Luigi Mazzocchi: ¡Contrastes!
Panel discussion
The El sistema spectrum: Music Education and Identity
Wednesday, October 14, 2015 @ 6:00pm
Location: The Academy of Vocal Arts
(1920 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA)
Join IJ for a FREE panel discussion on the multiple platforms of the publicly financed Venezuelan music education program known as El Sistema, its revered success as an international model of music education, as well as its complex relationship with identity. Panelists include Luigi Mazzocchi, Concertmaster for Pennsylvania Ballet; Daniel Berkowitz, Director of Collaborative Learning, The Philadelphia Orchestra; Stanford Thompson, Founder & Executive Director, Play on Philly; and moderated by Mary Javian, Director of Professional Development and Community Engagement, The Curtis Institute.
Performance
Sunday, October 18, 2015 @ 7:00pm
Location: International House Philadelphia
Photo by Aidan Un.
Luigi Mazzocchi, Concertmaster for Pennsylvania Ballet, will lead an original concert specifically developed for Intercultural Journeys and showcasing popular music from his native country, Venezuela.
This concert will feature music from various geographic regions and compositions by contemporary Venezuelan composers such as Antonio Lauro, Juan Bautista Plaza, Inocente Carreño, and Manena Contreras and will feature a world premiere chamber music composition by Efraín Amaya inspired by topics of identity and transformation in Venezuela.
The concert will also pay homage to the late Venezuelan composer and folk singer Simón Díaz, and will represent different musical traditions of the country such as pasajes and joropos llaneros, polo margariteño, valses y golpes tocuyanos, gaita maracaibera, and tambores de barlovento, among others. The ensemble will include string quintet, singers, guitar, Venezuelan cuatro, maracas and other Latin percussion.
Estimated performance length is 90 minutes.
Venezuela currently suffers from great social division and unrest, an expanding economic recession, extreme shortages of basic needs, and some of the highest crime and corruption rates in the world. Recent political agendas and policies have also created complex tensions in Venezuelan society, reflected in socially divided use of language, arts consumption, and musical preference. We offer this concert as a way of finding common ground through musical expression to help open channels to create unity and peace for the Venezuelan society.
Classical violinist Luigi Mazzocchi was born in Venezuela, where he studied in the El Sistema Youth Orchestras with José F. del Castillo. He was a member of the Lara Symphony Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Venezuela and the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra. Mazzocchi has performed as a soloist with the main Venezuelan orchestras and has attended international music festivals in the Americas, Europe and Australia. He is a prizewinner in solo competitions in Venezuela, Puerto Rico and the United States. He completed a Bachelor of Music degree at Rowan University with Liliana Ciulei and a Master of Music degree at Temple University with Helen Kwalwasser. Mazzocchi is the concertmaster of the Pennsylvania Ballet Orchestra, associate concertmaster of the Delaware Symphony and a member of the Opera Company of Philadelphia and the Gaudeamus and Cachasa Ensembles. He has performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Philly Pops and the Serafin String Quartet.