On 18 December 2016 Coro Juvenil de Auditorio de Tenerife [Auditorio de Tenerife Young Choir] gave its first concert, at home and before nearly 500 choral friends who enjoyed their premiere.

It all started with a proposition José Luis Rivero, Island Director for Culture, put to Roxana Schmunk, who had been working for years in very successful educational projects at Auditorio de Tenerife, like ‘Musical IES’ and ‘Manos a la Ópera’. Roxana’s early career was related to choral work so she accepted the challenge, although it was a long time since she had last worked in this branch of music. Calls for the auditions were a great success: “we were surprised at the number of people who applied. We found that there were many potential good choir singers eager to take part in a project like this”, Schmunk recalls.

In the first season we focused on preparing the concert -a touching moment that celebrated its second anniversary yesterday- with the support of Camerata Lacunensis, a choir we’ve been closely related to since, as they were our first step for the choir to become the great family it is today. The broad and well-worked repertoire was proof of the variety and versatility the new Choir was capable of, as they went from classical music to choral adaptations of contemporary pieces by John Legend or Queen.

“I believe we’ve been a surprise from then on” Roxana Schumnk highlights. Her statement is supported by the many prizes they have won: two distinction awards at Festival Coros de Verão in Lisbon in June 2017; winner of Concurso de Canto Coral de Canarias in November 2017 and awarded three prizes at the VII Summer Choir Festival in Lisbon 2018 in the under 25 section, Jazz, Gospel and Pop. Cristian Bartolomé took the best soloist singer award for his performance of Someone like you. Their next event is in Gotemburg (Sweden), where the European Choral Games will be held next August.

On Thursday, 20 December, Coro Juvenil de Auditorio de Tenerife is returning to the venue where it all started to take part in a very special concert, Ecos, where they are sharing the stage with the quartet Quantum Ensemble.