The Seventh Cartagena International Music Festival (January 5-13) was brilliantly conceived and executed; the selection of musicians and repertoire faultless and daring, world-class in its quality and the breadth of its offerings. Sold-out audiences feasted on Italian music played by a tempting array of artists including Accordone, Andrea Lucchesini, Rinaldo Alessandrini and Concerto Italiano, and cellist Mario Brunello. There were healthy helpings of Latin-American music, both in separate concerts and mixed in with more mainstream fare.

Heightening the purely musical effect, the performances took place in a variety of centuries-old theatres, both sacred and secular, that had their own ideas about ambience. Each day's selection of five or six concerts – not to mention discussions, masterclasses, seminars and workshops – culminated in the evening with formal events followed by free public concerts in Cartagena's colourful open air squares. A former monastery called La Popa, perched on Cartagena's highest hill, hosted a 'Concerto Italiano' programme attended by beauty queens, industrialists and other glitterati as the lights of the city sparkled in the wind. The concerts were rarely more than 90 minutes long, and the leisurely intermissions allowed plenty of time for mingling with heiresses, students, tourists and even a quartet of journalists from Berlin, London, Paris and Los Angeles.

The Festival's most exciting headliner was a gala concert by the three-year-old Filarmónica Joven de Colombia, marking its continuing emergence as a major part of the country's drive to develop its artistic and social fabric through culture. Created anew each year, the Filarmónica Joven is a Colombian adaptation of José Antonio Abreu's El Sistema model from neighbouring Venezuela. The resulting orchestra of talented 16 to 24-year-olds work with a world-class faculty in eight to 10 day boot camps throughout the year, consisting of sectional rehearsals and other preparation; when they begin work with their conductor, as they did with Salvatore Accardo on January 10 in Cartagena, they are ready to go. And after a few fitful starts, they were quickly making beautiful Mendelssohn (the Italian Symphony) together.

Enthusiastic faculty member Ann Mumm, a Josef Gingold student and former member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, says the Filarmónica Joven is ready to match Mozart and Mahler with Venezuela's Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar. What fun it will be, several of the organisers said to me, when the two begin competing on the international stage. In a few short years, legends have already grown about members of the ranks who have gone on to study in Europe and the US, including they invariably mention, a violinist from the Amazon. It is a clear matter of social pride and inspiration, based on enlightened support from the private and public sectors.    

By coincidence, the newly-announced music director of the Houston Symphony, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, is himself a Colombian who is very familiar with the Filarmónica Joven de Colombia; he recently conducted them in a performance of Sibelius's Violin Concerto with Sarah Chang. 'They are very excellent,' he proudly told me.

The big picture impact and intentions of the Festival combine both cultural and social initiatives. Rome-based cultural guru Jonathan Levi has been coming to Cartagena since it was still Graham Greene territory 20 years ago. In his third year as a key member of the Music Festival planning team, Levi affirmed that the Festival is a vital part of a compelling cultural line-up that includes Cine (film), Hay (writers) and, next year, Art, adding, 'We are also opening the doors of classical music to the city, including free concerts in the barrios outside the historic walled city centre. And it hasn't just been classical music. Our programming mixes Latin American composers influenced by European composers, pop composers influenced by classical music composers, and classical music composers influenced by pop composers.'

Levi is particularly proud of a three-week fellowship programme for aspiring young cultural, pop and literary journalists offered by the Gabriel García Márquez Institute. I met some of them during the concerts (one from as far afield as Latvia) and they were ready and eager to begin covering culture for their own generation. The programme met with wide response: the Institute received more than 500 applications from 70 countries for the 30 openings.

For all the Festival’s main attractions, and the excitement of the city and the easy availability of nature outside the city, the most special moment for me was attending the Filarmónica Joven’s first rehearsal with Maestro Accardo; they were relaxed and having fun, but very alert to the famed Italian virtuoso in their midst who was talking to them, instructing them, laughing, looking himself at the music to see what he was talking about, as if they were his colleagues. The iconic rehearsal photograph on their website, a moment of unbound, classical music glee, was as spontaneous as it looked. And as all the Festival organisers and staff I talked to agreed, it was the Filarmónica Joven de Colombia that thrilled them most of all – for the music they were making and for the future they are building for their country.