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Guatemala’s opera singer Maria Jose gave some useful tips to students of music in particular and art lovers in general at a workshop titled ‘Building Cultural Ecosystems’ at the World Culture Festival on Sunday evening.

She began with her country first. She said, “Geographically, when you see the map, there’s the US, Mexico and then Guatemala. In Central America, there’s no tradition of opera. There’s a symphonic orchestra, but no opera company.”

Ms Jose, after discussing the different art institutions in her country, said, “In Guatemala, opera started in 1998. We are very, very young. Mexico is advanced in opera… I started out as a pop singer. I like theatre, I like to dance, etc. I had a teacher who introduced me to Italian opera and urged that I should try to sing that kind of music. I did that, and I fell in love with opera.”

She said that, in the meantime, she met a man whom she later married. He was also into that kind of music. But there was no infrastructure in her country. After a few steps taken in life, her husband, a tenor, entered a competition which he won. That got things going for them, and they were able to build opera institutions in their country.

Ms Jose advised aspiring musicians that they should remain prepared for opportunities in life. She added, apart from honing their skills and polishing their talent, they must keep the business side of things in mind as well, because when they go to a sponsor, the sponsor will demand what he’s getting back for his effort.

Dance battle

Earlier, the day kicked off with the Orbit Dance Battle nicely anchored by Norwegian artist Navid Rezvani.

It attracted a big crowd of youngsters who watched the competition with a great deal of interest and made loud noises. After a gruelling battle that had commenced the day before, Kashan was declared the winner of the battle.

The winner of the Orbit Battle was also slated to take part in the dance concert that happened in Auditorium 1 of the Arts Council of Pakistan alongside established dancers Legiteam Obstruxion (France), Nattaya Chula (Thail­a­nd), Navid Rezvani & Catherine Michelet (Norway) and a group of folk dancers representing the Philippines.

Originally published in Dawn, November 9th, 2026