The Ninth Edition of the Santo Domingo Music Festival 2013 Opens

The Ninth Edition of the Santo Domingo Music Festival 2013 Opens
Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo, January 13, 2013

The Symphony Foundation (Fundación  Sinfonía), together with the Ministry of Culture, announced the opening of the ninth edition of the Santo Domingo Music Festival,which will be held starting on February 7th, in the Carlos Piantini Hall at the Eduardo Brito National Theatre.

The subject and the form are free, and the genres are: Symphonic, Choral and Chamber in Classical Music; Pop Ballad / Jazz, Folk and Dance in Popular Music.

For the first time, the Festival will include the presentation of a guest orchestra, Venezuela’s Simón Bolívar Youth Symphony Orchestra, under the direction oforchestra conductor star Gustavo Dudamel. The opening concert of the Santo Domingo Music Festival, under the sponsorship mainly of the Dominican Oil Refinery, will be offered bythe Simón Bolívar Orchestra, a group of 180 young exceptional musicians. This orchestra and its conductor, Gustavo Dudamel, are the hallmark of the iconic Venezuelan movement of children and youth orchestras established in 1977 by distinguished Maestro José Antonio Abreu, and known as “The System”. The Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra has traveled the world as ambassadorsof the movement of social transformation through music, and has performed in concert halls at the most prestigious music festivals in Europe, America and Asia. The hallmark of the interpretations by this orchestra hasinfectious energy and vitality, enshrining the idea of ??the central place that symphonic music has in the development of children and youth and itspoweras a toolfor social change.

Since 1986, the Symphony Foundation has worked promoting and advancing classical music in the Dominican Republic. Its contributions have beenkey to the continuity of the Dominican National Symphony Orchestra and the establishment of an important tradition of gala concerts of international level and of the Santo Domingo Music Festival, which, since 1997, is the most significantclassical music event in the Dominican cultural life. Since last year, and inspired by the example set by Maestro José Antonio Abreu and “The System”, the Symphony Foundation has also been working on behalf of the Dominican musical youth, by creating the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra of the Dominican Republicin July. The opening concert of the Santo Domingo Music Festival2013, with the presentation of the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra, demonstrates the Symphony Foundation’s commitment to education and youth, while maintaining what has been the most recognizable hallmark of its work: musical and artistic excellence.

The program for the ninth Santo Domingo Music Festival consists of a total of six nights, five of which, all during the month of March, will be under the responsibility of the Festival Orchestra, a symphonicgroup made of the best classical instrumentalists of the Dominican Republic and guest musicians from the renowned Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam – one of the top three orchestras in the world – the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, the Royal Danish Orchestra, the Spanish Radio Orchestraand the United StatesOrchestra. The March concert will be under the direction of Ramón Tebar, conductor of the Florida Grand Opera and of the Palm Beach Symphony, and of Benjamin Zander, conductor of the Boston Philharmonic. The following international stars will participate as soloists: violinist Joshua Bell, trumpeter Alison Balsom, pianists Antonio Pompa-Baldi and Jue Wang, and cellist Gautier Capuçon. The Festival will include an opera gala to mark the two hundred years since the birth of Giuseppe Verdi, with Russian diva Maria Guleghina and the Festival Orchestra and Chorus under conductorRamón Tebar.

Tickets and season passes to the Santo Domingo Music Festival are on sale at the Symphony Foundation office.

GUSTAVO DUDAMEL AND THE VENEZUELAN SIMON BOLIVAR YOUTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA