L.he Covid-19 pandemic has devastated life in society. One of the aspects in which he has been most cruel is the artistic, and the closing of the Diná study in recent days was one of the hard blows he dealt this class.
“Dominican music education is in mourning,” Manuel Tejada posted on the Facebook page of Farida Diná, founder and director of the space in which he trained a large number of instrumentalists for nearly four decades.
“The country cannot afford this loss after 37 years of training for musical talents,” continues the publication of the composer, instrumentalist, arranger and producer.
Like him, other musicians took up Diná’s wall to express their concern about this situation. “It is imperative that all these demonstrations reach the higher government, especially the cultural sector. We have to do something so that this institution does not disappear ”, teacher Rafael Solano wrote in the same social network.
“The Diná study is set in the history of the development of Dominican music, its legacy is there and will remain forever,” wrote the teacher Dante Cucurullo, who also recalled that the former students of that institution decided to do it. schools to open are like “branch offices”.
“I feel helpless, devastated and extremely sad,” said Diná, comforted by the fact that she received more than 600 letters of support after announcing the closure of her school, something she greatly appreciates. “Whoever opens my Facebook account realizes that we have sown and harvested,” the teacher told LISTÍN DIARIO when speaking about a school that educated young people who have developed their talents in music, singing and teaching.
An academy that started modestly in 1983, in the living room of his home, on Ramón Santana Street, in Gazque, offering piano lessons and which would become a three-story building with a team of 24 teachers and an enrollment of about 250 students.
A space where all instruments were taught, except brass, and singing lessons, from six months (early stimulation by music) to adulthood, and with a branch in Santiago de los Caballeros inaugurated in 2003, and it continues to operate. “The truth is, at first I didn’t think it would grow that much,” says the teacher and pianist.
Closing
In addition to the artists who have expressed regret about the closure, students, their parents and former teachers have expressed outrage, grief and helplessness about the closure. The health situation the world is going through is the cause of this, because despite adapting to offer virtual classes, many parents did not accept it and enrollment declined. “We reached a point where we no longer covered payroll. We keep fighting, even selling personal items, ”he explains, as he had to sell some pianos and other instruments until he realized he couldn’t go on any longer.
To open it again, there are not the necessary resources for now. “I don’t think so with your own resources. With some help that comes from heaven, because we have no more money to reopen ”, Diná complains.
What fills her with pride is the knowledge that many of the students at her school have been successful both on stage and in teaching.
Pride
Although she was afraid to leave something out and without the slightest intention of making any of her former students feel bad, she names some of the musicians she is proud of who have gone through the school.
Among them Stephany Ortega, a singer who has been nominated twice for the Sovereign awarded by Acroarte; Giorgio Siladi, of the pop band Bocatabú; Rosana Rosario, violinist of the National Symphony Orchestra, Martha Jhoana De Luna, pianist who has developed her career in the United States; Josean Jacobo, who has published several jazz records with his group Tumbao, others who have been promoted abroad, such as José Guillermo Puello. Also Patricia Linares and Gilem Linares, who have their academies; Albania Gabot, professor at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo and Sly de Moya, professor at Pedro Henríquez Ureña University. “But I’m sure I have some left and I don’t want them to feel bad,” she says sadly.
Other achievements of Estudio Diná that she is proud of include that her academy was the first to obtain a Kindermusik license and that her daughter, Farida Peña, is the mentor of Kindermusik international for Latin America.
The fact that their class program is endorsed and that they are members of the Latin American Association of Conservatories and Schools of Music (ALCEM), of the International Society of Music Education (ISME), of the Coral Federation of the Caribbean and Central America.
That his students have also become winners of international competitions in Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Las Vegas, Luxembourg and the Dominican Republic, among others.
OTHER DATA
Contest.
Studied Diná organizes the “Ibero-American Competition for Young Pianists”, the first and only international piano competition in the country.
Solidarity.
Other figures from different branches of the art who have dedicated words of encouragement include José Antonio Rodríguez, Mónika Despradel, Antonio Melenciano, Ondina Matos, Nancy Vizcaíno, among others.