Victoria Sánchez
Victoria Sánchez, Venezuelan Orchestra Director. President of the “Victoria Sanchez International Music Foundation” and founder of the “Piano con Class” academy. She was born and raised in one of the most vulnerable communities in western Caracas; in La Vega, on July 8, 1986. No member of her family was a musician, but her father sang and played cuatro (a typical Venezuelan instrument) for her since before she was born. When I was only 4 years old, she also sang and played with him. She has always had the support of her parents to make her dreams come true.
She studied piano at the Simón Bolívar Conservatory of Music and one afternoon she could not help but feel the powerful force of the sounds of the instrument that would become her greatest passion: the orchestra. They were rehearsing Gustav Mahler’s “Titan” symphony number one and she immediately knew what she would do for the rest of her life. Since then, every step she takes is focused on what is one of the most wonderful careers for her, that day she decided to be an Orchestra Director.
Formally, she began his musical studies at the age of 9. She arrived at his second home, the National System of Youth and Children’s Orchestras and Choirs of Venezuela and grew up in one of the most musically and socially transcendent projects on a global scale and for which she feels deep pride. Nothing would have been possible without the overwhelming support of the distinguished Maestro José Antonio Abreu.
Her musical life within El Sistema has had several facets. Academically, she had the privilege of receiving classes with extraordinary teachers of conducting, choir, chamber music, composition, piano, orchestral and choral practice, Venezuelan music, management and leadership, among others. She was appointed to lead the Núcleo La Vega – Carlos Delfino Foundation, where she combined the management area with that of musical direction and teaching, even offering her conference “An orchestra = One company”, for Master’s in Administration students of Business at the Alejandro de Humboldt University in Caracas.
As a pianist, she has been part of the prestigious Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestras of Venezuela, the Caracas Symphony Orchestra and the Teresa Carreño Symphony Orchestra, with whom she has performed on the most beautiful stages in Europe and Asia, being conducted by personalities such as Gustavo Dudamel, José Antonio Abreu and Simon Rattle.
In 2009, she met the person who would become her Master of Direction and life: Eduardo Marturet. It was the morning of April 19 when she started her on the complex path of Orchestral Conducting. In addition to working as his assistant in the staging of numerous concerts by the Simón Bolívar, Caracas and Teresa Carreño Symphonies, she also had the opportunity to participate with him in the recordings of the albums Après un Rêve, Salut d’Amour, Oblivion and take part in the release of the CD An Evening in Vienna – LIVE! of the Miami Symphony Orchestra.
Being an Orchestra Director has always been an adventure in her life. “The first time I wanted to apply for a directing course in my country, they told me I couldn’t because it was something exclusively for men. Of course, I immediately said to myself: Is it difficult? It is a challenge! and I had to overcome it successfully.”