A group of children and a group of older adults are ready to make the Christmas spirit feel in Guayaquil. one is the White Voices Municipal Children’s Choir, directed by the soprano Beatriz Gil, and the other is the choir of the Hospital del Día Dr. Efrén Jurado López (IESS), directed by the doctor Carlos Villacrés Velasteguí.
Voces Blancas was founded in 1999 by Beatriz Gil. At that time it was called the Juan Pueblo Municipal Children’s Choir. With its new name, it became part of the Directorate of Management and Cultural Heritage of the MI Municipality of Guayaquil. It has 30 singers, boys and girls from 7 to 14 years old. He has been part of operas, operettas, symphonic-choral works, zarzuelas, binational meetings and meetings such as the Voz de Voces International Festival of Children’s and Youth Choirs.
It currently works in the facilities of the Zumar Multifunctional Center, Much Lot. In addition to rehearsals, children learn lyrical singing technique, voice imposition, choral and popular repertoire national, Latin American and the world.
This year they have prepared the classics Mrs Dona Maria, the little boy is coming, Rudolph the Reindeer, The Sabanero Donkey, Fish in the river Y Christmas bells (Carol of the Bells) by M. Leontovych, among others. His first presentation was at the Casa Rosada, on the first day of December.
This choir remained active during the confinement due to the pandemic in 2020, took advantage of teleworking and continued with auditions and rehearsals. “Music cannot be allowed to stand out; art is the heart of the human being and, therefore, of the earth. It cannot be deleted. Music is the soul, ”he said then its director, in an interview for EL UNIVERSO.
The White Voices choir performs next December 7 at 7:00 p.m. in the La Merced church, on Sunday 11 at 6:00 p.m. on Panama Street, on Saturday 17 at the Christmas Stories and Songs concert, in the Chapel of the Colegio San José La Salle, an event organized by Choral Academy ESG, and on Sunday 18 at 11:00 in the Plaza de la Administración.
Where to listen to the choir of older adults this Christmas?
Retired or not, IESS members of the elderly are invited to be part of the choir of the Hospital del Día Dr. Efrén Jurado López. This ensemble was born on February 15, 2011, and rehearses in the multipurpose room of the Geriatrics area. Its director, Dr. Carlos Villacrés, invites you to listen to them on December 14 at the Levanta tus alas festival, organized by the Anthropological and Contemporary Art Museum (MAAC).
There they will share with the public the topics Mrs. Santa Ana, on a night so cold, a moonlit night came, Rudolf the reindeer Y Cute boy.
The choir of the Salesian Polytechnic University, the Rondalla Madrigal, the children’s and teachers’ choir of the Mariscal Sucre Educational Unit and the Voces Pioneras Choir Group will also participate in this event.
This opportunity changed the lives of the elderly choristers, “by reintegrating them into the cultural society of Guayaquil and into a new family, which is the choir, stopping the cognitive deterioration to which they are exposed at this age”, says the manager.
Carlos Villacrés is a surgeon, but his first training was as a graduate in music pedagogy at the Technical University of Manabí, and as an accompanist pianist and graduated concert pianist from the Antonio Neumane conservatory. “My mother’s support from childhood prevented me from being on the street; she enrolled me in music classes and gave birth to the vocation that I have now as director of the IESS choir ”. (AND)
Source: Eluniverso
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