Cartagena prepares for the International Music Festival

The seventh edition of the Cartagena International Music Festival will take place in 2012, a cultural event that has allowed the city to position itself as a tourist destination, reason enough for PROCOLOMBIA to support the event.

The Festival, according to Julia Salvi, president of Fundación Salvi, came about after a visit to the Heroic City with her husband, Victor Salvi Italian. The architectural features of Cartagena, its churches, streets and Adolfo Mejia theater, convinced this traditionally musical couple of the opportunity to put together a classical music event that involved the community, the public and private sectors, national and international musicians.

The festival has seen the presence of prominent figures in the world of classical music, like Charles Wardsworth, composer, pianist and founder of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York.

"Being here in my Festival is undoubtedly one of the most enriching moments in my life," said Wardsworth upon completion of the first version of the event.

In addition to the concerts in the most magical places in Cartagena, the festival brings music to the least privileged neighborhoods of the city, where most of its inhabitants do not have a means of access to the concerts of the walled city.

"We go into the neighborhoods in Cartagena for workshops and to play before people who have little or no access to the kind of music we play," said Spanish clarinetist Jose Franch-Ballester.

Furthermore, we hold lutheria workshops and master classes for young people from different regions and make the most of the visit by international and local musicians to receive high-level advice.

When the guest artists are not in concerts or rehearsals, they give master classes on a variety of instruments to the young musicians. Over 400 students have benefited from the lectures and of these, 78 have been awarded grants by Jimmy and Becky Mayer, Anglo Gold Ashanti and Fundación Salvi.

Elvis Alejandro Diaz, 16, has been a beneficiary of the classes; he met classical harpist Elizabeth Hainen, who later invited him to perform at a concert in Philadelphia.

"It is exciting to come to a country and to share with young musicians everything they believe about this genre and what it represents for me to be a musician," said Elizabeth Hainen after her experience in Cartagena.
International promotion for the city

Since 2009, PROCOLOMBIA has supported the event has promoted Cartagena as an international destination. The organization has invited foreign media journalists to know the city during the Festival.

Media journalists like the UK Gig Magazine; El Mercurio, Chile; El Clarin, Argentina or America's Quarterly from the United States, were in town and also got a taste of the culture, gastronomy and tourism.

Version 2012 has confirmed the presence of journalists from Toronto Star (Canada), Boston Globe and AAA World Magazine (United States).

The presence of international journalists has generated positive publications about Cartagena.