What began as a test designed to gain experience, ended up as one of life’s greatest achievements for Carlos Fernando Serrano Serrano, who graduated from the Bachelor of Music program at UIS in 2014.

After a call for applications, the young man won his place as principal trumpet of the West Coast Philharmonic Orchestra of Australia.

“Having obtained this place represents resuming my career as an instrumentalist, returning to do academic and classical music, which I love and love and is what motivates me to continue. Additionally, it is a space and means to share the knowledge learned at UIS with new people and cultures. This is motivating and rewarding, it is the most important achievement I have had so far in my career as an instrumentalist,” said Serrano Serrano.

In the midst of this process he recalled that when he saw the opportunity he only applied to gain experience and learn for a future project, so he never thought about the success he had in this audition.

“I finished my studies in Australia during December last year, one of my challenges for this 2022 was to resume the career, the opportunity came, it was my first audition, I did it to apply and gain experience for later, I did not expect to win it and less to be the main trumpet,” he said.

For some time he has been living in Perth (Australia), where he worked as a teacher, but with the pandemic the classes were suspended. Then he started giving private sessions and saw how little by little more and more people were signing up. That is why he decided to create The Royal Brass Company Music Academy, his own academy for musical training.

This path in the Oceanic country has made him grow personally and professionally, but he does not forget his time at the Universidad Industrial de Santander, his second home.

“The UIS for me represents my home, where I formed and learned my professional and personal pillars. There I met great teachers, it is an institution that I thank for training me,” Serrano Serrano recalled.

The West Coast Philharmonic Orchestra is an ensemble of more than 50 music-loving musicians who come together to create brilliant performances for our community. The orchestra performs a variety of well-loved traditional symphonic repertoire along with Australian, film and contemporary music.