News

Presentation of seven new Canarian projects associated with cultural heritage, education and social groups

The Arts and Movement Festival FAM organised a forum of professionals to promote dance through projects underway in the Canary Islands associated with education, cultural heritage and social groups. The meeting took place on Thursday (6 June) at the Teatro Guimerá. It was attended by the Minister of Culture of the Island Council of Tenerife, José Carlos Acha, and the council member for Culture of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Santiago Díaz.

During his speech, José Carlos Acha mentioned the recent aid measures approved by the regional government for the Network of Municipal Performing Arts Venues: “The creation of networks is of vital importance, and we are here today to promote projects that may be taken anywhere on the island”. The council member added, “Dance is such an extraordinary medium. It is an ephemerous art that changes with every performance and develops languages of corporal expression to allow creation, participation and social inclusion through culture”. Santiago Díaz appealed to the sector, asking for greater relevance of “educational initiatives for artistic performances as a means of achieving greater enjoyment of the public and increased involvement of all spectators”.

The artistic director of the Auditorio de Tenerife, José Luis Rivero, and the coordinator of the Performing Arts of the Regional Institute of Cultural Development (ICDC), Lorena Matute, introduced the event. Rivero explained that “The Festival of Dance Arts has always taken place with the help of a forum to have time to reflect, to inspire and to motivate. This year’s novelty is that the curatorship has been taken on jointly by the three institutions collaborating in the festival”.

Both speakers provided the audience with data on their respective programmes for the exhibition of performing arts. The information suggests little activity in the area of dance, which may be explained by the fact that authorities invest far less in dance than in other disciplines. Lorena Matute suggested “searching for a common ground to see dance from a perspective other than an exhibition, to meet goals by taking a different approach from areas such as cultural heritage, social initiatives or education”.

Details were provided on the projects that had been invited to participate in the forum. The managers of the Autonomous Department of Cultural Affairs of the City Council of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Leandro González and Yudi Acosta, presented the video-dance performance Cabeza de venado, which was shown along with the eponymous painting of Diego Velázquez, on loan from the Prado Museum, and the show Dulces bestias of the company Nómada. The second project shown was Across Hip Hop, presented by the council member for Culture of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Adrián Santana, and Vanesa Medina, the educational coordinator of the project, which features the artistic direction of Natalia Medina.

Afterwards, the photographer and videographer Derek Pedrós and the dancer Emiliana Battista Marino offered the public details of their project on dance and architecture. La Pascua Florida de Guía de Isora was presented by the councilmember, José Vidal, and the dancer and choreographer Roberto Torres. The artistic project Puzzle Atípico, which places professionals from the worlds of dance, theatre, performance art and video art alongside ordinary people with and without Asperger’s/ASD, was shown by the person in charge of the initiative, the head of the Laboratory of Live Arts and Citizenship of Tenerife, Beatriz Bello, and the representative of the association Aspercan, María Europa Luis Ramallo.

The council member of the Island Council of Lanzarote, Alejandro Aguilar, and the director of Studio Danza Emocional, Celia Medina, presented the programme Diversos. Lastly, the programme Danza en Comunidad by the Auditorio de Tenerife was shown with the collaboration of José Luis Rivero and the coordinator and dancer Laura Marrero.

This Sunday (9th), the Arts and Movement Festival FAM culminates at 7:30 p.m. with the large-format performance Mont Ventoux, by the Spanish company Kor'sia. The show has three nominations for the Max Awards for the Performing Arts. In addition, the programme continues today (Friday 7 June) with several proposals to be enjoyed in the streets of Santa Cruz. On Saturday (8th), the Espacio La Granja welcomes He aquí un acto romántico by Richard Mascherin, and the Teatro Guimerá hosts Sonoma, by La Veronal. You can find the tickets for the indoor shows, at a single price of €8, and all the updated information on the festival on the website www.famtenerife.com.

The FAM festival, which started on June 1 in different venues in Santa Cruz, is an initiative promoted by the Auditorio de Tenerife with the collaboration of the Canary Islands Government through the Regional Institute of Cultural Development, the Autonomous Department of Cultural Affairs of the City Council of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and the programme "Danza a Escena", which is part of the Spanish Network of Theatres of the National Institute of Performing Arts and Music (INAEM) of Spain's Ministry of Culture.

During next Tuesday's performance in the Chamber Hall, he will feature three sonatas by the Austrian composer.

The Auditorio de Tenerife offers a concert by the English pianist Paul Lewis this Tuesday (11 June). It is the third concert by the British master with the repertoire of Franz Schubert (1797-1828) for the Tenerife audience. This Integral will take place in the Chamber Hall at 7:30 p.m. and includes three piano sonatas by the Austrian composer.

The programme includes an intermission and will begin with the Piano Sonata number 4 in A minor, D 537, to continue with the Sonata number 9 in B major, D 575. After the intermission, Paul Lewis will perform the Piano Sonata number 18 in G major, D 894. With frankness and sincerity, Schubert's sonatas express some of the most essential elements of human experience: longing, consolation, despair, joy, loss, nostalgia, and hope.

In September 2023 Paul Lewis began to show in Tenerife this deepening of Schubert's compositions written for piano that will finish with the fourth and final integral next October. During these concerts, Lewis will guide us through the last 12 years of the 19th-century composer's life and creation, from the charming lyricism of the early sonatas to the transcendent creativity of the last masterpieces and the harrowing moments of despair when Schubert's health began to decline.

Lewis is a renowned performer of the Central European piano repertoire. His performances and recordings of Beethoven and Schubert have received unanimous acclaim. He was awarded a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to music, and his musical approach has earned him followers all over the world.

He has performed as a soloist with orchestras such as the Philharmonic Orchestras Berlin, the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, the Philharmonic Orchestras of New York and Los Angeles, the Symphony Orchestras of Chicago and London, the NHK Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw, and the Leipzig Gewandhaus. His close relationship with the Boston Symphony Orchestra led to his appointment as a Koussevitzky Artist 2020 at Tanglewood.

He has received awards such as instrumentalist of the Year of the Royal Philharmonic Society, two Edison, three Gramophone, Diapason d'Or de l'Annee, the South Bank Show Classical Music Award, and honorary degrees from the universities of Liverpool, Edge Hill and Southampton.

The tickets can be purchased at a single price of €15 and €5 for audiences under 30 on the website www.auditoriodetenerife.com, at the auditorium's box office, or by dialling the phone number 902 317 327 from Monday to Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. There are discounts for students, unemployed and large families.

The wind bands of La Orotava, Santiago del Teide, El Tanque and Icod de los Vinos offer their repertoire in the Chamber Hall

The new edition of the Primavera Musical cycle, organised since 2005 by the wind bands federation 'Federación Tinerfeña de Bandas de Música' with the collaboration of the Island Council, ends this Sunday, June 9. At 11.30 a.m., the Chamber Hall will host the performances by the wind ensembles Orotava, Santiago del Teide, Santísimo Cristo del Calvario (El Tanque) and José Manuel Cabrera Mejías (Icod de los Vinos).

The band Agrupación Musical Orotava, which is celebrating its 40 anniversaries, will perform two works, directed by Julio Castañeda Fumero: the pasodoble El Olmo, by Francisco José Martínez Gallego and Suite Popular Canaria, by Santiago Reig. With five movements, this work won in 1956 the Teobaldo Power Prize for Composition instituted by the Tenerife Island Council. It premiered on May 2 of the following year at the Teatro Guimerá under the direction of the composer.

The wind band 'Banda de Música Santiago del Teide', created in 1991, will be the second group to take to the stage of the Chamber Hall. Jorge Pujol Fumero will lead the group in performing their three pieces. The band will start with El baile de Luis Alonso, by Gerónimo Giménez, to continue with Mambo Jambo, de Pérez Prado, arranged by Nahoiro Iwai. To close their presence in this edition of Primavera Musical, the band will perform La sierra negra by Eduardo Brito.

José Eduardo Morales Meneses will conduct the ensemble 'Agrupación Musical Santísimo Cristo del Calvario'. The band from the northern municipality of El Tanque will perform Chuck Elledge's A Cecilia, Klaas van der Woude's Hello Dolly and Nahoiro Iwai's La Bamba in the Chamber Hall of the Auditorio de Tenerife.

The wind band 'Agrupación Musical XIX de Marzo' from San Juan de la Rambla will close the present edition of Primavera Musical. Conducted by Juan Alexis González Rodríguez, the band from Icod de los Vinos, which was formed in 2010, will perform three works from their repertoire: the Christian march Reige, by José María Ferrero Pastor, the soundtrack of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ Superstar, arranged by Willy Hautvast, and the pasodoble Bravo Mestre, by Ferrer Ferrán.

This concert brings to a close the performances that more than 1,500 musicians of the 37 ensembles registered in the wind bands federation 'Federación Tinerfeña de Bandas de Música' have offered in the Chamber Hall of the Auditorio de Tenerife since last March.

The programme returns to the streets tomorrow, and Espacio La Granja and Teatro Guimerá host shows on Saturday.

This Sunday (9th), the Arts and Movement Festival FAM culminates at 7:30 p.m. in the Symphony Hall of Auditorio de Tenerife with the large-format performance Mont Ventoux, by the Spanish company Kor'sia. The show has three nominations for the  Max Awards for the Performing Arts. In addition, the programme continues tomorrow with several proposals to be enjoyed at the Museo de Bellas Artes (Fine Arts) and in the streets of Santa Cruz. On Saturday (8th), the Espacio La Granja welcomes He aquí un acto romántico by Richard Mascherin, and the Teatro Guimerá hosts Sonoma, by La Veronal. You can find the tickets for the indoor shows, at a single price of €8, and all the updated information on the festival on the website www.famtenerife.com.

FAM returns tomorrow to the outdoor performances with the duet La medida que ha de nos dividir, a show on borders and the future by the company Qabalum, formed by Lucía Burguete and Diego Pazó. There are two performances, the first at 6:00 p.m. in the surroundings of the Plaza del Príncipe and the second at 8:30 p.m. outside the Teatro Guimerá.

The only indoor performance scheduled for Friday will be In-Side, an interpretation by Lucía Montes and Mado Dallery at 6:30 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. at the Museo de Bellas Artes (Fine Arts). The reflection on the state of the human body and its awareness has free entry until total capacity is reached. However, you shall collect the invitation one hour before the event starts.

The solo show Vacío espiritual by Richard Mascherin focuses on contemporary performing and audiovisual arts. It will take place in the Plaza del Chicharro at 7:00 p.m. The piece by the Canarian creator is a performative accident that falls within the contemporary dance category in which the body, sound and techno music are interrelated. In addition, there will be live music by Alejandro da Rocha.

At 8:00 p.m., the exterior of the Teatro Guimerá welcomes the duet Otempodiz by the company Ertza. The show is nominated for the Best Street Show at the next Max Awards. The show with the slogan Vosotros tenéis el reloj, nosotros tenemos el tiempo (You have the clock; we have the time), referring to the differences in perception of time between the West and Africa. The director of the company is Basque Asier Zabaleta, while this piece stars Mozambican Fenias Nhumaio and Deissane Machava.

Two indoor performances have been scheduled for Saturday, 8 June. Espacio La Granja features at 6:00 p.m. the trio He aquí un acto romántico, by the Richard Mascherin Company, nominated for the Max Award for Best Male Dance Performer. In addition to Mascherin, this piece is performed by Lucía Montes and Javier Mario Salcedo. This stage proposal uses physical and emotional falling to create a map of human bodies thrown into the air. The piece starts with tense corporeality and an atmosphere of cinematographic inspirations. It is about three victims who ceremoniously assume a spiral of violent situations, making accidents, provocations, attachment and non-attachment a rite of passage towards transcendence.

At 8:00 p.m., the Teatro Guimerá welcomes Sonoma by the company La Veronal, led by Marcos Morau, winner of the National Dance Award. Sonoma is a word that you will not find in a Spanish dictionary. It is, however, built with morphemes from Greek (soma, meaning body) and Latin (sonum, meaning sound) to signify the body of sound and sound of the body. Sonoma is the certainty that the virtual and digital worlds can be surpassed only by a return to the origin. Marcos Morau has further developed the essential ideas of the piece he created in 2016 for Ballet de Lorraine: Le Surréalisme au service de la Révolution. Based on the film director, Luis Buñuel, it is set in his hometown of Calanda in the Middle Ages and cosmopolitan Paris, and the plot deals with Jesuit discipline and surrealist liberty. The piece is performed by Lorena Nogal, Marina Rodríguez, Sau-Ching Wong, Ariadna Montfort, Núria Navarra, Àngela Boix, Laia Duran, Anna Hierro and Alba Barral.

The Symphony Hall of the Auditorio de Tenerife hosts the FAM festival's grand finale on Sunday, June 9, at 7:30 p.m. by climbing Kor'sia's Mont Ventoux.  The show has three nominations for the Max Awards 2024, to be presented on July 1 at the Auditorio de Tenerife: Best Dance Performance, Best Choreography (the company's directors Antonio de Rosa and Mattia Russo) and Best Musical Composition for a Stage Space (Alejandro da Rocha, composer).

The company was inspired by the philosopher Francesco Petrarch's (1336-1374) Ascent of Mont Ventoux (1336). Cunningly describing an ascent of a mountain as the simplest of accounts, Petrarch offers an alternative to the faith of the world, an ascending journey for humanity to elude and leave behind the dark years of the Middle Ages, bringing about a paradigm shift for the world to come: humanism. The Kor'sia Collective seeks answers from the humanist past to the conflicts proposed by a 21st-century paradigm shift: the construction of an individual capable of rebuilding themselves and the planet. Everything is overcome by obstinate work.

The FAM festival, which started on June 1, is an initiative promoted by the Auditorio de Tenerife with the collaboration of the Canary Islands Government through the Regional Institute of Cultural Development, the Autonomous Department of Cultural Affairs of the City Council of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and the programme "Danza a Escena", which is part of the Spanish Network of Theatres of the National Institute of Performing Arts and Music (INAEM) of Spain's Ministry of Culture.

FMUC offers four concerts, the first being this Friday with the new creation of the Tenerife-born Francis Hernández

The Auditorio de Tenerife welcomes the Contemporary Music Festival programme, FMUC, which begins this Friday (7th) at 7:30 p.m. in the Chamber Hall with Texturas, the new creation of Tenerife's composer Francis Hernández. The rest of the activities and concerts will take place next week. Tickets can be purchased at a single price of €10 and €5 for the audience under 30 years of age. Other discounts, such as a subscription ticket for all four concerts for €30, are also available.

Texturas is a work commissioned by Auditorio de Tenerife for this festival. For its creator, "textures play a crucial role in art in conveying sensations and meanings; they can have visual and tactile connotations that impact how we perceive a piece of art".

This composition aims to reflect different sensations through a symbiosis of music and image, with auditory and visual perception as the scope of action. This symbiosis will consist of typical textures in the environment, which the audience can interact with at specific moments in the visual part through an interactive project with Stable Diffusion, a generative artificial intelligence model that creates images. Thus, the entire hall will be transformed into a creative and interactive space at specific moments of the concert.

This work is the brainchild of Francis Hernández and Dea Woon Kang. Paco Díaz, director of FMUC, is also involved in the stage direction and staging of the entire musical component. Students from the Professional Music Conservatoire of the Canary Islands will perform the score.

The rest of the activities will continue on Wednesday (12th) at 5:30 p.m. in the Sala Puerto with a meeting of the composers Francis Hernández, Celia Rivero, Rubens Askenar and Nino Díaz, which will lead a concert with premiere works by these Canarian creators, also commissioned by the Auditorio de Tenerife.

On Thursday (13th), the San Sebastian trio Zukan will offer their special blend of percussion, accordion and txistu (type of Basque flute). Lastly, FMUC closes this edition with the percussion concert Tak Nara, comprised of Verónica Cagigao and Andrea Domínguez, who will perform Dualismos. All concerts will take place in the Chamber Hall at 7:30 p.m.

The tickets are available on the website www.auditoriodetenerife.com, at the auditorium's box office or by dialling the phone number 902 317 327 from Monday to Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 02:00 p.m. There are discounts for students, unemployed and large families.

Mucha Muchacha will take place tomorrow at Espacio La Granja, and on Wednesday, Santa Cruz will welcome the first outdoor performances.

The Arts and Movement Festival FAM continues with various indoor and street performances this week. Tomorrow (Tuesday 4), Mucha Muchacha brings its show of the same name to Espacio La Granja, while on Wednesday (day 5), outdoor shows predominate, and on Thursday (day 6) the Teatro Guimerá receives Mariana by Luz Arcas' company La Phármaco, which includes dance, music and singing. The tickets are sold at a single price of eight euros and other information about the festival can be consulted at www.famtenerife.com.

Tomorrow, at 8:00 p.m., the Espacio La Granja welcomes the first large-format performance of Mucha Muchacha, interpreted by the eponymous company. It is a declaration of intentions embodying movement, community, femininity, and ritual. In 2016, the company embarked on a journey to document the inspiring stories of the female artists of the generation of 1927, known as Las Sinsombrero (the hatless). These women, such as Maruja Mallo, Marga Gil, María Teresa León, Concha Méndez and Rosa Chacel, played a part in Spain's cultural unrest and societal modernisation in the 1920s and 1930s and were silenced in the wake of the Spanish Civil War. The undertaking, which began as a form of theoretical and practical research and became the starting point of Mucha muchacha, focuses on concepts of empowerment, determination, voice, participation, liberty and cooperation.

The dance performances come to the streets of Santa Cruz on Wednesday (5th) with Onde pousa a humidade, the first solo endeavour of Marcia Vázquez. The show explores the relationship between the human body and waiting and can be enjoyed at 5:30 p.m. in Plaza del Príncipe and 7:30 p.m. outside Espacio La Granja.   Also scheduled for that day is the indoor performance This is Alfred, a story about a fragile being and his new reality, by Elías Aguirre with Jorge da Rocha on double bass. It will be staged at 6:00 ap.m. at the Museo de Bellas Artes (Fine Arts). At Espacio La Granja at 8:00 p.m., Oro negro, a solo performance with two interpreters and live music by the creator Poliana Lima, will be performed.

On Thursday, 6 June, Luz Arcas and her company La Phármaco will offer the public the live-music show Mariana at the Teatro Guimerá at 8:00 p.m. The dancing of Luz Arcas is joined by the voice of Bonela Hijo, as well as the singing, hand-clapping and foot-stomping of Lola Dolores. On the instrumental side, Carlos González will play the percussion and synthesizer, Abraham Romero will play the cornet, and Bonela Chico will play the guitar. Inspired by a female animal of the countryside, Mariana is a dance sculpted in stone and clay, schematic, rough-hewn and precise, a dance that is as abstract and symbolic as it is utilitarian and material. Recreating the beast's strength, Luz Arcas stars in this cuerpo jondo (deep body) dance.  Mariana is a co-production with the Bienal de Flamenco of Seville, Teatros del Canal of Madrid and MA scène nationale - Pays de Montbéliard (France). 

FAM continues outdoors on Friday, 7 June, with the duet performance La medida que nos ha de dividir interpreted by the Qabalum Company at 6:00 p.m. in Plaza del Príncipe and 8:30 p.m. outside the Teatro Guimerá. For a different experience, Vacío espiritual will be performed by Richard Mascherin in Plaza del Chicharro at 7:00 p.m., and an hour later, the duet performance of Otempodiz will be offered by the Ertza Company outside the Teatro Guimerá. The show is nominated for the Best Street Show at the next Max Awards. The only indoor performance scheduled for Friday will be In-Side, an interpretation by Lucía Montes and Mado Dallery at 6:30 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. at the Museo de Bellas Artes (Fine Arts).

On Saturday, 8 June, two exceptional performances are lined up. The first is He aquí un acto romántico, by the Richard Mascherin Company (nominated for the Max Award for Best Male Dance Performer) at 6:00 p.m. at Espacio La Granja, and the second is Sonoma, at 8:00 p.m. at Teatro Guimerá, by the company La Veronal, led by Marcos Morau, winner of the National Dance Award.

The Symphony Hall of the Auditorio de Tenerife hosts the FAM festival's grand finale, the large-format show Mont Ventoux, interpreted by the Spanish company Kor'sia. The show takes place on Sunday, 9 June, at 7:30 p.m. It has three nominations for the Max Awards 2024, to be presented on 1 July at the Auditorio de Tenerife: Best Dance Performance, Best Choreography, and Best Musical Composition.

The programme is a showcase of the talent in Spain. It will delight audiences with the power of live dance in the capital with large-scale theatrical performances, outdoor solo performances, award-winning duets, interdisciplinary pieces and many more acts in different formats and offering different concepts that go from reflections on the passing of time to representations of the gravitational effect on bodies, all interpreted through the lens of contemporary dance.

The FAM festival is an initiative promoted by the Auditorio de Tenerife with the collaboration of the Canary Islands Government, through the Regional Institute of Cultural Development, the Autonomous Department of Cultural Affairs of the City Council of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and the programme "Danza a Escena", which is part of the Spanish Network of Theatres of the National Institute of Performing Arts and Music (INAEM) of Spain's Ministry of Culture.

Pablo González conducts this Friday's concert with the sponsorship of the Fundación Occident

This Friday (7th) at 7:30 p.m. the Canadian pianist Jaeden Izik-Dzurko is making his solo debut in the Sinfónica de Tenerife season. The María Canals Competition 2022 winner will perform in the Piano Concerto No. 2022 by Brahms, part of a programme supported by the Fundación Occident, which will be conducted by Pablo González. In addition to the Brahms piece, the orchestra will perform Symphony No. 5 by Nielsen.

Pablo González notes that "this is a fascinating programme that will allow us to enjoy two composers whose music exudes emotion and intense feelings, although expressed in very distinctive ways". The conductor from Oviedo highlights "the range from the intimate melancholy to the robust optimism of the Brahms score, along with the exploration of the individual's battle against power and the quest for hope in wartime, in Nielsen's composition". González is returning to conduct the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra seven years after he last did so, and oddly, in a concert with the same composers back then.

The Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 83 by Johannes Brahms is a masterpiece of musical creation, composed in 1881. Unlike his first concerto, contemporary critics greeted this piece with great acclaim, a testament to its depth and technical complexity. Unlike his first concerto, contemporary critics greeted this piece with great acclaim. Following the example set by Liszt, the German composer changed the traditional approach to the classical concerto, by introducing a second fast movement after the first movement.

After the interlude, there will be a performance of Symphony No. 5, op. 50 by Carl Nielsen., Composed in 1922, this piece is engaged with his era and framed by the prevailing social atmosphere of chaos in the wake of the First World War. Unlike symphonies of this period, the work only has two movements featuring different chaotic and warlike elements that hastily run into a final coda in which humanity ultimately triumphs.

Pablo González studied at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London, and his distinctions include First Place in the Cadaqués Orchestra International Conducting Competition” and the “Donatella Flick”. He was the principal conductor of the Spanish RTVE Orchestra, and from November 2018 up until the end of the 2022-2023 season, he served as the artistic advisor of the RTVE Symphony Orchestra and Choir. Previously, he was the main conductor of the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona I Nacional de Catalunya (OBC) and principal chief guest conductor of the Orchestra Ciudad de Granada.

Besides the Sinfónica de Tenerife, González has conducted important international orchestras such as the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège, NHK Orchestra (Japan), Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de México, Kyoto Symphony Orchestra, as well as the main Spanish orchestras.

The 25-year-old Canadian Jaeden Izik-Dzurko graduated in music from the Juilliard School and undertook a master's degree in music from the University of British Columbia. He studies with Jacob Leuschner at the Hochschule für Musik in Detmold and with Benedetto Lupo at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.

In 2022, he also won the Maria Canals International Music Competition and took First Place in the Hilton Head International Piano Competition. He was recently awarded First Place in the 20th International Paloma O'Shea Santander Piano Competition, the Canon Public and Chamber Music prizes.

Izik-Dzurko has performed with the Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonikoa, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra, the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra, the Kamloops Symphony Orchestra, the Jove Orquestra Nacional de Catalunya, the Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid, the Orquesta Sinfónica de RTVE and the Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla. He has appeared as a recitalist in venues such as the Wigmore Hall in London, the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York, the Salle Cortot in Paris and the National Music Auditorium in Madrid.

ATADEM, the Tenerife Association for Friends of Music, is offering the usual free talk beforehand on the characteristics of the two pieces that make up this musical programme. On this occasion, it will be presented by Carmen Celia Cabaña y García at 6:30 p.m. in the Sala Avenida, located in the hall of the Auditorio de Tenerife.

The tickets for this concert can be purchased until the day of the event on the website www.sinfonicadetenerife.es, at the auditorium's box office and by dialling the phone number 902 317 327 from Monday to Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Please note that tomorrow (Tuesday 4) is the renewal deadline for renewing the subscriptions for next season. On Thursday (6), the period begins -until Monday 10- for subscription holders who wish to change their seats.

The catalogue with the selected shows and processes will be offered to the island's schools for the 2024-2025 school year.

Theatre, dance, movement art companies and music groups on the island can now register for the new edition of "Teatro en la Escuela" (Theatre at School). The programme by the Auditorio de Tenerife and the Island Council's Culture Area will select the registered projects and create a catalogue with which the educational centres can apply for performances or creative processes to work with their students during the 2024-2025 school year.

The rules of this programme organised by the Educational and Social Area of the Auditorio de Tenerife can now be checked on the website https://auditoriodetenerife.com/es/educativa-y-social/teatro-en-la-escuela. Theatre, dance and movement arts companies, contemporary circus, performance and live arts, as well as other forms linked to the performing and musical arts, must present their projects for shows or creative processes in the form of a file and accompanied by a teaching guide tailored to the age of the pupils it is aimed at, which can be for preschool, primary, secondary, baccalaureate education, and training cycles. The registration period ends on 21 June.

One of the new features is that specific topics are included in the projects presented. These may be representations or processes linked to multiculturalism, interculturality and the objectives of some of the Unesco Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) mentioned in the principles, such as promoting mental health or eliminating gender disparity.

An assessment committee will undertake the selection based on the criteria established in these rules, following the principles of objectivity, competition, and advertising, guaranteeing the transparency of all the actions carried out to select them.

This ninth edition begins in October 2024 and runs until June 2025, coinciding with the school year. The objectives of this programme notably include making students aware of performing and musical languages in their educational context, as well as providing access to and disseminating the performing and music arts among pupils on the island. On the other hand, it is important to link academic aspects to the professional context of performing and musical arts in Tenerife.

Thus, another of the goals is to encourage values focused on dance and movement arts, relating to art, health, the body, and movement, linked to the artistic discipline of dance in a cross-cutting and cross-disciplinary way. Enriching and diversifying communicative, expressive, and creative possibilities through musical language is also included.

Encouraging the all-around development of students through arts and creating the foundations to encourage the socialisation of students within the school space through cultural activities are other aims of this initiative which is celebrating its ninth consecutive year.

The performing ensembles come from Guía de Isora, Valle de Guerra and San Andrés.

On Sunday (2nd), at 11:30 a.m., the wind bands Virgen de la Luz (Guía de Isora), Nuestra Señora de Lourdes (Valle de Guerra, La Laguna) and Unión Musical Aída (San Andrés, Santa Cruz) offer part of their repertoire during the penultimate concert of the current edition of the Primavera Musical cycle. It is an initiative for the 37 music bands of the Tenerife Federation to be heard in the Chamber Hall of the Auditorio de Tenerife.

Antonio Fariña Díaz is the director of the Virgen de la Luz music band, created in 1991, which has prepared three works to perform this Sunday. The ensemble will begin its concert with Nerva by Manuel Rojas, followed by Overture to a new age by Jan de Haan. The band will conclude the performance with the pasodoble En er mundo, by Jesús Fernández and Juan Quintero Muñoz, with Alicia Martín Clewett on saxophone and Adán Díaz Pérez on trumpet as soloists.

Stepping onto the Chamber Hall stage, next is the Agrupación Musical Nuestra Señora de Lourdes, a wind ensemble from Valle de Guerra, which is preparing to celebrate its thirtieth anniversary next year. Under the direction of Isaac González Ramos, the wind ensemble from Valle de Guerra will perform the pasodoble Enrique López by Antón Alcalde, Amadeus favourites, with arrangements by Koos Mark, and The second waltz from jazz suite nº2, by Dimitri Shostakovich, arranged by André Waignein.

The Sunday matinee ends with the group Unión Musical Aída from San Andrés (Santa Cruz), under the direction of Juan Alexis González Rodríguez. The band's performance begins with the Christian march La leyenda del Cid by Miguel Ángel Mas Mataix, followed by the concert piece Lorraine, composed by Jacob de Haan. The performance culminates with the Pasodoble Patricia Sanz by the Valencian Ferrer Ferrán.

This edition of the Primavera Musical cycle, organised since 2005 by the wind bands federation 'Federación Tinerfeña de Bandas de Música' with the collaboration of the Island Council, will end next week with the performance of four wind ensembles from Santiago del Teide, Icod de los Vinos, El Tanque and La Orotava.  

This weekend, the Espacio La Granja also welcomes the companies Poliana Lima and Reinaldo Ribeiro.

The 14^th edition of the Arts and Movement Festival FAM begins this Saturday (day 1) with Go Figure, a show by Sharon Fridman, candidate for two Max Awards for the Performing Arts (Best male dance performer and Best choreography). The performance takes place at 8:00 p.m. at Espacio La Granja, the theatre that welcomes the first proposals of the festival. Tickets for the indoor shows, which will take place from 1 to 9 June, have a single price of 8 euros, and several discounts are available.

The show Go Figure stars Shmuel Dvir Cohen and Tomer Navot, a duo competing for the national award ex aequo. This show is a landscape of inequity in which Shmuel can observe the functioning of his body, acknowledge it, take into account what conditions exist, and define its movement, transforming it into a bridge that reaches out towards connection with others. Tomer responds to this call, accepting the invitation to engage in dialogue, and crosses the bridge. While searching for a point of balance that arises from the limits that impose or reveal both capacities, a beautiful woman emerges who only wishes to be herself. This lovely woman is the result of the will to seek support without losing her identity.

The performance of The Common Ground can be enjoyed on Sunday (2nd) at 7:30 p.m. at Espacio La Granja. This dance sextet explores the relationship between the diverse (diversity) and the standard (community). It takes a fictional choreographic approach that evokes fantastic dimensions with incursions into the monstrous or the mythical. The cast of this play by the company Poliana Lima is made up of six performers. Four of them migrated to Spain and have different profiles; the other two are Spanish. Three of the members are racialised. Each has a specific cultural heritage and a multicultural artistic career, with incarnate vital experience in their identities and bodies, the result of the crossing of cultural lineages.

On Monday (3rd) at 8:00 p.m., the Espacio La Granja programmes NO/MAS/SACRE, a duet directed by Reinaldo Ribeiro in collaboration with the dancer Aymará Parola and the pianist Lea Petra, who are the protagonists of the proposal. The performance runs contrary to a trivial dialogue with Stravinsky, completely immersing itself in its underlying complexity. It claims the right to ire, virtuosity and excellence. The piece unfolds in the seemingly classic triangle of piano, pianist and ballerina only to subvert expectations through a dizzying ritual of the pleasurable, the grotesque and the transgressive.  NO/MAS/SACRE explores the limits of the human body, in which movement and sound redefine the rules and laws that govern their encounter.

The festival offers 15 shows by 13 Spanish dance companies. It will continue on Wednesday (4th) at Espacio La Granja at 8:00 p.m., presenting the first large-format performance of Mucha Muchacha, interpreted by the eponymous company and which is inspired by the female artists of the generation of 1927.

Wednesday, 5 June, the solo artist Marcia Vázquez will offer the first outdoor performance, Onde pousa a humidade, at 5:30 p.m. in Plaza del Príncipe and 7:30 p.m. outside Espacio La Granja. Also scheduled for that day is This is Alfred, interpreted by Elías Aguirre with double bassist Jorge da Rocha at 6:00 p.m. at the Museo de Bellas Artes (Fine Arts). At Espacio La Granja at 8:00 p.m., Oro negro will be performed by the Poliana Lima Company. On Thursday, 6 June, Luz Arcas and her company La Phármaco will offer the public the live-music show Mariana at the Teatro Guimerá at 8:00 p.m.

FAM continues outdoors on Friday, 7 June, with the duet performance La medida que nos ha de dividir interpreted by the Qabalum Company at 6:00 p.m. in Plaza del Príncipe and 8:30 p.m. outside the Teatro Guimerá. For a different experience, Vacío espiritual will be performed by Richard Mascherin in Plaza del Chicharro at 7:00 p.m., and an hour later, the duet performance of Otempodiz will be offered by the Ertza Company outside the Teatro Guimerá. The show is nominated for the Best Street Show at the next Max Awards. The only indoor performance scheduled for Friday will be In-Side, an interpretation by Lucía Montes and Mado Dallery at 6:30 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. at the Museo de Bellas Artes (Fine Arts).

Two performances have been scheduled for Saturday, 8 June. The first is He aquí un acto romántico, by the Richard Mascherin Company (nominated for the Max Award for Best Male Dance Performer) at 6:00 p.m. at Espacio La Granja, and the second is Sonoma, at 8:00 p.m. at Teatro Guimerá, by the company La Veronal, led by Marcos Morau, winner of the National Dance Award.

The Symphony Hall of the Auditorio de Tenerife hosts the festival's grand finale, the large-format show Mont Ventoux, interpreted by the Spanish company Kor'sia, which takes place on Sunday, 9 June at 7:30 p.m. The show has three nominations for the Max Awards 2024, to be presented on 1 July at the Auditorio de Tenerife: Best Dance Performance, Best Choreography and Best Musical Composition.

The programme is a showcase of the talent in Spain. It will delight audiences with the power of live dance in the capital with large-scale theatrical performances, outdoor solo performances, award-winning duets, interdisciplinary pieces and many more acts in different formats and offering different concepts that go from reflections on the passing of time to representations of the gravitational effect on bodies, all interpreted through the lens of contemporary dance.

The FAM festival is an initiative promoted by the Auditorio de Tenerife with the collaboration of the Canary Islands Government, through the Regional Institute of Cultural Development, the Autonomous Department of Cultural Affairs of the City Council of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and the programme "Danza a Escena", which is part of the Spanish Network of Theatres of the National Institute of Performing Arts and Music (INAEM) of Spain's Ministry of Culture. All information and ticket sales are available on www.famtenerife.com and at each venue's point of ticket sales.

The Viennese duo Valentin and Julia Christine Lukan features this Sunday's matinee.

The Auditorio de Tenerife in collaboration with San Miguel Arcángel Royal Canarian Academy of Fine Arts, is offering one of the concerts of its organ cycle this Sunday (2nd June) in the Symphony Hall. The matinee Cielo e terra features the Viennese duo of organist Valentin Lukan and harpist Julia Christine Lukan.

The Auditorio organ, built by Albert Blancafort and his team, is a 21st-century instrument unique not only for its design but also for its sound and musical ranges. The sounds are produced by 3,835 pipes housed in the walls of the emblematic Symphony Hall. The organist controls them from on-stage through the console and the four keyboards that he can play. On this occasion, the harp is added as the main novelty.

The concert opens with Beginning, the first of the four new compositions created for this programme. This piece announces a new beginning and simultaneously serves as an overture, paving the way for the following ones, who all share a relationship with heaven and earth. While Dance of the Gnomes by Liszt appears as an activity of these earthly creatures, Angel by Wagner brings the audience closer to the heavenly messengers. And just as the Magic Fire Music of Wagner foregrounds the power of the elements of the earth, the Contemplation of Renié opens up the deeper meaning of the word "heaven" in the sense of a spiritual home that reveals itself in prayer and silence.

The core of the programme is comprised of three new compositions by two artists who directly address heaven and earth: Ciel, Terra, and Cielo e Terra. Written separately, the pieces Ciel and Terra are composed using the same melodic and harmonic material. As a joint composition, Cielo e Terra finally connects the two worlds and leads them to a jubilant climax.  Also, throughout the programme, a wide range of orchestral works are included that have been transcribed by Valentin Lukan for harp and organ: from the Dawn of Grieg to the Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, the audience experiences the diversity of a day between heaven and earth through the music.

This Viennese duo has delighted their audience for years with the still-rare combination of harp and organ. The programmes that Julia Christine and Valentin Lukan perform in churches and concert halls encompass everything from the Baroque to the present day, and they focus on romantic transcriptions of major orchestral works for the two instruments. The duo has set itself the aim of making the heavens and earth ring out with all the range and colour that the harp and organ are capable of.

The training and name of the duo date back to encouragement from their professor and mentor, Danja Lukan, who also participated significantly in the creation of the current album). Julia Christine Lukan regularly performs with the Tonkünstler Orchester Niederösterreich, the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Vienna State Opera Orchestra. Valentin Lukan has performed his work as a concert organist in France, Spain, Austria, and Romania in recent years. Their joint concerts notably include duo recitals at the Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Radiokulturhaus in Vienna and the Konzerthaus in Berlin.

This performance is supported by the collaboration of the Island Council of Gran Canaria - the Philharmonic Orchestra of Gran Canaria. Tickets can be purchased at a single price of €15 and €5 for the audience under 30 years on the website www.auditoriodetenerife.com, at the auditorium's box office or by dialling the phone number 902 317 327 from Monday to Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. There are discounts for students, unemployed and large families.

The programme with works by Nielsen, Schumann and Sibelius will mark the debut of the cellist Zlatomir Fung

Under the name Sol Escandinavo (Scandinavian Sun), the Sinfónica de Tenerife is tackling its seventeenth show of the 2023/24 season, featuring Emilia Hoving as conductor and Zlatomir Fung as guest soloist.  The concert, with works by Nielsen, Schumann and Sibelius, will take place this Friday (31st May), starting at 7:30 p.m. in the Auditorio de Tenerife.

For Fung himself, this concerto is “written like a long and vivid dream, bursting with many emotions: tenderness, terror, curiosity, loneliness, joy, and much more.” In addition to highlighting his “excitement about performing with the Orchestra for the first time”, he emphasises “the beautiful duo in the second movement between the solo cellist and the orchestra’s principal cello, a unique moment in the repertoire.”

Helios Overture, op.17, is a composition by Carl Nielsen written in 1903, evoking the Mediterranean myth of the Sun god after his brief three-month stay in Greece.   The different instruments imitate the star's movement, from sunrise to sunset, intensifying at the zenith with solemn and majestic fanfare of metal instruments, culminating in an expected fugue as the listener slips into the twilight.

It will be followed by a performance of the Cello Concerto in A minor, Op. 129, by Robert Schumann. This score, written in Düsseldorf and dated 1850, was completed in just two weeks. However, it was not premiered until a decade after the composer’s death. It was structured around three movements with an ongoing dialogue between the orchestra and the soloist -although, without soloist exuberance, it transmits the melancholy and passion that accompanied the German composer’s creations.

After the interlude, it will be the turn of Symphony No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 82 by Jean Sibelius, premiered in 1915 to celebrate his fiftieth birthday, although it would undergo subsequent revisions before taking its definitive form in 1919.  It is a work that conveys light and optimism, in which the Finnish author applies a new cyclical or rotational symphonic structure, where the main musical ideas reappear endlessly throughout the performance.

Emilia Hoving studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki with the teachers Sakari Oramo and Atso Almila and began her studies in 2015 with Jorma Panula. In 2021, she won the Best Arts Newcomer prize by Finnish critics. She is currently considered one of the most influential young Finnish conductors.

Her diverse professional background notably includes her role as an assistant to Hannu Lintu at the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (2019) and to Mikko Franck at the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France (2020-22). These positions have contributed significantly to her quick career progression and her period as an assistant with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, which included performing a concert with Bruckner and Zimmermann's works.

On the international scene, she has performed with different orchestras, such as the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, the Luxembourg Philharmonic, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre National de Lille, as well as the Helsinki Philharmonic, to name a few. She has conducted at the Wiener Konzerthaus and made her debut in Germany when she was an assistant at the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, conducting the orchestra at the Berlin Philharmonic. This season she will conduct the orchestra again in Paris with the global premiere of Nucleus, by Jean-Louis Agobet.

Zlatomir Fung, the current artist in residence with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, began playing the cello at the age of just three and obtained several scholarships such as that of Ravinia's Music Institute, Heifetz International Music Institute, MusicAlp y el Aspen Music Festival and School.   He was also awarded a Kovner scholarship, which enabled him to study at the Julliard School under the guidance of Richard Aaron. He was the youngest-ever soloist to win First Prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition.

His upcoming engagements notably include his performance at the Cadogan Hall in London and a tour around the United Kingdom with the RPO.   In North America and Asia, he made his debut with the Cleveland Orchestra, appeared with the symphony orchestras of Baltimore and Shanghai, and was on tour in Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. His most recent concerts are notable for his debut with the New York Philharmonic, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre National de Lille, BBC Philharmonic and Dallas Symphony.

Regarding the most relevant international recitals, there have been numerous appearances at Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, and the festivals of Verbier, Dresden, Janáček May and Tsinandali, Cello Biennale, La Jolla Chamber Music Society, ChamberFest Cleveland, and Aspen Music Festival.

As usual, the Tenerife Association for Friends of Music ATADEM will give a preliminary talk, to explain the three different works of this concert. The talk will be provided by José Lorenzo Chinea Cáceres, at 6:30 p.m. in the Sala Avenida, located in the hall of the Auditorio de Tenerife.

The tickets for this concert can be purchased until the day of the event on the website www.sinfonicadetenerife.es, at the auditorium's box office and by dialling the phone number 902 317 327 from Monday to Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.