In San Pedro, Valle del Cauca, the musicians from Risaralda that make up the Orquesta Vientos de Risaralda won the prize for the best band and for the best director of the contest with the young Pereiran Anthony Vega.
The invitation came directly from the mayor’s office of San Pedro, they had not planned to go but they had the encouragement given to them by the composer of the unpublished work they presented, Sebastián Trejos, a professor at the UTP from Calda, in addition to the fundamental support of maestro Ignacio Antonio Ríos, who has also witnessed the process. They also have the administrative management (spaces, instruments, money for travel, transportation) of the band manager.
Vientos del Risaralda was created in 2017, under the format of a party band with the purpose of evolving into a symphonic band. 17 musicians started, in 2018 there were already 25, by 2019, 35 musicians and currently it is made up of 56 people who play woodwind, bronze and symphonic percussion instruments.
They are members of the Vientos de Risaralda orchestra. The rhythm they presented was a guacherna from the north coast of Colombia.
“In Risaralda there is a problem and it is that the Departmental Music Plan only guarantees that a symphonic band is because it belongs to a school, conservatory or institution. What then happens with those musicians who chose another career, but do not want to practice music as something alternative? This project was created for those talented people and that they can be part of a symphonic band without there being something that coiba them”, says Anthony Vega.
In Risaralda, there is no departmental band as such, because the municipal band represents the city within the city, according to Vega. “As a wind orchestra, we are the band that represents the city and the department in national competitions.” That is why with this award they arrive stomping through Pereira, first to the departmental meeting in Apía, on August 12, where the juries will decide the three groups from Risaralda, who applied to travel to the national contests of Tocancipá, Paipa and Anapoima.