Finally, our concert "Two Decades of History" took place, celebrating 20 years of artistic achievement for our choral group. Lasting almost three hours, the Simón Bolívar National Choir performed 24 pieces, sharing the best of the sacred repertoire, world music, and Venezuelan choral classics in the Simón Bolívar Hall of the National Center for Social Action through Music, under the direction of our Maestro Lourdes Sánchez. I was particularly fortunate to invite my mother and one of our best friends, so I shared the excitement not only with my colleagues but also with my family. In this 3speak video, I've edited a summary for you of what happened on the evening of Saturday, May 16, 2026.
I'll get straight to the repertoire, as the concert was, in short, a masterclass in high-level choral music. The first part of the concert was titled Spirituality; We began with Christopher Chiyan Tin's Baba Yetu, a Lord's Prayer in Zulu that was composed for a video game and ended up being a Grammy-winning global hit; the tenor solo is sung by my colleague Gabriel Sánchez, and after that powerful entrance with African drums, we proceeded to sing the sacred music in the following order: Josep Vila's Salve Regina for double choir, with a contralto solo by my colleague Florgyneth Pérez. Immediately following were Anton Bruckner's powerful Christus Factus Est and Sergei Rachmaninoff's Bogoroditse Devo, essential composers whose choral arrangements have accompanied us throughout these 20 years of our artistic journey.
To conclude the first part of the concert, the most powerful sacred compositions and audience favorites were sung: O Gloriosa Virginum by the Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki, a work dedicated to Maestro José Antonio Abreu, founder of the National System of Youth and Children's Orchestras and Choirs of Venezuela; The Conversion of Soul and its powerful footsteps that accompany the musical fury composed by the American Randall Stroope; and the sublime O Salutaris Hostia by the Lithuanian composer Vytautas Miškinis, where the girls position themselves behind the dark voices and emulate prayers in different parts of the world in an ad libitum manner while the men provide the central harmony of the choir. For this concert, the organ of the Simón Bolívar Hall was also used in the work Hear My Prayer by Felix Mendelssohn, with the soprano soloist Patricia Laguado, and afterwards a very popular spiritual by Moses Hogan, My Soul's Been Anchored In The Lord, with the soprano soloist Mariana Camacho and again Gabriel Sánchez in the tenor voice.
The second part of the concert consisted entirely of choral works representing different "Sounds of the World"; in fact, that was the name of that part of the performance. I had the joy and the great responsibility of opening the show alone, without a choir or accompanying instruments, but it turned out well 😅 After my intro, tenors Luis Ramirez and Kervis Pérez joined us to complete the trio for the Zulu song Bayasibiza, accompanied by drums and sounds characteristic of African music. We immediately took our seats on the floor to sing Only In Sleep by Latvian composer Ēriks Ešenvalds, with soloists Alison Carvajal and Aimée Martínez. We continued with the Filipino song Rosas Pandan by George Hernandez,with a stunning solo from my fellow soprano Yeralmy Piaspam and we had a brief choreography; the women even used fans for the performance. It was a lot of fun and different from what we usually do. We continued with Let My Love Be Heard by Jake Runestad and then the showy piece Desh by Ethan Sperry. Finally, we had an incredible and unrepeatable moment with the tango Verano Porteño, where we were accompanied by Maestro Federico Ruiz on the accordion and Maestro Miguel Delgado on the guitar with a couple from the La Magia del Tango academy dancing live in front of the choir, that was EPIC! In addition to that, we closed with the Mexican song La Morena, with the contralto Génesis Árraga dancing in the best style of the region.
The third part of the concert was titled "Aires de Venezuela" (Airs of Venezuela), and in my opinion, it was the most exciting part because it's my favorite choral music ❤️ We began with "El Alcaraván," a song by Simón Díaz arranged by Maestro Cesar Alejandro Carrillo. Next, we performed "Habladurías" by Antonio Estévez, in my opinion the most complex piece of the entire concert, where my fellow tenor, Almer Piaspam, sang as soloist. Following that, we sang "El Santiguao," and it turned out better than ever before in the choir's history, which was wonderful because its composer, Maestro Federico Ruiz, was sitting in the audience after accompanying us on the accordion with the tango. After that, we performed "Romance del Tirano Aguirre," where the soprano soloist was my wife, Jhoxiris Medina, and at the end, bass Claudio González joined in. Obviously, hearing the power of her voice made me fall even more in love with her 🤭
To conclude, we were joined by harp (Edward Bogado, director of the Simón Díaz Orchestra), cuatro (Deogo Casanova), and maracas (Contralto María Oliveros), the most traditional instruments of our country for playing folk music. We performed El Tramao by Luis Laguna, Aires de Golpe Tuyero by Gilberto Rebolledo, and El Gabán by Rafael Suárez; the latter with my fellow tenor Cristo Vassilaco as soloist. In addition to the powerful sound of Venezuela in the final section, the audience always wants an encore, and that's when we performed Los Dos Gavilanes by Adelis Freitez, in a choral arrangement by José Carmona, a former member of our group. Twenty-four pieces that took us on a journey through sounds from around the world, and we even closed with ourselves singing "Happy Birthday" with a cake on stage and a surprise tribute to our director, Lourdes Sánchez, and our manager, Ayari García. Without a doubt, one of the best experiences of my life, a perfect moment that actually happened during a weekend filled with chaos outside of music, but with this energy, it was impossible to break my spirit. Thank you to everyone who reads and supports me. Most of the photos are by Emely Nathalie, the wife of one of my best friends and a member of the other professional choir in El Sistema, and the video clips were captured by all our mothers and can also be found on our official Instagram 