UD Department of Music kicks off partnership with Colombian universities

12:02 p.m., Sept. 16, 2011--A delegation of professors and alumni from the University of Delaware Department of Music traveled to Bogota, Colombia, in August to perform a concert and to establish connections for future collaborations and programs.

The trip was part of a grant funded through the Institute for Global Studies, for approximately $18,000, to develop a broad partnership in the arts between the University of Delaware and Colombian universities.  The grant will begin with collaborations between Pontifica Universidad Javeriana in Bogota and will expand to other Colombian universities.

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Ideally, future collaborations will include musical partnerships, study abroad program development, dual-degree graduate program development, attracting top graduate and undergraduate Colombian students to UD, and the enrichment of UD faculty and students with new musical culture.  

The arts collaboration is based on a program already in place from the College of Engineering at UD.  The college now has formal agreements with 11 Colombian universities, over 100 applications every year for the graduate program at Delaware, and 30 Ph.D. students from Colombia.  

This grant will help begin the expansion to arts, starting with music.  The collaboration began with a concert on Aug. 23.  The concert included cello professor Lawrence Stomberg, Grammy award winning producer and UD faculty member Andreas K. Meyer, soprano and UD alumnus Catherine Short de Arce, as well as professors from the department of music at Pontifica Universidad Javeriana and headed by chair Andrés Samper and dean of arts Leonor Convers.

Concert participants included Cecilia Palma (cello), Radostina Petkova (piano), Cesar Quevedo (guitar), Carolina Ortega (soprano), Maria Olga Piñeros (soprano), and Carlos Posada (guitar). 

Works included were by Leonard Bernstein, Andre Previn, Puccini, J. Rodrigo and Gershwin. Also included was Hector Villa-Lobos’ beautiful Bachianas Brasilieras No. 5 for soprano and eight cellos.

Two other collaborative concerts are planned for 2012 as part of the partnership including Mozart’s Requiem in Bogota and a concert with invited guests from Bogota to Delaware.