20180516_MUN_BorjaQuintasOrquesta

Sensitivity, commitment and discipline. These are some of the qualities of the musicians who make up the Orquesta Sinfónica Universidad de Navarra, which on April 17 was presented with a concert at the Teatro del Museo. Its director, Borja Quintas, values the development of its first course and advances some projects for the future.

What are the main goals of the University of Navarra Symphony Orchestra?

The main goal of the Orquesta Sinfónica Univesidad de Navarra is to become a group of reference letter within the heart of the University, which enables students to be part of a common artistic experience of quality, which energizes and supports the activity of the Museum and, by extension, the cultural life of Pamplona and Navarra.

It was born within a campus and has an international vocation. Why?

It has an international vocation because it is inspired by the model of university orchestras in the USA and Central Europe, and because it aspires to serve as a bridge between institutions and societies.

What are your main challenges?

Its main challenges are to achieve a level of activity and a quality of results that will make it a reference letter within the Spanish university life. And through this activity, to contribute to the global training of young university students, with the firm conviction that the artistic and cultural experience will make them better professionals of their specialization program and more sensitive human beings.

The Orchestra prints discipline and values work as a team. How was work with the musicians?

The initial attitude of the musicians has been excellent. Making a great effort to join project from the first day, they have shown great commitment and impeccable behavior. The atmosphere at work is magnificent. Although musicians often develop the value of discipline from an early age, the fact of putting it into internship as a team and with common goals gives it a special importance. Fellowship and mutual support are part of the group's daily routine.

What does being a member of an orchestra add to your academic training and staff ?

An orchestra is one of the human groups that develops the most values. In addition to the aforementioned values of discipline and companionship, we must add that of aesthetic experience, which makes the human being develop a greater capacity for emotion and, therefore, a greater sensitivity not only to art but to the challenges of society in general. That is why I never tire of repeating that the orchestra will bring better doctors, engineers, philologists and journalists. Moreover, it enables students from Schools so different to share a common goal .

What would you highlight from profile of the young people who are part of it?

The profile of the young people who make up the orchestra is characterized by a search for a global human training , which necessarily implies and ratifies the role of art and, in this case, music, in this training. Belonging to an orchestra implies an additional effort and dedication to their already complicated Structures life, but they consider that the effort is worth it.

What does evaluation make of the first concert you performed at the Museum Theater?

Considering that before December the Symphony Orchestra did not exist and that in April we were offering a concert with a professional repertoire program, it can only be considered a miracle. The bet of the project is that it had to be of quality and that if it did not exist, it was better that it did not exist. Thank God expectations were met.

What are you looking for with the new call for auditions?

A University Orchestra will always have a rotation of students, which makes it a lively and dynamic group, always changing, but with a common student body that usually remains in it during the years of programs of study.With the new auditions we seek to fill the vacancies of the musicians who graduate and, above all, fill in the string staff to continue to increase the challenges and grow at the pace we have done in these 3 months.

The Orchestra is in a growth phase, what are the most important projects you are looking to undertake in the near future?

The projects for the following season will be definitively elaborated when we know the staff we have. The most immediate objectives are to carry out joint projects with other arts (opera, dance, musical...) and to propose some exchange or partnership to energize this first phase. We are already receiving interesting proposals that make us very excited about the new season and the possibilities it will offer. In any case, as project in gestation, the programming will be done with the utmost care to combine its viability with its vocation of improvement.