Colombia will celebrate 200 years of independence on July 20 at midday through song, with musicians, singers and children in over 1,000 town squares around the country simultaneously performing the national anthem. The event is part of the “Grand National Concert,” a series of concerts held across the country in the lead-up to the bicentennial, launched Thursday.
Performing at Bogota’s Casa de Nariño, musicians from different parts of the country serenaded President Alvaro Uribe, Culture Minister Paula Marcela Moren, and the high commissioner for the bicentennial Maria Cecilia Donado, with a tribute to Colombian music and culture.
Uribe highlighted the value of culture to the development of Colombia, saying that “Culture and artists unite our country,” and commended the work of young artists, who “will be the essence to plant a seed in the history of the country.”
The “Grand National Concert” of 2010 will see performances in 1,102 municipalities across Colombia and 44 countries worldwide, and will involve more than 200,000 Colombian artists, bands, orchestras, conductors, and over 93,000 children from more than 700 music schools nationwide.
Some well-known Colombians who will participate in the concert include Juanes, who will not only perform some of his hit songs, but also will participate in an ensemble with “chirimias” bands and rappers from Choco.
In Bogota, Jorge Celedon and the group Niche will take turns on stage with Colombia’s National Symphonic Orchestra, while in Medellin, Andres Cepeda will lead a performance with Alejo Garcia and students from the Music Schools of Medellin. In the city of Baranquilla, artists such as Doctor Krapula, Dragon and Caballero and Juventino Ojito will perform, while in Cali musicians Guayacan, Mauricio and Palodeagua, Juglares, Leonor Gonzalez Mina and Jose Antonio Torres Gualajo will play.
For more information and to see a schedule for the performances in Colombia’s Grand National Concert click here.