Student Exchange Project

SEP button croppedThe Community Center for the Arts is proud to announce a partnership with the Orquesta Sinfonia Infantil de Sechura/Sechura Youth Orchestra, a municipal ensemble from the beautiful coastal town of Sechura, in northern Peru.

Our orgainziations share a mission of providing the best possible music instruction to committed students, and to cultivating a strong sense of community through music instruction. Accordingly, we are developing an exchange project that will benefit both music communities.

We are finalizing plans and will post details as they are confirmed.

About the Exchange Project

 

The first phase of the project will take place in February, 2018.  Four Peruvian students and four of their teachers will travel to Urbana for a two-week residency at C4A.

While they are here the students will benefit in a number of ways: They will take private instruction with professional teaching artists at C4A, receive training in ensemble playing and development and participate in ensembles with North American music students.  They will be given techniques for sharing their knowledge with their peers when they return to Peru.

The Peruvian instructors will participate in pedagogical discussions with their North American colleagues. Both the teachers and their student counterparts will make personal and future professional contacts with musicians in the US.

Similarly, our music community will benefit from this collaboration:

  • Our students will engage directly with their Peruvian counterparts;
  • C4A music students will work toward performances at the end of the residency period;
  • C4A students will learn repertoire from the Peruvian instructors;
  • C4A teaching artists will engage in intensive pedagogical collaboration with the Peruvian instructors;
  • North American and Peruvian instructors will exchange performing and instructional repertoire;
  • North American and Peruvian instructors will have several opportunities to perform together; 
  • The project will strengthen the reputation of Urbana as an artistically rich community;

Our community at large will also benefit from this exchange in the form of public music performances.

This first part of the project will pave the way for further collaboration between the two communities.

About Orquesta sinfonia Infantil de Sechura:

The Youth Orchestra has been in existence for two years. All of their musical instruments and the salary of director Juan Amaya Morales are provided by the city under the direction of the mayor and Sechura city council, and several professional string teachers volunteer their time to give instruction. Orchestra membership is free for the middle and high school aged musicians. The ensemble rehearses throughout the year in the Sechura municipal auditorium and is a source of considerable justifiable pride to the city of Sechura.

How can you help?

    • SEP button croppedUse the button on the right to make a tax-deductible donation via PayPal (You do not need a PayPal account to use this service) or send a check made to C4A (put Cultural Exchange in memo) at 103 North Race Street, Urbana, IL 61801.
    • Do you know a potential sponsor for this project?
    • Would you like to help with hospitality when our guests arrive in February?
    • Contact us!