MEMBERSHIP SPOTLIGHT

CIRCE DIAZ

Saludos from Venezuela!!!!

My name is Circe Diaz. I play the violoncello and live in Venezuela. We have many orchestras and very good teachers here. I play in Aragua's Symphony Orchestra. The history of our orchestra began in 1975 with the beginning of the musical revolution. Master Jose Antonio Abreu created the orchestra system, and international organizations like O.E.A and UNESCO helped the movement. Aragua's Symphony Orchestra performed for the first time in the Teatro de la Opera de Maracay on March 19, 1990. The orchestra was founded with Aragua's musicians and we have now been playing together for eight years. Our directors are Pablo Gonzales and Tereza Hernandez.

We have had international conductors such as Jordi Mora and Carlos Dominguez Nieto (Spain), Rony Rogoff (Israel), Gerard Oskamp (Norway), Robert Olson (U.S.A.), Mattias Gobel and Helmutt Rilling (Germany). National conductors have included Simon Alvares, Inocente Carreno, Maria Guinand, Filipe Izcaray, Alfredo Rugeles, Jorge Castillo, Federico Nunes Corona and Juan Carlos Nunez.

We have perfomed with national and international soloists such as David Ascanio, Huascar Barradas, Efren Briskin, Ruben Camacho, Stoika Milanova, Wilian Molina, Wilian Naranjo, Henry Rubio, Arnaldo Piaaolante, Alexis Cardenas, Albert Markov, Luis Gomez Imbert, Ricardo Luque, German Marcano, Paul Desenne, and Carlos Duarte.

The orchestra is very important in Venezuela. We recently had a violin festival and performed music of Barber, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Dvorak, and Bartok. All of the soloists worked with Jose Fransisco del Castillo. He is a very good teacher and takes care of all of his students.

I also am a member of the Women's Chamber Orchestra, founded by Tereza Hernandez. It is the only women's chamber orchestra in my country. We began to play together in 1997 for the Women's International Day, performing Baroque music of Bach, Corelli, Locatelli, Lully and Handel. The orchestra is comprised of 21 women: 7 first violins, 6 second violins, 4 violas, 3 cellos, and 1 bass. All are musicians of Aragua's Symphony Orchestra.

If you would like to see more information about us you can see our web page. Just see Aragua on line and type Orquesta Sinfonica de Aragua.

Sincerely,

Circe Diaz

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