Duendecillos de los Puentes 2024 Festival Auditions.

The auditions for the Festival de Interpretación Vocal Duendecillos de los Puentes 2024 culminated at the Casa de Cultura Bonifacio Byrne, with a view to the most important children’s music contest in the city of Matanzas.

The auditions for the Festival of Vocal Interpretación Duendecillos de los Puentes 2024 culminated at the Casa de Cultura Bonifacio Byrne, with a view to the most important children’s music contest in the city of Matanzas, to be held in the middle of the year.

This audition was aimed at selecting the finalists of the next event in two categories of primary education: from preschool to 3rd grade and from 4th to 6th grade, and in secondary education, from 7th to 9th grade, informed promoter Vladimir Pérez Padrón.

The result of the contest distinguished a total of 17 future singers; 16 of them were girls and only one boy.

It is striking the almost absolute predominance of female voices in the selection, which demands a greater work on the part of the art instructors in the schools of the locality, to achieve a better balance of gender with a view to the Festival Duendecillos de los Puentes.

I consider this work to be necessary, since it will benefit the artistic and interpretative future of the city of Yumurina, owner of a high musical potential of female and male voices, demonstrated throughout history.

I remember when I studied at Ramón Mathieu High School, the art instructor, teacher Roberto Verrier, listened to the voices of the seventh grade students, one by one. He would have us sing the National Anthem and then he would evaluate the register of our voices to choose those who would join the School Choir; thus, there were sopranos, mezzo-sopranos and altos, as well as tenors, baritones and basses. Then, with his enthusiasm and wisdom, he involved the girls and young people along with their families in the great amateur cultural movement.

In the end, with this method existing in the Yumurina high schools, many of these students were part of musical groups in pre-university and university. And the most relevant ones became professionals.

We are aware of the great effort made by our art instructors, but their work must be channeled towards a distinctive balance that allows them to maintain the richness and variety of the artistic fruit.

RESULTS OF THE 2024 AUDITION

Six children were selected in the first category: Liana Águila Mederos, from the school Sí por Cuba; Patricia Rodríguez Rodríguez, from René Fraga; Aitana Rodríguez Álvarez, from Leonor Pérez and Lucas Fajardo Legrá, from 26 de Julio. The youngest were Aitana Pérez García, six years old, from the children’s circle Sombrerito de Yarey and Amy García Guedes, five years old, from the circle Mis primeras alegrías.

The seven contestants chosen from 4th to 6th grade are named: Anyelina Campes Pérez and Samantha Rodríguez Martínez, from Miguel Sandarán school; Alexia Sánchez García and Gabriela Ripoll González, from Eliseo Noel Camaño school; as well as Samantha Suárez Calunga, from Pérez Isaac Vocational School of Arts; Rocío Batista González, from Máximo Gómez school and Nábila del Rey Castellanos, from Mártires de la Cumbre.

As for the four singers who will go on to the finals of the Duendecillos de los Puentes 2024 Vocal Performance Festival at the secondary level, it was learned that they were Liana González Rodríguez, from ESBU Reynold García; Keily Nuviola Coello and Akaena Molinet Santana, from Manuel Sanguily; and Yénifer Pérez Alcolea, from Generación del Centenario.

Written by María Elena Bayón.