Musical growth<\/em><\/p>\nFrom the beginning, Orsi\u00a0was working regularly with\u00a0chamber music ensembles for strings. From there the idea of starting a Donegal Chamber Orchestra (DCO) emerged. In June 2006 a course for string players was organised in the Abbey Vocational School. The closing concert of that summer course marked the first appearance of a Donegal Chamber Orchestra.<\/p>\n
In recent years the group has consisted of students, amateurs and semi-professionals, led by professional players. I am the\u00a0artistic\u00a0director and Orsi is the leader. We have a list of guest artists who have worked with the DCO over those years, including\u00a0violinist Darragh Morgan, flamenco guitarist Juan Martin and cellist Mihai Dancila. The DCO has also premiered works by composers Ian Wilson, John McLachlan and Derek Ball.<\/p>\n
Promoting chamber music has always been part of what we do.\u00a0In 2009\u00a0as part of\u00a0the celebrations of Haydn\u2019s Bicentenary, we helped to found the\u00a0Donegal Chamber Music Society, notably with Graham Harrison (Letterkenny), for years a stalwart of the local music scene.\u00a0Now the Society organises regular concerts, including \u2018Sundays in Conwal\u2019 in Letterkenny, and has an annual festival in the autumn.<\/p>\n
In 2007 Orsi and I set up a professional chamber group, The Donegal Camerata, working mostly as a string quartet or quintet.<\/p>\n
For many years we have also been principal members of the chamber orchestra in my home city, Concerto M\u00e1laga. We were delighted when Concerto M\u00e1laga were nominated for a Latin Grammy in 2018 for the CD release \u2018Serebrier Conducts Granados\u2019.<\/p>\n
In November 2009 we started the Letterkenny Children\u2019s Orchestra, nowadays called Donegal Junior Strings (DJS). More recently we started to bring the DJS on school tours. This allows them to share the joy of music making with their school friends and perhaps inspire some of those friends to take up an instrument and enjoy playing music as much as we do!<\/p>\n
Thank you<\/em><\/p>\nLooking back over these years in Donegal, it\u2019s important to thank the different managers and administrators with the DMEP. They\u2019ve been led by someone who has made a major impact on music education in Donegal over many years, the ETB\u2019s Director of Schools Dr Martin Gormley. ![\"Image](\"https:\/\/donegaletb.ie\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/V\u00edctor-Orsi-Anna-Maria-and-V\u00edctor-Tom\u00e1s-pictured-at-the-Glebe-Gallery--225x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
The parents also deserve big thanks. Throughout the year, week by week, they make the efforts to support their children\u2019s music-making and their path through music education.<\/p>\n
Living in Donegal<\/em><\/p>\nIn 2011 another Irish citizen was born, from a Hungarian mother and a Spanish father. The birth of our daughter Ana Maria was the beginning of our family life here. Our son Victor Tom\u00e1s was born in 2015. Both are involved in the Irish culture as much as any other kids here. They also know the languages and traditions of their parents. They used to travel a lot but anytime we were away for a while they always said, \u201cDad, I want to go home.\u201d<\/p>\n
That means Letterkenny, County Donegal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Victor Y\u00e9lamo, originally from Spain, is a Cellist and Conductor with our music service, Donegal Music Education Partnership (DMEP) and also a Latin Grammy nominee. Here he reflects on\u00a0 the creation and development of classical music in the county over the last decade and a half (scroll down for English). En Enero se cumplieron quince […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":163,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/donegaletb.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/donegaletb.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/donegaletb.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/donegaletb.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/donegaletb.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/donegaletb.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":484,"href":"https:\/\/donegaletb.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127\/revisions\/484"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/donegaletb.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/donegaletb.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/donegaletb.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/donegaletb.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Image](\"https:\/\/donegaletb.ie\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/5.-Orsi-and-Victor-200x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Image](\"https:\/\/donegaletb.ie\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/5.-Orsi-V\u00edctor-Tom\u00e1s-Anna-Mar\u00eda-and-V\u00edctor-300x225.jpg\")
<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n![\"Image](\"https:\/\/donegaletb.ie\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Victor-Y\u00e9lamo-with-Orsi-300x200.jpg\")
<\/p>\n