Municipal Orchestra of Chancay

February 2023.

About an hour north of Lima in Peru, the port city of Chancay is set to become one of the most important shipping ports on the Pacific coast of the Americas as a result of the mega-port project that is transforming this community. The Municipal Orchestra of Chancay is a youth orchestra program modeled on the successful “Sistema” program in Venezuela under the direction of Peruvian conductor Javier Prada Gomez. Rafael had the pleasure of conducting this orchestra in concert on February 23, 2023 in the Catedral Inmaculada Concepción de Chancay. Repertoire for this concert included Rossini’s Overture to La Gazza Ladra, Henri Casadesus Viola Concerto “in the style of Handel” performed by Santiago Joaquín Guerrero Maguiño, a member of the orchestra and a student at the National Conservatory of Peru, and Dvořák Symphony No. 8 in G major. The orchestra performed an encore piece of traditional Peruvian music arranged for symphony orchestra to close the program and was received enthusiastically by the local audience which included the city’s mayor and other municipal dignitaries, as well as members of the local press.