30 May 2017, Zug, Switzerland. The Solway Music Fellowship Organizing Committee in cooperation with the Salzburg Festival has selected 6 finalists from Guatemala, Macedonia and Ukraine to attend the Opera Camp in Salzburg. More than 120 creatives, aged 13 – 16, expressed their interest in applying for the program. 36 continued their journey to the Stardrome after the first elimination round was completed and only 6 (2 per country) were awarded with the full scholarship, which covers travel and visa expenses, accommodation, as well as educational and entertainment activities in Salzburg, Austria.
Kimberly Patricia Ceron Gil and Maria Isabel Leiva Castillo (Guatemala), Viktorija Koceva and Gjorgi Stevkov (Macedonia) and Karina Tsipovyaz and Vladislav Bondarenko (Ukraine) gained an outstanding opportunity to experience the world’s most renowned classical music festival by participating in the Salzburg Opera Camp for Children and Youth. They will spend a week from August 5th until August 11th, without parents, in Schloss Arenberg working with the world-renowned music educators, theatre professionals, stage designers and dancers, while staging the unique version of the opera Wozzeck that is being performed at the Salzburg Festival. The young winners will also visit the dress rehearsal of Wozzeck and go backstage. At the end of the week, together with the Camp fellows, they will perform their version of the opera in front of the audience.
36 selected applicants were required to undergo 20 weeks of English language training in order to reach the second elimination round. As their final assignment the applicants had to make a 90-second creative video, in English, which expressed their presentation skills and demonstrated his/her talents in particular artistic disciplines. The Jury, represented by the Salzburg Festival, the creative team of the Opera Camps, and the chairman of the board of Solway Investment Group judged the presented videos based on a variety of criteria: creativity, communication skills, engagement with the language learning process as well as their level of English language skills.
For their exceptional academic results, will to learn and creative approach The Jury awarded Elmira Dzhamgurova (Ukraine), Yusuf Amushev (Macedonia) with its special prize – a month of further intensive English studies that will take place in July.
The full list of selected Solway Music Fellowship program applicants can be seen here:
Macedonia: http://solwaygroup.com/musiccamp/macedonia-final/
Ukraine:http://solwaygroup.com/musiccamp/ukraine-final/
Guatemala: http://solwaygroup.com/musiccamp/guatemala-final/
Editor’s note
The International Solway Music Fellowship program for creative youngsters between 14 and 17 years of age is a private initiative introduced by Solway Investment Group, an international mining and metals group with headquarters in Switzerland. Solway Music Fellowship program is designed to deepen the Company’s commitment to providing talented young people access to the arts. Solway offers an 8 month educational program designed to integrate young creatives from the local communities into modern life through experiencing arts and adapting their cultural traditions to the realities of the new world. The Solway fellowship is offered to young members of the Group’s employee’s families in Ukraine, Macedonia and Guatemala. As a result of a two-step elimination process the most involved fellow talents gain the opportunity to participate in the Music Camp’s international environment in Salzburg.
Opera Camps in Salzburg for young talents aged 15 – 17 are organized by The Salzburg Festival in cooperation with the Vienna Philharmonic and with the support of the American Austrian Foundation (AAF). It will take place from August 5th to August 11th, 2017 at Schloss Arenberg, a nineteenth century palace located in a picturesque rural area next to Salzburg.
