Four music students awarded ORGS grant to travel to Italy

Four students were awarded Grants for their performance in the Chamber Music Festival as a quartet. “I Suoni di Sillene” a collaborative learning experience is its title and will host Benjamin Bernardes and Francesca Azzollini on Violin, Haziel Santos on Cello, and Erick Tinitana on Viola. 

Their performance is a single part of their project for their master’s where four individuals work as a quartet to explore their own musical and human skills working in the beauty of Chamber music combining all of their different experiences into one performance.  Each of them brings their own experiences such as Francesca being from Italy, Benjamin and Santos from Brazil, and Tinitana is from Ecuador. 

Currently their next steps will be a trip to Italy where they will meet Paolo Andreoli, a very famous member of an Italian quartet. The group is excited to see how their growth as individuals and as a quartet will impact new audiences. They hope that with this trip they all will be able to return to share their experiences and what they have learned with the communities of CMU. 

The group has been working for several hours a day over the years under the supervision of Alicia Valoti and they are very grateful for the opportunity. The grant they were awarded assists the quartet by covering their flight, housing, and any potential unplanned events like a broken string on an instrument.