MiCultura brings together artistic expressions in prize delivery

At an emotional evening with a well-deserved recognition of the lives and works of the teachers, Mario Calvit, recently deceased and Antonio Alvarado and Julio Zachrisson, the Ministry of Culture (MiCultura) gave his prize to the winners of two of the National Contests awarded by the institution every year.

That's the first time that MiCultura holds two national contest awards at a single gala, where excellence was emphasized in the disciplines of music and visual arts, being the fourth version of the Roque Cordero that awards musical composition and the 41 edition of Visual arts Roberto Lewis.

The Vice Minister of Culture, Gabriel González, emphasized his statement about his great acceptance of his contest with 112 works for Roberto Lewis, including a special category called the Bicentennial Prize and 31 for the Roque Cordero, with his dedicated participation in the categories of Banda and Orchestra to the commemoration of the Bicentennial of Panama's Independence of Spain.

The deputy minister stated that under the national direction of The Arts there was an intense activity "that fills us with pride, as if they join the days of performance of the Club Music Festival, the Reunion of Dance and the Theater Festival we have reached a figure of 63 days of cultural activities with an amount of 11,808 viewers and have been involved 57 musical groups."

The official gave a message of congratulations to his assistants at the Ministry of Culture, including his director and deputy director at the direction of The Arts, Daniel Dominguez and Eliette Apolayo.

Gabriel González called on all artists to continue to participate in the Roberto Lewis and Roque Cordero as well as the other competitions that MiCultura holds.

At the Roque Cordero contest, composed of five categories, only four were awarded, as the Symphony Orchestra Section was deserted. The Symphony and Coro Banda categories were won by composer Andrés Aristóclo Carrizo Alemán with his compositions "Meditation about 1821" and "Invocation," respectively.

In the Section "Grupo de Casa" the winner was Luis Dávila Bonilla with the work "Suite Caribeña" and the category "Solo el triumphador" was Samuel Ivan Robles with the composition "Fire."

They also received an honorary mention by Andres Aristóbilo Carrizo Alemán in category Solo with the work "Fragil, Áspero" and Daniel Oropeza in Coro with the work "The Habit are of The Words."

The Jury to select the winners of the Roque Cordero contest was made up of Nelly Beatriz Gómez from Argentina and Alfonso Fuentes from Puerto Rico and Valeria Valle Martínez from Chile.

Meanwhile, at the Roberto Lewis National Competition, winners of visual expressions such as digital art, photography, sculpture and painting were awarded.

The winners in different categories were Franklin Rodriguez Justavino at Painting with the work "La Familia Mendoza" and Dayra Esther Espinosa at Sculpture with the work "independence" and Carlos Alberto Mora at Photography with a photo called "Normalidad" and Miguel Ángel Rodriguez at Digital Art with "Counting up to Twenty" and Radamés Pinzzo was declared to have been the winner of the unique Bicentennial Prize with the work "Visión Actuala del Bicentennial."

The second and third locations in different categories were for Luis Diego Córdoba ("Myto de una Certiza") and Linda Jean Machivar ("Abstraction") in Painting, Jhony Montenegro Rovira ("Open Your Eyes and See Where We Are") and Xenia Carles de Ameglio ("Depends") in Sculpture.

They also obtained second and third place, Bolívar Ernesto Sánchez ("A look at hope") and Roberto Alejandro Mora ("Diablito en llamas") in Photography and Roderick Yermehis Sandoya ("Bell built up") and Maikel Eliecer Mendoza ("La crazidad de los vicios") in Digital Art.

Juan Carlos Mitre obtained the first honorary mention in Painting with the work "I'm from Here" while Karina Nicholson with "Flower of the Holy Spirit" and Abdú Santiago Cruz with "Full Moon" tied for second mention.

The honorary mentions were for Julio Mercado Ramirez with "Totem Pandécias" and Víctor Teucama Negria with "Maternity" while in Photography the honorary mentions were for Sofia Verzbolovsky Miró with "Transportation" and Amir Edwardovich Lebedev with "Ejua Wadra."

Whereas, in Digital Art, the first mention was for Carla Patricia Ávila, as well as for Marie Claire Pérez and Luis Emmanuel Hernández that were tied for second mention.

The Jury to select the winners of the Roberto Lewis contest was composed of Antonio Bosch, Andrea Vernaza and Julio Sepúlveda in Painting and Dickey Velarde, María Luisa Alemán and Silvia Costa in Sculpture.

While Carlos Castro, Alicia Viteri and Javier Solís described the works of Digital Art and Diego Cedeño, Jihan Rodriguez and Arnulfo Franco evaluated Fotografía.

For the unique special Bicentennial prize the decision was with Maida Yap Chiu, Cristina Ordóñez and Lucío López Cansue.