Ibagué and the whole country will live one of the most autochthonous and traditional musical encounters in the country: the National Festival of Colombian Music in its 37th.ª edition, which will take place from March 13 to 20.
The Musical City of Colombia will be filled with the most famous traditional rhythms in the country, but before that there will be an extraordinary gala concert called “In time of grace, voices of hope are a sign of life of the new dawn”, to officially launch the event, in the Teatro Julio Mario Santo Domingo on Friday, February 10, starting at 7:00 p.m.
The doors of the theater will open at 6:00 pm to receive in a particular way the special guests and members of the Tolimense colony based in Bogotá.
In this gala concert, a tribute will be made to the Tolimense maestro Fulgencio García and the piece “Una refulgente gata golosa” will be premiered, inspired by one of the best-known and most popular songs by this distinguished 19th-century musician. The new work is authored by maestro Gustavo Yepes, a professor at the Eafit University of Medellín and will be performed by the Chamber Orchestra of the University of Tolima, under the direction of maestro César Augusto Zambrano Rodríguez, current musical director of the Fundación Musical de Colombia.
Later, at 7:30 pm, the Living Earth duet will perform the work “Fiesta” by composer Leonardo Laverde, winner of the 25th Leonor Buenaventura National Composition Contest. Then the winning duets of the national Príncipes de la Canción contest, Maderas (2022), Entre Cantos (2019) and Nocturnal (2003) will be presented.
The magistral closing will be in charge of the teacher Beatriz Arellano and the group La Gran Rondallawho once again will delight the public with a presentation of Colombian music.
Doris Morera de Castro, president of the Musical Foundation of Colombia, pointed out that “this meeting is an invitation to enjoy what is ours, our national talents, our folklore, our music. It is a show of love and gratitude to the artists who allow Colombian music to remain relevant”.
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Morera de Castro told EL NUEVO SIGLO that groups from Colombia will participate: “Composers from Antioquia Bogotá, Boyacá, Caldas, La Guajira, Huila, Risaralda, Santander, Tolima and Valle del Cauca were chosen. This festival is one of the largest in the country and this year it will be held in person, beginning with the traditional gala concert ‘In grace time, voices of hope are a sign of life of the new dawn’, a phrase that served as inspiration for composers from all regions of the country who were nominated this year”.
The varied programming also includes special guests such as teacher Beatriz Arellano, who was born in Buga, Valle del Cauca, into a family with a great musical tradition; she was the seventh of ten siblings with whom she formed the Arellano Family Choir, in force for nearly 20 years and which enjoyed wide national popularity. The folklorist has stood out as a soloist and instrumental accompanist, playing the tiple, the guitar, the cuatro, the charango and the piano.
Likewise, Katie James, a prominent Colombian singer-songwriter born in Inishfree, Ireland, will perform. She came to Colombia with her family at the age of two to live in the Anglo-Irish hippie community called Atlantis and since she was nine she has been dedicated to music. She has gained fame for her musical talent, demonstrated through a good number of music albums.
The singer Adriana Lucía will also be on stage, who thanks to the impact of her songs has received nominations for Latin Grammy Awards for “Shock” and “Nuestra Tierra”.
It has been a tradition of Ibagué, as the Musical City of Colombia, the permanent presence of duets. The most representative of all times is undoubtedly that of Garzón and Collazos. Following his footprint and under the impulse that his dimension forged, many others have been formed in Tolima and in the rest of the country, who day by day work for the conservation of the cultural heritage of Colombia, keeping alive and valid the musical heritage of the “Princes of the Song”.
About the festival, the mayor of Ibagué, Andrés Fabián Hurtado, said: “We are ready to receive you in our Musical Capital, with art and culture in this which is one of the most important events and which is part of our great Cultural Agenda 2023” .
For his part, Jáiber Antonio Bermúdez, director of Culture of Tolima, ratified the commitment that the government “El Tolima Nos Une” has with the festival, which in the This edition celebrates 20 years of having been recognized as Cultural Heritage and Artistic of the Nation.
This festival was born on March 21, 1987 as a tribute to the legendary Andean duet Garzón y Collazos, held just after the first anniversary of the death of maestro Darío Garzón. At the beginning of the festival, a serenade was offered in the San Bonifacio de Ibagué cemetery, where the members of the duet currently rest.
However, today it has been transformed into a festival dedicated to honoring and preserving the great musical heritage of Colombia.