We are a Music School committed to strengthening the musical processes of low-income students with an innovative, inclusive, and creative approach that seeks to enhance not only the School but also the municipality and the country. We achieve this through the creation of networks and exchanges between Schools and countries that enrich our educational pillars.
The San Francisco de Asís Music School emerged as a private initiative from the cultural division of the San Francisco de Asís School. Since its inception, it has been characterized not only by embracing some elements of the virtues of traditional music education but also by its interest in innovating and generating a unique proposal. Unlike other schools, it proposes a curricular structure based on four pillars:
As a result of the cultural management developed by our school, the most innovative and significant element for our country has emerged: having a Music School equipped with a complete set of bronze handbells, donated by the American company Shulmerich Bells LLC in June 2019. This donation was a result of the international circulation project of the Resonare handbell ensemble, directed by Maestro Carlos E. Rivera Aponte from the University of Puerto Rico in Arecibo. For the first time, a Colombian Music School has become the focus of attention for the expansion of a cultural movement that, although it has its origins in the 15th century and arrived in our hemisphere at the beginning of the 20th century from England, unfortunately, in Colombia, despite being so close, they were not widely developed within the academic programs of the country’s Music Schools and/or conservatories.
Handbell Ensembles or bell choirs, as they are called in other Latin American countries and the United States, are now our main objective and the best opportunity to fill this historical gap for our country.
The San Francisco de Asís Music School now has the immense responsibility to disseminate, promote, create, and encourage the formation of handbell ensembles in Colombia, making this project highly significant and well-justified.
Curricular Program
The San Francisco de Asís Music School reinforces its training program with three essential values that permeate all the activities carried out by the School:
- Capacity for Integration: All programs offered by the School are conducted in groups, and in some cases, the aim is for unity, as in the case of the choir and the handbells, where cooperation and respect from all members are needed to achieve a correct integration of the musical result.
- Responsibility: This value works both ways; the directors, teachers, and students must be committed to their duties to ensure the achievement of goals and the smooth internal functioning of the School.
- Love for Music: This is one of the most important pillars, as it is an end goal and one of the objectives of the School. The aim is for students to have not only an enriching experience but also an enjoyable one that motivates and satisfies them with their processes.
The School also has syllabi for each program that aim to maintain order around three fundamental stages that are also transversal to all programs. The school’s pedagogy is based on three major stages: the first, the Sensitization Stage; the second, the Foundation Stage; and the third, the Deepening Stage:
- Awareness Stage: This is the first stage where the student is exposed to the musical phenomenon so that they begin to become aware and weave relationships about it.
- Foundation Stage: During this stage, the student starts to learn the language of music or the instrument.
- Deepening Stage: In this stage, the student learns the more specific techniques and languages of their program.
