• Costa Rica is represented by five talented students from SINEM Cóbano.

The National Music Education System (SINEM), a program of the Ministry of Culture and Youth, announces the selection of five students from SINEM Cóbano who are participating in the Tennessee Valley Music Festival 2025. The festival takes place at the University of Huntsville in Alabama, United States, from June 1st to 7th.

The Tennessee Valley Music Festival is an international orchestral training event. Each year, young musicians from various countries come together in a high-level academic and artistic environment. Under the artistic direction of Maestro Joseph Lee, the festival offers an intensive program that includes rehearsals, master classes, concerts, and participation in specialized orchestral ensembles, organized according to each participant’s experience level.

Costa Rica is represented by five talented students: Francela Cortés Rodríguez on the viola, Mia Isabella Toro Bermúdez on the double bass, Ligia Valentina Morales Durán and Abraham Varela Catrillo on the violin, and Randall Samuel Varela Salas on the bassoon.

Most of the students are part of the elementary ensemble, the Twickenham Chamber Orchestra, one of the developmental groups at the festival. All the selected students receive a scholarship covering their participation, awarded within the framework of the Cóbano International Music Camp (CIMCO) 2024.

Impact of the Cóbano International Music Camp (CIMCO)

CIMCO has established itself as a high-level training space with international participation. Since 2009, these scholarships have been offered to SINEM students, making a positive impact on young musicians from various regions of the country. Between 2012 and 2015, scholarships were also awarded to members of the National Orchestras.

The festival’s artistic director, Maestro Joseph Lee, has been voluntarily and continuously collaborating with SINEM Cóbano since 2008. Thanks to this longstanding relationship, Maestro Lee extended an invitation to the center’s students to participate in this edition of the festival, recognizing the talent, discipline, and artistic commitment he has observed in the Cóbano community over the years.

Students from SINEM Cóbano in Master Classes at the University of Alabama, United States

“For the young people of SINEM Cóbano, the opportunity to participate in the Tennessee Valley Music Festival is not just motivational—it is a future inspiration. Given that Cóbano is a community so far removed from the capital area, the chance to listen to professional musicians and, even more, to interact with them is otherwise a distant aspiration. This event, where they meet peers at the same level, gifted young musicians, and professionals, fuels their desire for growth and allows them to envision a much broader musical reality, providing intellectual, practical, and emotional nourishment,” commented Jorge Alberto Siliézar Ruiz, head of the SINEM Cóbano center.

After a virtual edition during the 2020 pandemic, this is the first time that a group of Costa Rican students has returned to in-person participation at the festival.

Currently, the Cóbano International Music Camp has resumed its dynamic with a renewed international projection and continues to offer scholarships as a key mechanism to strengthen the artistic development of the SINEM Cóbano student community.