Artistic Directors
Jorge Luis Uzcátegui,
Artistic Director
Since his debut as a piano soloist with the Simón Bolívar Orchestra and the Venezuelan National Philharmonic at age 13, Jorge Luis Uzcátegui has performed concerts in North, Central, South America, Asia, and Europe, with orchestras such as the Valencia Symphony, where his concerts at the “Palau de la Música” have been broadcast live on Spanish National Television and Radio. His interpretation of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition is the soundtrack in El Cerrito, an award-winning documentary for the History Channel.
Uzcátegui won 1st prizes at the Wise Conducting Competition in Los Ángeles, the Debut Hamburg International Conducting Competition, and at the Paraná Symphony International Conducting Competition in Brazil, obtaining the unanimous vote from the jury and all orchestra members. He also received the Accademia Musicale Chigiana Conducting Prize, being selected to conduct the final concert of the festival. Other conductors that have received such an honor include Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Chailly, Carlo Maria Giulini and Giusepe Sinopoli.
Uzcátegui has conducted members from distinguished orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Frankfurt Opera, Rotterdam Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, Sao Paulo Symphony, Boston Symphony, New York Philharmonic and the LA Philharmonic. Engagements in recent seasons include performances in Germany, Hungary, Poland, Ukraine, Finland, Serbia, Brazil, Paraguay, Venezuela and the United States, conducting orchestras such as the LA Chamber Orchestra and the German National Orchestra at the Berlin Philharmonie.
As staff conductor of the Spokane Symphony, Uzcátegui conducted over 30 concerts per season. These include collaborations with Grammy Award-winning artists such as Judy Collins, Patti Austin, Indigo Girls and Steep Canyon Rangers; Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker with Santa Barbara’s State Street Ballet; Labor Day concerts for audiences of over 8 thousand people; conducting the original score live to movies like Psycho, City Lights and the Phantom of the Opera; partnerships with local theater, breweries, indie-rock bands, the Spokane Tribe of Indians; and all education concerts including 4th and 5th Grade, Carnegie Hall’s Link-Up, MusicFest Northwest and Music Innovates performances.
In the Los Angeles area, Jorge is currently music director of the Pacific Academy Foundation Orchestra, and performs over 30 concerts per year with the ensemble. He has been music director of multiple orchestras, leading his ensembles in concert tours to France, Austria, Germany and Taiwan. He has also served as preparatory conductor for the Colburn Conservatory Orchestra and conductor of the Claremont Young Musicians Orchestra. Jorge is also artistic director of Music to Save Humanity, a foundation that tangibly transforms communities through music, bringing world-renowned musicians to collaborate while providing high-level music education to all corners of the world.
Uzcátegui’s teachers and mentors include conductors Gustavo Dudamel, Jorma Panula, Kurt Masur, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Neal Stulberg, Donald Neuen and Daisuke Soga; and pianists Alejandro Slobodianik, Marina Lomazov, Jekaterina Kargina, Adriana Moraga, György Sandor, Angela Hewitt, Benedetto Lupo, Ralph Votapek and Georges Pludermacher.
Gustavo Dudamel said, “Maestro Uzcátegui is a young Venezuelan conductor with the highest academic education and artistic ability.” Maestro José Antonio Abreu, founder and director of El Sistema said, “Jorge Luis Uzcátegui is one of the most outstanding figures of the new musical generation in our country.” The President of Venezuela bestowed Uzcátegui with the José Felix Ribas Order and the General Juan Manuel Valdez Order for his achievements as an artist.
Past Performances:
Erica UzCa,
Artistic Director
Hailed as “A great soloist of the next generation” by Ruggiero Ricci, Erica UzCa made her debut as soloist in Los Ángeles, California at the age of 11 with the New West Symphony. Since then, her engagements include solo performances with the St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra in Russia, the Kiev Fantastic Orchestra and the Kiev Lyatoshynsky Ensemble in Ukraine, the Asunción Symphony in Paraguay, and the Bacchanalia Chamber Orchestra in New York City, USA. Erica has been featured as a soloist in international concert tours including her recent France concert tour where she performed in 3 cities and played the final concert in La Madeleine in Paris. Her upcoming solo engagements include a 10-city concert tour in Venezuela.
Erica has been a member of several award-winning chamber ensembles including the Matisse Quartet. In addition to chamber series recitals throughout the Midwest and East Coast, Matisse Quartet activities included performing for an interview concert with Philip Glass, performing for Queen Sheikha Mozah in Doha, Qatar, and an Artist’s Residency at the Banff Centre in Canada, where she has also been a Solo Artist in Residence. Her chamber music mentors include Leon Fleisher, Dawn Upshaw, Joel Krosnick, David Harding and Noah Bendix-Balgley.
Passionate about interdisciplinary collaboration, Erica performed at the TED headlining event, TEDSummit 2016, with Joshua Roman, “Blinky Bill” Sellanga and Iyeoka Okoawo, commemorating the life of Prince. She then went on to be featured as a 2021 TEDx speaker. She was the soloist for a concert at the Skirball Museum honoring Albert Einstein and has played several collaborative visual arts concerts in museums including the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Miller Institute for Contemporary Art, the Gene Autry Museum, among others. She is featured in “The Staff of Mercury” as violin soloist in a documentary that features the healing power of music that will be distributed by Sony and PBS.
Understanding the power music has to change lives, Erica seeks to be a musical ambassador in society which has led her to perform through several organizations bringing enrichment and education to everyone in the community. She has conducted several lecture concerts through Elderhostel and Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and performed through organizations such as Musicians with a Mission and Meet the Maestro, that offer music education and enrichment to the elderly and youth. While in Baltimore, Erica often performed in the Children’s Wing at the Hopkins Cancer Center. Currently, Ms. UzCa is the Artistic Director of the non-profit organization, Music to Save Humanity.
Ms. UzCa was awarded 1st prize at the Burgos International Competition, the Pittsburgh Concert Society Major Artist Audition, and the Summit Music Festival International Competition in New York, among many others. As an orchestral musician, she has played concertmaster under conductors Leon Fleisher, Gerard Schwarz, Joseph Silverstein, Rob Kapilow, Ian Hobson, Andrés Cárdenes, Brad Keimach, Eckart Preu, James Lowe, Morihiko Nakahara, and Jorge Luis Uzcátegui. She is currently Associate Concertmaster of the Spokane Symphony.
Erica is Artistic Coordinator and Teaching Artist for Music Innovates, an intensive orchestral training program modeled after Venezuela’s El Sistema. This collaboration between the Spokane Symphony and Spokane Public Schools provides free classical music instruction to underprivileged students 5 days per week, creating a haven where students learn essential life skills through rigorous music education. As a pedagogue, Erica has also conducted master classes for the Carnegie Mellon Pre-College Division and Meet the Maestro in Pittsburgh, and for Sonidos de la Tierra in Paraguay. She also holds her own studio of private students. Currently, Erica is also the Pacific Academy Foundation Orchestra's Principal Teaching Artist, overviewing all the PAFO orchestras and chamber music program.
Erica’s mentors include Gayaneh Kumar, Victor Danchenko, Andrés Cárdenes, Ruggiero Ricci, Abram Shtern and Joseph Silverstein, and have degrees from the Peabody Institute of the John Hopkins University and the Carnegie Mellon University. Erica plays on a 1716 Carlo Tononi violin generously provided by anonymous donors.