The outstanding teacher David Händel and the regional cast prepare a magnificent program, full of nuances, to surprise the public this Friday at the Municipal Theater of La Serena. 

The North American conductor, who is actively working in the Coquimbo Region as a guest of the Symphony Orchestra of the University of La Serena, has achieved an extraordinary reputation among his generation. His international fame, his programming, and a distinctive approach to the community spark widespread interest in venues wherever he performs.

At an early age, he was named Musical Director of the National Symphony Orchestra of Bolivia, has served as Musical Director of the Symphony Orchestra of the Universidad del Cuyo de Mendoza, Artistic Advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra of Guatemala and more recently as Artistic Advisor to the University of La Serena Symphony Orchestra. 

He has recently been named Principal Guest Conductor of the Moscow City Symphony-Russian Philharmonic, with which he will lead a series of national and international concerts, tours and recordings.

Thanks to its versatility, it has been presented in the most unexpected places; In 2007 she conducted a combined ensemble of the orchestras from Baghdad, Erbil and Suleimaniya in Iraq at the American Voices' Unity Festival. He is the only North American director who has performed in Cuba since the revolution.

On this occasion, together with the local cast, he has prepared a repertoire made up of the works Pranayama, by the national composer José Miguel Arellano; Concerto No. 5 in C major for Oboe and Orchestra, by Ludwig August Lebrun; and Beethoven's Symphony No. 4 in B flat Major.

In this concert, the presence of the soloist José Luis Urquieta stands out, who thanks to his talent also enjoys an interesting career both on the national and international circuit. The performer is “Artista Rigoutat”, a prestigious French Oboe company and he is Oboe Soloist of the Universidad de La Serena Symphony Orchestra, which is why his presentation is highly anticipated by the local public. 

The musical event will take place this Friday, August 8 at 20:00 p.m. at the Municipal Theater of La Serena. Tickets for this encounter with music have a value of $3.000 for the general public and $2.000 for students and seniors.

It should be noted that the Symphony Orchestra of the University of La Serena is the only professional ensemble in the Coquimbo Region. Its existence is possible thanks to contributions from the National Council of Culture and the Arts, ULS Rectorate, companies and regional media for its development and annual management.

Covering new knowledge and providing solutions to the doubts and concerns of the attendees was the main objective of this activity. 

About twenty older adults from the Coquimbo Region completed the digital workshop “Strengthening my technological knowledge.” The enthusiasm for everything learned in the 4 theoretical/practical classes carried out was sealed with applause and with the delivery of their certification, endorsing their passage through this learning and reinforcement of digital knowledge workshop. 

During the activity, framed in the School for the Elderly, organized by the Extension Directorate of the University of La Serena, in conjunction with the Center for Educational Informatics (CIE) of the ULS, attendees expressed their satisfaction with the classes taught by the academics Eva Toro, Karina Núñez and Claudia Toledo, since they fully met the objectives proposed by the workshop.

“I had been working with the computer for a long time, but in this case I wanted to delve deeper into some topics and I wanted to do it in the right way (…). The truth is that I would like to continue delving deeper, because the Internet is a sea of ​​knowledge. So it is a beginning, a beginning that is a little more advanced than a basic course, but I would like to know much more about applications, about the Internet, about what Word is, what Excel is; There is still a lot to learn and the truth is that computing advances more and more quickly every day,” said Ricardo Workins.

For her part, Silvia Rivera, who knows about training and workshops given by the Extension Directorate, has expressed the great interest she has in learning and the opportunity to participate in activities like these, in which distance has not been an impediment to knowing and learn about digital topics. “I travel from Vicuña (…) I love this workshop because I like computing. All the topics discussed here are good and the teachers are very kind, very gentle and they teach you (...). I love learning, I can't be without updating myself on all the things that are happening, that are progressing every day in every sense, so I like to keep up to date," added the retired teacher, who since 2001 to date has accumulated around 50 diplomas and certifications.

The Exhibition Hall sheltered poetry lovers for 2 hours, who were able to hear and recite literary pieces and engage in debates around this topic.

In a new place and with the same romanticism and magnetism that characterizes it, the traditional Poetic Café was developed for the month of July, led by the director of the ULS Mistraliano Center, Dr. Rolando Manzano Concha, who through his vast experience in In the literary field, he shared various poems and prose with attendees. In addition, on the occasion the centenary of Gabriela Mistral's first published work was commemorated.

With about thirty people, some faces faithful and habitual to this activity and others who participated for the first time, this Poetic Café began, which was not without debates, due to the space given to this type of art in our society. Raimon Labarca, who came across this activity by chance, maintained that it was “quite fruitful to be honest, different points of view were shared, lyrical expressions plus the debates that were opened, understanding why there is no greater knowledge in relation to what it is. literature,” he stated. 

For her part, Pía Ahumada, a native of Chuquicamata, has been attending this activity for 8 years and alluded to the importance of these spaces taking place in the Coquimbo Region. “It is always important that there is space, that people can go freely. This is very public, here everyone finds out and people come and can read, there are even people who only come to listen. In the north it doesn't happen, at least in Calama I didn't know any instance like this and here they treat you very well, always friendly," said the author of the book "Teleidoscopio".

For those who missed this traditional poetic activity and like to delight in the art of poetry, you are cordially invited to the next Poetic Café to be held on Thursday, August 28 at the ULS Exhibition Hall, Benavente 950. For more information, please contact Extension Center, located at Prat 446, La Serena, contact phone number 2-204171 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

With a history marked by passion for music and rigor in the search for excellence, the outstanding performer will perform next August 8 at the Municipal Theater of La Serena, as a soloist in the Seasonal Concert directed by David Händel.

José Luis Urquieta is the son of the musician and academic José Urquieta Varela, with whom he began his studies in the Oboe chair. “After my studies at the Jorge Peña Hen Experimental School of Music, in 1997 I participated in a contest to join an Ibero-American youth band, I won and thus had the opportunity to travel to Venezuela and give concerts there in Caracas and Isla Margarita, which “It was a great experience,” says the artist. 

Subsequently, he settled in Europe to continue his training in France and Germany, where he intensely disseminated Latin American music, which has led him to perform concerts in various countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and America. He is also a member of the University of La Serena Symphony Orchestra as oboe soloist.

“What I do is combine my work in the orchestra, my work as a chamber musician and my work as a soloist. I discovered this last facet when I was in Europe and I saw how my teacher and my classmates developed their careers, but they could also do more things. So, at the end of the academic year, instead of taking vacations, I gave concerts, participated in Master Classes, and I began to realize that this was the line I wanted to follow and where I feel most fulfilled,” commented the musician.

Urquieta points out that La Serena occupies a very special place and therefore this concert has a special meaning. “We people from Serena carry something in our skin and when we are away we want to come back and present the work that we really like to do, because one can also have the luxury of presenting a program of works for oboe and in La Serena, there are people who do it.” to appreciate,” he said.

The repertoire of this concert, scheduled for Friday, August 8 at 20 p.m. at the Municipal Theater of La Serena, will be made up of the works Pranayama, by José Miguel Arellano; Concerto No. 5 in C major for Oboe and Orchestra, by Ludwig August Lebrun; and Symphony No. 4 in B flat Major, by LV Beethoven.

Tickets for this event are $3.000 for the general public and $2.000 for students and seniors.

It should be noted that the University of La Serena Symphony Orchestra is the only professional ensemble in the Coquimbo Region, its existence is possible thanks to contributions from the National Council of Culture and the Arts, ULS Rectory and companies and regional media for its annual development and management.

The second edition of the text was attended by the French pedagogue, Francois Delaland, one of the main architects of the current renewal of musical pedagogy oriented towards creative practice from early childhood.

Last Friday, July 25, the launch of the second edition of the book “El Párvulo, el Sonido y la Música” took place in the Ercilla room of the National Library, a publication of the Editorial Universidad de La Serena whose author is the researcher, teacher and pianist, Olivia Concha Molinari, corresponding member of the Chilean Academy of Fine Arts.

Present at the presentation of this book was the French pedagogue, François Delalande, who is responsible for theoretical research at the “Groupe de Recherches Musicales” in Paris and studies listening and sound production behaviors, in particular, of children. The manager of the U. de La Serena Publishing House, Alejandro Abufom, was also present.

The launch of the second edition of “El Párvulo, el Sonido y la Música” was sponsored by Editorial ULS, the National Board of Kindergartens (JUNJI) and the Music Institute of the Catholic University.

This activity was part of the XIX season of the International School of Guest Professors 2014 - which took place at the Institute of Music of the Pontifical Catholic University with the presence of the renowned French researcher.

The book

The musical approach of "El Párvulo, el Sonido y la Música", considers the traditional -dancing, singing, playing- but also proposes a pre-structured alternative by focusing the initial practice from the physical matter sound and its counterpart silence, as axes that will lead the child and the accompanying adult to discover the mechanisms that transform a spontaneous sound game into “music”, into “his music”. Experimenting and knowing the raw and pre-existing material of music, stimulating research in children, discovering the origin of sound as a physical process, scrutinizing the causes that originate it, observing the effects that they perceive, "listening to silence" , the experience is playfully problematized, clearing up unknowns raised by themselves or suggested by the adult.

Three mini works, with a high pedagogical and didactic sense, encompass the success of this theatrical work presented by ÉTÉULS.

Next Thursday, August 14, the curtain of the Aula Magna Ignacio Domeyko of the University of La Serena will open again for the schools of the Coquimbo Region, in a new performance of the pedagogical comedy “Historias Matemágicas al Cubo”, by the theatrical cast of the Extension Directorate, ÉTÉULS, directed by Dr. Catalina Cvitanic.

The work is made up of three short stories (“En Redes con Polígona”, “Zero Stress” and “The Death of 8”) that seek, through a simple, playful and didactic proposal, to encourage and re-enchant teaching students. basic and intermediate with mathematics, through representations that include topics such as logic, algebra, arithmetic and geometry.

In relation to her previous presentations and this new function, the director of the cast commented that “the presentation we made last month made it clear to us that the school sector, both students and teachers, needs this type of activities to complement their classroom classes. , they are grateful that a comedy, where there is a lot of humor, achieves the objective of making a discipline that is apparently arid and difficult accessible. And precisely due to the success and large influx of public, we will continue with monthly presentations.” 

This new function will take place in the Aula Magna of the Ignacio Domeyko Campus of the ULS, located at 980 Benavente Street, starting at 11:30 a.m., and has a promotional value of $1.000, both for schoolchildren and for those who wish to enjoy a good moment of humor and learning.

For more information on this unmissable activity or school reservations, you only have to go to the Extension Center offices, at Prat 446, La Serena, or call 51 2 204171 and email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Also on social networks www.facebook.com/Extensionuls or @Extension_ULS (twitter).