JAVS Fall 2002

59

PERu's PRIMER FESTIVAL DE VIOLA

by julia Adams

Participants in the Primer Festival de Vio/4 in Pmt

Peru's Primer Festival de Viola took place in Lima, Peru, May 13-18, 2002. The Viola Festival was sponsored by the National Conservatory of Music, Director Enrique lturriaga, and organized by Roberto Gonzalez, violist of the Cuaneto Lima and professor of viola at the National Conservatory of Music and Newton College. Mr. Gonzalez brought together for this auspicious occasion 18 violists. It was the largest gathering ofviolists ever in Peru and surely the first of many future congregations of vio lists for the region. As a former teacher and now colleague of Roberto Gonzalez, I was invited to be the Master Teacher, to rehearse and perform with the viola ensembles and to give a concert of viola quintets with the professional Cuarteto Lima which consists of exceptional players who are currently entering their sixth year together as an ensemble. Violinists Laszlo Benedek and Alejandro Ferreira, Jr., violist Roberto Gonzalez and cellist Cesar Pacheco have established the Cuarteto Lima as one of the conti

nent's leading ensembles, producing several COs, premiering many works of their country's leading composers and receiving the highest critical praise for their performances both in Latin America and in the United States. The Viola Festival was truly a landmark in viola history for the country of Peru. The idea began in 1996 when Mr. Gonzalez returned from his studies in the United States. Following a summer at the Interlochen Music Camp, he traveled to Maine to continue his studies with The Portland String Quartet, which had established a Latin Scholars Program at the University of Southern Maine, where he received his Bachelor ofMusic degree. He went on to earn his M.A and doctorate from the University ofMiami, Coral Gables, Florida. Roberto Gonzalez's professional goal was to form a string quartet and bring his skills as a per former and teacher back to his home country where his father had been principal violinist of the National Symphony Orchestra for many years.