Fundacio General de la Universitat de València

Since 1995 at the service of culture

One among the strongest musical projects
of the University panorama of Spain

Background and Experience

General Foundation of the Universitat de València (FGUV) contributes to fulfil the goals of the Universitat de València. Its action is organized in three fields: Culture and Education, which includes the Area of Musical Activities; University Services; Solidarity.

The Orquestra Filharmònica de la Universitat de València (OFUV), held by the Area of Musical Activities of the General Fundation of the Universitat de València, was created in 1995 to unite the different instrumental student groups of the UV.

It is formed by 80 young people, mostly university students, whose average age is 20 years old. Its main purpose is to provide high quality training in orchestral playing, counting on specialised professors for each one of the instruments. Beatriz Fernández Aucejo has become the new director of the orchestra since September 2018.

For the last 25 years, more than a thousand young musicians have played in OFUV. Most of them are now playing in Spanish and European orchestras or are professors in higher or professional conservatories. The OFUV has carried out several national and international tours: it played in the International Music University Festival (FIMU) in Belfort (France) in 1997 and the 27th International Contest of Young Orchestras in Viena (Austria), where it was awarded the 1st prize of symphonic orchestras in 1998. In 2002, it played in different cities in Austria and Slovenia.

The repertoire includes pieces from the Baroque to the current day, including classical and romantic symphonic pieces as well as famous works of the 20th century. In this field, OFUV pays special attention to Valencian music composers from two different points of view: the restoration of the Valencian music heritage (Martín i Soler, Gomis, Giner, Esplà…) and the release of works of contemporary authors (Orts, Santos, Roncero, Coll, Fayos…).

OFUV is part of the Spanish Association of Young Orchestra Players (AEJO) and the European Network of Universities (ENUO). Thanks to this support, SINERGIA was created in 2015 (Network of Spanish University Orchestras).
The activities of OFUV are sponsored by the Department of Musical Activities of the General Foundation of the Universitat de València and Santander.

The 80 musicians that form part of the University of Valencia Philharmonic Orchestra are all students who enrol voluntarily in the project. The orchestra is considered by the University as a formative tool and recognized with a maximum of 6 ECTS credits for the university studies of its members.

www.uv.es/general-foundation

contacts

Activities and experience

Twenty-five years of history make our orchestra one of the oldest and the strongest musical projects of the University panorama of Spain. OVUF has more than a thousand egress musicians. Most of them now play in the best orchestras of Europe (Deutsche Oper, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Gulbenkian Lisboa, Orquesta Nacional de España, Malta Symphonic Orchestra, etc.). Another important part of the egress musicians are now musical conductors, musical professors at the most important conservatories, or very well-known composers such as Francisco Coll, David Meseguer or Amparo Edo.

However, most of the students who have been part of OFUV developed their university career in different fields (Medicine, Law, Psychology, Economy, etc.), but they could improve and practice their musical and transversal skills in the orchestra while they studied at the University.

In 2015, OFUV created SINERGIA (www.sinergia.red), a network that brings together almost 20 Spanish university orchestras in a portal web, to share information and experiences. The SINERGIA network represents an added value to the MEETS project as it gives the possibility to get in contact with all its members and disseminate the deliverables and results of the project.
The University of Valencia organizes each year, in the summer, the SERENATES musical festival (http://go.uv.es/Jj0Rryu).

The Area of Musical Activities organizes several music courses during the academic course (http://go.uv.es/40VkcRO), which can be capitalised on in the development of the MEETS methodology. These educational activities can also be shared with the other orchestras of the partnership.
Finally, OFUV and FGUV have participated, over the years, in the following projects which represent relevant experiences the MEETS project can capitalise on:

– E+SCN, Erasmus- Scene Network, an artistic project involving Erasmus students, local students and local refugees and immigrants to develop linguistic, communicative, artistic and expressive competencies merging culture and education. The final goal was to improve participants’ integration and employability.
– AVANTJOVE, Establishing a partnership to set up a Youth Guarantee Scheme in Valencia Region, aimed to equip young people with entrepreneurial tools, skills, practical knowledge and training enabling them to set up their business and enter into the labour market changing their behaviour face to job searching. In this context, FGUV developed an innovative test to measure the potential entrepreneurial attitudes of candidates participating in the project.