalness), master classes and courses and workshops on composition and interpretation in 35 diferent latin american cities: Argentina (Buenos Aires, Mendoza, Córdoba, Santa Fe, Mar del Plata), Bolivia (Cochabamba, La Paz), Chile (Santiago, Concepción, Valparaíso), Cuba (La Habana, Sancti Spíritu, Camagüey, Santiago de Cuba, Holguín), Ecuador (Quito, Guayaquil), Perú (Lima, Puno, Arequipa, Cuzco, Huánuco, Trujillo, Chiclayo), México (Puebla, Morelia, Mexico City, Monterrey, Chihuahua, Toluca, Guadalajara, Guanajuato), Guatemala (Guatemala City), El Salvador (San Salvador) and Uruguay (Montevideo).
The courses have names of native flowers, taken from the country where they have taken place: "Copiu" in Chile (Santiago, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011), "Ceibo" in Argentina (Buenos Aires, 2009, 2009, 2010, 2011), "Patujú" in Bolivia (La Paz and Cochabamba 2008, 2009, 2010), "Kantuta" in Perú(Lima, Puno, Trujillo 2008, 2009, 2010) "Mariposa" in Cuba (La Habana, Sancti Spíritu, Camagüey, Santiago de Cuba, Holguín 2009, 2010), "Xicamiti" in México (Puebla, Morelia, Mexico City, Monterrey, Chihuahua, Toluca, Guadalajara, Guanajuato 2009, 2010, 2011), "Quina" in Ecuador (Quito, Guayaquil), "Izquixúchitl" in Guatemala (Guatemala City 2009), "Jacarandá" (Valparaíso, Concepción in Chile and Mar del Plata in Argentina 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011) a ambulatory workshop and "Yareta" in Chile (Santiago, 2010, 2011), project of creation of new scores with educational purpose, which aim to stimulate composers without formal education, to create works of contemporary music for interpreters with basic instrument knowledge.
Through these courses and composition workshops, Luca Belcastro has created a space for the education and gathering of young people coming from different Latin American musical schools, allowing them to work and interact in the professional field. He has a integrating approach to the creation process, providing compositional and instrumental techniques, also bringing analyses and evaluation methods in contemporary music. All the way along until the concert premiere, where the new scores, generated in the courses are played and interpreted.
Luca Belcastro have an innovating educational proposal. He does not impose a technique but he promote that each new composer develops his own language. The courses begin with the work proposal that have been previously discuss and work out in the workshop directed by him, the course end with the assembly process, with the participation of the interpreters in the concert premiere where the pieces of musical work are presented and played.
As a mature artist, Belcastro, want to contribute to give a opportunity to younger composers to show their own musical pieces and be able to listen them and also get in contact with their peers.
Luca Belcastro have created in Latin America a educational space but which is more important he have helped hundreds of young composers and interpreters to understand the composition process considering the execution of the piece as a essential part of it. In other words, the courses not only are a space of theoretical learning, but they include practices and experiences, field work where the experience in alive presentations are essential part of it. In many occasions, this have been the first opportunity for young composers to listen their works been played, something that they have no been able to experience in their own school. In some other cases, the courses have been the opportunity that their pieces are played in other Latin American countries. Undoubtedly, Belcastro has given a great stimulus to the production and creation of contemporary musical work in the continent.
Contributing to the creation of new repertoire, to bring and consolidate a larger musical audience and to form and teach new interpreters in contemporary musical language in Latin America - As a result, 250 piece of musical works have been created by young composers in three years.
Luca Belcastro aware of the enormous creative potential in Latin America, he came to Latin America to put all his energy and dedication into helping the young artist generation. He, as a European, did not come to spread his own music as an composer but to help Latin American musicians to develop their own voice, stimulating them. Therefore, he has dedicated himself to encourage them to investigate into the musical reality, into the surroundings where they belong. As a result it has been a growth in the Latin American musical repertoire. He has contributed with hundreds of new musical works, which have been created as a result of the courses given by him to young Latin American composers. Many of those pieces have been released in countries far from where they were originally created, favoring repertoire interchange within the continent. Moreover, through multiples concerts he has contributed to the formation of interpreters in the contemporary musical language, the upbringing or formation of a large audience, the artistic development of the new generations of musicians and the creation of spaces of gathering and opportunities for the creation and interpretation, perform and play of Latin American contemporary music.
Just in Chile more than 100 pieces of musical works have been released as a result of the "Copiu" course (2008, 2009, 2010), where hundreds of musician have participated in concerts. To date and as a result of the courses given by him, more than 250 works altogether have been created in Latin America.
Creating new spaces for the music of young composers and Latin American interpreters.
The altruistic work of Luca Belcastro has allowed that the current generation of young composers and interpreters, could have new spaces for their professional development in their own countries. The courses and workshops, carry out in different Latin American countries, have stimulated and generated opportunities for the participants to share, listen and get to know different possibilities in the approach of music, but mainly it has created the opportunity to share different points of view. There are hundreds of young people that have participated and there are many new strong links that have been establish as a result of these activities.
Promoting the bonds and links between institutions and bringing together people from different schools.
Since he founded "Germina.Cciones... Primaveras Latinoamericanas", he has proposed an integrating way of working, and a reciprocal collaboration as much at the institutional level as between people. Due to his management, the support of more than 60 institutions among them universities, musical training centers, and cultural organizations of Latin America, have been achieved.
Regarding the activities that have been carried out between the years 2007 and 2011. Luca Belcastro main aim has been to create an space where participants with different backgrounds, perceptions, and points of view could share and work together in order to enhance their individual perspectives.
He manages to create spaces for the dialogue between Latin American musicians and stimulates the formation of ensembles of contemporary music.
In Latin America, Luca Belcastro has created spaces of interchange for the new generation of artists and simultaneously through the activities that he has organized he has stimulated the interaction between them and the interpreters, for instance, in actitivities like "Encuentros con la musica hoy" (Nowaday music encounters), courses and and workshops. Besides, he has created and stimulated the formation of musical ensembles in different countries, like "Copiuensable" in Chile, "Xicamitiensamble" in México, "Patujuensamble" in Bolivia and "Ceibensamble" in Argentina, among others groups integrated by professional interpreters, who have played works in the Latin American repertoire created by young composers, coming from those courses that Belcastro has given. Also Luca Belcastro has dedicated a big deal of efforts to secure that the works of Latin American young composers were played in well known festivals of contemporary music, this way, he has reached a new level for the current new Latin American repertoire.
He created "PRISMAS - Festival Permanente de Creacion Latinoamericana" (PRISMS - ongoing festival for the Latin America creativity), with the purpose to build a space where the young musicians could create and interpret the current contemporary music.
"PRISMAS - Festival Permanente de Creacion Latinoamericana" have been created within the framework of the project "Germina.Cciones... Primaveras Latinoamericanas" on the initiative of Luca Belcastro, aiming to promote the integration and appreciation of the Latin American musical creation. The Festival is carried out in different Latin American countries. On the concerts of Prisms the program is based mainly on the new scores played by soloists and ensembles. These new pieces of work, were produce and created during the training composition courses given by Luca Belcastro. In Chile, "PRISMAS - Festival Permanente de Creacion Latinoamericana" have made two versions (2009, 2010) with more than eighty pieces of musical work already released and with the participation of more of one hundred musicians.
Luca Belcastro is carrying out a activity that could be called philanthropic.
Luca Belcastro, motivated by his ideals and in order to carry out his musical activities during about four years, has founded him self, which mean he have paid his own expenses, since he has never received professionals wages. Consequently, we are clear that during all these years he has worked really hard and shown a great capacity of deliver added to his great convictions and enormous capacity to accomplish difficult tasks. His commitment with the Latin American musicians is so strong that he has deferred his own personal career as a composer in order to promote and help Latin American young artists in the musical field. We hope that all his hard work could be appreciated and supported not only with words but also with the financial support that he deserve and need in order continue and to enhance his work as we have presented above.
He has solved problems as the lack of links and communication between Latin American musicians and has inspired new guidelines and ways to think in a new generation of teachers and tutors, who nowadays, give more relevance to the idea of creating new spaces for Latin American artists.
Through new and different activities that Luca Belcastro have realized, he has solved real problems in the Latin America artistic field, as the lack of links and communication between institutions. Many young composers have had the opportunity to travel abroad to other countries thanks to the activities mentioned above. Belcastro has managed to generate awareness on the Latin American repertoire in our own country Chile, as in the continent as a whole. Moreover, he has had a strong influence in schools, these progressively have begun to give a privileged place to Latin America musicians.
He is author of the book "Sacbeob, escritos latinoamericanos" ("Sacbeob, Latin American writtings" ) and he has promoted different record editions like the records of New Scores and books based on the Copiu course in Chile.
His work has incommensurable perspectives.
The work of Luca Belcastro is oriented to increase and to consolidate the participation of institutions and studies, which contribute to the cultural cooperation in Latin America, in creating new spaces for education, dialogue and interchange between musicians and artists. In a wider perspective his work promote the creation, performance and spreading of Latin American repertoire. He has devoted and dedicated his life, experience, time and money, to this task, obtaining as a result something that no many other artists has accomplished, a project that reach the whole Latin American Continent, favoring thousands of people. We believe his proposal has huge possibilities of development, through courses orientated to create new musical repertoire, or through musical gatherings, editing and recording, publications, festivals and platforms, linking and communication between institutions, evaluating musical expressions and professional development of our artists.
To appreciate the work of Luca Belcastro is to give a real opportunity to the musical artists for their development and improvement and to favor the rich potential of creativity that exist in Latin America.
Milena Bahamonde Barros
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