The Cartagena Music Festival has evolved into a major educational hub, offering more than 2,700 hours of master classes to student musicians over two decades, ColombiaOne.com reported. The event, founded by Julia Salvi, has also trained 13,000 individuals in luthiery, the craft of building and repairing stringed instruments, while impacting 80 neighborhoods in Cartagena.
Beyond the main festival, the Salvi Foundation launched the Harmony in PROgress project in La Boquilla to teach local youth instrumental performance. This curriculum has already secured scholarships for students at Boston’s Berklee College of Music and Italy’s Umbria Jazz festival, while fostering new community jazz and symphonic bands. A separate initiative, the Ibague Festival, has similarly engaged nearly 40,000 attendees across six editions.
Salvi emphasizes that classical music education teaches essential lessons in coexistence and listening, skills she believes are vital for societal development. The program has helped launch international careers for former students including cellist Santiago Cañon, violinist Laura Hoyos, and soprano Julieth Lozano. With over 509,000 total spectators since its inception, the festival continues to prioritize knowledge exchange between generations and access to high-level artistic training for Colombian communities.
For more information, visit colombiaone.com.