Enrique Arriaga stressed that "the concerts on the 24th and the 25th of June are a well-deserved tribute to a musical genius"

 

The Auditorio de Tenerife, a cultural space linked to the Department of Culture of Tenerife Island Council, is managed by its Director of Culture, Enrique Arriaga. On Monday the 7th of June, it hosted the presentation of Tenerife's International Film Music Festival (Fimucité) that will take place from the 17th to the 26th of September under the motto 'Once Upon a Time in Fimucité: 15 years of the best film music.' In addition to the support of the Island Council, the festival is funded by the Canary Islands' Government, the city councils of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and San Cristóbal de La Laguna, among others. 

The repertoire will be focused on the Italian composer Ennio Morricone and the Spanish composer Antón García Abril, both great masters of film music. They passed away in mid-2020 and last March, respectively. The proposal will be completed with a thematic concert about video game music, a new show by the Pop Culture Band and two recitals by the Coro de Voces Blancas of the Professional Music Conservatory of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and the Coro Polifónico of the University of la Laguna.

The Director of Culture of Tenerife Island Council, Enrique Arriaga, announced the details of this fifteenth edition together with Rubén Pérez, Director General of Culture of the Canary Islands Government; José Manuel Bermúdez, mayor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife; Luis Yeray Gutiérrez, mayor of La Laguna and Diego Navarro, the festival director.

Enrique Arriaga explained that "Fimucité celebrates its 15th anniversary with international recognition and with its director Diego Navarro and his team improving every year". "They always sell out all what they organise". The vice-president also wanted to emphasise that "the concerts on 24 and 25 September in the Auditorio de Tenerife with the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra are a well-deserved tribute to a musical genius: Ennio Morricone". "His scores generate tension, emotion and set the pace of the films... We are looking forward to this concert," added Arriaga. 

Rubén Pérez acknowledged that he is in love with Ennio Morricone's music. He also wanted to "highlight how the audio-visual sector is strategic in the whole value chain of the Canary Islands Government," explained the Director-General of Culture. He insisted on how important it is "to have a headquarters for the world of film music in Tenerife ". He added "some composers already live in the archipelago and produce their film music from here." 

For his part, the Mayor of La Laguna recalled that "in these 15 years the Festival has always highlighted the importance of culture, also in our municipality". "That's why this year we are increasing the funds for the festival," Gutiérrez said. "La Laguna is a synonym for culture as it is a World Heritage Site. The Festival Fimucité contributes to this: the opportunity given to La Laguna with the inauguration of the festival in the Teatro Leal, is a source of great pride", he said.

The Mayor of Santa Cruz acknowledged that "getting this far is already a real win for the organisers". He recalled that "during these years, we have experienced historic moments and at Fimucité concerts, people have a good time". Bermúdez stressed that "this festival has shown how to jointly foster economy and culture. It also places us on the map, and that is very important. Thanks to Fimucité, many musicians and fans know where Tenerife is located," he added.

For his part, Diego Navarro, director of Fimucité, explained this year's extensive programme. In addition to the concerts, the festival also offers training and prizes. “Last year Fimucité was one of the few of its kind that could be held internationally, I seem to remember that there were only two in total". "That's why last year we were like ‘the Resistance’. Once more, this year we'll turn Tenerife into a principal place of film music," said Navarro. As for the two performances of the tribute concert to Morricone, Navarro stressed that "these official concerts are endorsed by Morricone’s family. They also reflect his career as a concert music composer, something he would have loved". 

Navarro is also a composer and conductor. He will be at the helm of the OST during the two performances of the concert "Once upon a time, Ennio Morricone: A tribute to his film music". The concerts take place on the 24th and the 25th of September at the Auditorio de Tenerife. After five previous nominations, Ennio Morricone won the Oscar for the original score of Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight (2016). The composer has scored more than five hundred soundtracks. The Fimucité festival, in co-production with the European Film Philharmonic Institute, is preparing an extraordinary musical production to remember the key elements of his filmography. During both events, the audience will make a thrilling journey through the composer’s legacy and his unforgettable film compositions, such as Until his time came, Cinema Paradiso, Elliot Ness' The Untouchables, The Mission or Novecento.

On the other hand, the former Convent of Santo Domingo in La Laguna will host on 23 September a tribute concert to Antón García Abril, one of the great creators of 20th-century Spanish music, and who was linked to Fimucité since its beginnings. The honorary prize awarded by the festival in recognition of fundamental figures in international film music bears his name. García Abril himself received the award in 2014 as a composer of titles such as 'Sor Citroen', 'El crimen de Cuenca', 'Fortunata y Jacinta', 'Ramón y Cajal', 'Anillos de Oro' and Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente's 'El Hombre y la Tierra'. It will be a unique concert, performed by the Polyphonic Choir of the University of La Laguna. Thanks to the collaboration of the composer, arranger and orchestrator Jorge Magaz, for the first time an extraordinary selection of his scores will be heard off-screen during this world’s première. 

On Sunday, 19 September, the same venue will host a concert by the Coro de Voces Blancas of the Professional Music Conservatory of Tenerife, conducted by Juan Ramón Vinagre. We will enjoy a selection of soundtracks, a wide range of styles and film styles; from exclusive choral arrangements made for the concert with titles such as Life is Beautiful, Casablanca, Frozen, The Sound of Music, to La La Land or Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

On 17 September, the Teatro Leal in La Laguna will host the opening concert of this Fimucité 15. This concert is dedicated to video-games music and will be conducted by the award-winning Irish composer Eímear Noone. During the 2017 edition of the Festival, Noone surprised the audience as a guest conductor leading the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra. She was the first woman to conduct the orchestra during the Oscars gala, and famous for her video-games music such as World of Warcraft. On this occasion she will conduct a chamber orchestra, with a pop-rock combo, performing the programme Electric Arcade - A VGM History. There are emblematic compositions for essential titles such as Castlevania, The Witcher, Zelda, Halo, Assassin's Creed, Fortnite or the classic Tetris. They will all be played at this unmissable event, with arrangements by Craig Stuart Garfinkle, Emmy-nominated, prolific music producer and composer. His work ranges from feature films and documentaries to multimedia content, video games, commercials and live shows.

The Pop Culture Band returns this year with a new and original proposal: a tribute to one of the most important and long-lived genres in cinema: road movies and their plots along a road trip. On 18 September, the Teatro Guimerá in Santa Cruz de Tenerife will offer the Route 66 programme. The Festival's resident band, led by Gonzalo de Araoz, will perform basic movie soundtracks like Easy Rider, Thelma & Louise, 'Corazón salvaje', Pointblank Love and The Motorcycle Diaries. 

Parallel activities

Fimucité 15 will include parallel activities such as screenings of feature films and short films, within the official competition section Fimucinema, as well as within the new cycle: Filmoteca Canaria. On this occasion, it is dedicated to great composers of spaghetti western music. In addition, the Fimucité Film Scoring Academy (Fimucité Academy for audio-visual composers) will re-open its doors with a specialised training offer.  Another crucial moment of the festival will be the Awards Ceremony of the 'IV Premios de la Música para el Audiovisual Español', which are organised by the "Asociación de Compositores de Música para Audiovisual" (Musimagen) in collaboration with Fimucité. 

On Sunday, 26 September, the closing awards ceremony takes place at the Espacio Cultural La Granja with the reading of the Fimucinema list of winners, the presentation of awards and the screening of the Alex North Award's winning film.

Fimucité has the support of the following institutions: Cabildo de Tenerife, Gobierno de Canarias, Ayuntamiento de Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Ayuntamiento de San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Auditorio de Tenerife, Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife, Fundación "la Caixa", Fundación Disa and Domingo Alonso Group.

 

 

FIMUCITÉ 15 || CONCERTS PROGRAMME

FRIDAY 17 SEPTEMBER

Teatro Leal de La Laguna

8:00 pm “Electric Arcade – A VGM History”

Conducted by Eímear Noone

SATURDAY 18 SEPTEMBER

Teatro Guimerá, Santa Cruz de Tenerife

8:00 pm “Route 66”

The Pop Culture Band

SUNDAY 18 SEPTEMBER

Exconvento Santo Domingo (La Laguna)

8:00 pm Voces Blancas Concert

by the Professional Music Conservatory, Santa Cruz de Tenerife

THURSDAY 23 SEPTEMBER

Exconvento Santo Domingo (La Laguna)

8:00 pm Tribute to Antón García Abril

Coro Polifónico of the University of La Laguna

FRIDAY 24 SEPTEMBER

Auditorio de Tenerife (Santa Cruz)

8:00 pm "Once upon a time Ennio Morricone: A tribute to his film music"

Symphonic gala with the OST

SATURDAY 25 SEPTEMBER

19:00 pm "Once upon a time Ennio Morricone: A tribute to his film music"

Symphonic gala with the OST