The 2020 version schedules a wide variety of midday concerts from January 11 to 17, contributing free activities to the summer season.

Summer in the Coquimbo Region is not only synonymous with sun and beaches, but also with high-level music and cultural panoramas, such as the traditional La Serena Musical Encounters organized and executed every year by the ULS Music Department and the Foundation. La Serena Regional Symphony Orchestra, and that this 2020 will hold its thirty-fifth version with free concerts, prominent guest artists and groups from the region. Added to this are training activities such as the Encuentros Youth Symphony Orchestra, made up of music students from different parts of the local territory.

The XXXV version began this January 3, welcoming the more than 80 performers who give life to the youth group of these Meetings. These days, they are rehearsing with the bandleaders of the Universidad de La Serena Symphony Orchestra, with whom they are preparing the inaugural concert next Saturday, January 11, in the heart of the regional capital. During this year, the Musical Meetings will extend until the 17th of the same month with free concerts at noon.

The opening will be led by one of the most outstanding Chilean teachers and a regular friend of the regional ensemble's programming, José Luis Domínguez, current artistic director of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, who will govern with agility and character a program as magnificent as it is diverse, with works such as 'Finlandia', Op. 26 (Jean Sibelius, Sweden), 'Carmen Suite Nº1' (Georges Bizet, France), 'Danzón 2' (Arturo Márquez, Mexico), 'Emperor Waltz' and 'Truenos and Lightning' (Johann Strauss II, Austria), 'Hungarian Dance No. 5' (Johannes Brahms), 'Fantastic Dance' and 'Tres Aires Chilenos No. 3' (Enrique Soro, Chile).

On Monday, January 13, Domínguez will continue conducting, but this time in charge of the La Serena University Symphony Orchestra, with a repertoire that will pay tribute to the Austrian genius Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with the Overture 'The Marriage of Figaro', Symphony No. 36 in C Major, K. 425, 'Linz' and the 'Concerto No. 1 in G Major for flute and orchestra'; The latter will be performed by Nicole Garrido Espinosa, the brand new winner of 2nd place, university category, of the 2019 Regional Young Soloists Competition. In the words of the performer, this concert means “a great challenge, since I am always perfecting it and I feel very excited “To play with a professional orchestra is an honor and a privilege that I want to enjoy to the fullest.”

The billboard of these Musical Meetings will also feature regional groups with vast experience, such as the Ensamble Villanueva de La Serena and Lican Antay, who will perform on Tuesday, January 14 and Wednesday, January 15. While on Thursday the 16th, the fifth day will fall to the talent of the Coquimbo Philharmonic Orchestra, who under the direction of Fernando Guede Rodríguez will offer the Overture 'The Magic Flute' (W. Mozart), the Symphony No. 8 in B Minor 'La Inconclusa' (F. Schubert), 'Romanza N°2 for violin and orchestra, with the soloist Yarec Rivera, and the 'Coroleano' Overture (both by Ludwig Van Beethoven).

Regarding the presentation on Tuesday, January 14, Tatiana Espinoza Lamatta, musical director and president of the Villanueva de La Serena Cultural Foundation, commented that the first part of the program was premiered with great success in September 2019, at the 6th Festival of Latin American Baroque in Cusco, Peru: "it is based mainly on the most important composer of the baroque born in America, the Peruvian José de Orejón y Aparicio." While the second part of the program will feature the participation of guests such as the children's and youth choir from the Allegro Academy, directed by Francisco Espinoza, with whom we will perform music written in Araucanía in the year 1777. These are simple songs based on works of Gregorian chant, with text in Mapudungun, written by a Jesuit missionary and transcribed by the musicologist Chilean Víctor Rondón”, he specified.

Regarding the symphonic concert that the Lican Antay group will offer, Gustavo Araya Pérez, founder and general director of the group, referred to the musical journey that they will carry out on Wednesday, January 15, together with the Latin American Symphony Orchestra of the Pedro Aguirre Cerda School of La Antena and the teacher Juan Ricardo Tabilo. The work called 'Tomás Paniri: the leader of the wind, the sun on the earth', is inspired by this Atacama leader who lived in the Alto Loa area, between the years 1780 and 1781: “it is a musical-historical story that tells the feat of Tomás Paniri and his Atacameño hosts who raised arms against the Catholic Church and the Spanish crown. It is a work that we originally composed for the group Lican Antay (…) Then, through the Music Fund, we obtained financing to make a symphonic version. It is a 45-minute program that includes, in addition to the work, a couple of versions that Juan Ricardo Tabilo made of other songs of ours that are not part of this historical story,” said the local musician and composer.

Finally, the XXXV version of the La Serena Musical Encounters will lower the curtain with a first-class concert by the professional cast, again under the guidance of Domínguez. The closing repertoire highlights the Overture 'The Barber of Seville' by G. Rossini; 'Romanza Op.1' by Antonín Dvorak performed by Camila Díaz (violin), winner of 1st place in the 2019 Regional Young Soloists Competition, university category; to end with the 'Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67' by the German genius, LV Beethoven.

It should be noted that all concerts are free entry, without withdrawal of invitations and will take place in Aula Magna ULS (Benavente #980).

The La Serena Musical Encounters is a regional event organized by the ULS Music Department and the La Serena Regional Symphony Orchestra Foundation, together with the support and sponsorship of the Ministry of Cultures, Arts and Heritage; and the University of La Serena through the Directorate of Linkage with the Environment and Extension (DIVEULS). This initiative was proposed in 1984 by the orchestra director and musical manager, Fernando Rosas, with the idea of ​​taking advantage of the musical wealth developed in the commune around the legacy of maestro Jorge Peña Hen, crystallized in youth music, university musical life. and the rich tourist environment present in La Serena in the summer season.

Written by Camila Pérez, University of La Serena Symphony Orchestra