By Francisco Guevara | Co-Executive Director
An Intensive Summer of Progress
It’s been a very different and intensive summer for Arquetopia’s music programs from previous years. We have embarked on a new project for 2014 that has been not only proven to foster more motivation toward practicing and learning but also provides a quantifiable, permanent audiovisual record of each student’s work and progress while eliminating stage fright.
This year’s special emphasis on learning how to eliminate stage fright goes beyond attaining the solid self-confidence students already get from having practiced properly. During each individual lesson, students are recorded on high-definition video, performing portions of the latest pieces of repertoire they are studying. Performing regularly for a critical audience, whether the audience is live or in the form of a high-quality camera, instills better concentration and desensitizes students to the common environmental elements that cause stage fright. The videos of the students are then rotated on YouTube and Vimeo during times of year when students are working toward live concert performances. The knowledge that their work will soon be seen and heard publicly on these websites after each session, regardless of how prepared or unprepared they are, motivates students to practice longer and more diligently than without recording.
These clips are catalogued in Arquetopia’s permanent library for future access by the students who may draw upon them for submission to various future endeavors such as competitions, concert performance opportunities, job auditions, and especially for college and conservatory scholarships.
Arquetopia’s New Music Space in Puebla
As of July 4 and after more than two and a half years of searching for a permanent home for Arquetopia, we have acquired a new space for our foundation, international artist residencies, and growing music programs in the central historic district of Puebla. The beautiful, spacious, and acoustically ideal music studio in the building’s solarium tower provides the long-awaited solution for our music programs’ previous space limitation of operating only in Oaxaca. Additional plans for the purchase of a quality grand piano and for the construction of a premier chamber music rehearsal and performing venue on the top floor are currently underway.
All of us at Arquetopia, staff and students alike, wish to profusely thank you, our many donors, for your continued support. It is no small miracle to have reached this important milestone in our journey, and we humbly acknowledge and appreciate the exceptional generosity of all of you. Have a wonderful summer and autumn.
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