The Department of Education Urges Puerto Rico's Schools to Take Part in the Olga Iglesias Project's Educational Recitals

San Juan, Puerto Rico – The Department of Education of Puerto Rico has officially invited the island's public schools to host the Olga Iglesias Project's educational recitals. In a memo dated May 30, 2023, and signed by Dr. Ángel A. Toledo López, Subsecretary for Academic and Programmatic Affairs, the Department's Fine Arts Program urges the school system to take part in the recitals, which come to schools free of cost.

The memo reached the full chain of the public system: associate and administrative subsecretaries, division and program directors, regional superintendents, school superintendents, and the Department's Fine Arts teaching facilitators. For a young cultural organization, it is the widest door in Puerto Rican education, opened from the inside.

In the Department's own words, the Project is a cultural nonprofit dedicated to supporting emerging classical singers in their professional development, committed to educating the community about Puerto Rican classical music through recitals of singing and cultural history that also draw on the historical collection of the celebrated Puerto Rican soprano Olga Iglesias.

The memo describes what a school can expect. Each recital presents relevant chapters of music history with live demonstrations of the Puerto Rican classical repertoire, around themes such as:

• The voice and its registers
• The history of classical singing
• Key figures of Puerto Rican music
• Puerto Rican and international repertoire

The performers are the Project's young singers, accompanied by piano, presenting historical photos, programs, and videos from the Project's heritage collection and interacting with the audience throughout an interactive recital of about one hour.

The invitation has renewed itself in practice: in 2024, 2025, and 2026, the recitals returned to public school classrooms with GEER-funded programming, making four consecutive years of Department of Education backing.

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"A door that once had to be knocked on school by school is now held open by the Department itself. This memo tells every principal in Puerto Rico that our recitals are theirs for the asking."

Anthony Cheney Guzmán, Founder and Executive Director of OIP

Schools interested in hosting a recital can write to Paloma Rivera Zárate, the Project's Director of Programs, at recitales@olgaiglesiasproject.org or request a visit through the Educational Recitals page.