The double bass player Iker Sánchez Trueba will be the soloist this Friday in a programme that includes pieces by Boulanger, Rota, Bartók and Ravel

 

The Tenerife Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Perry So, will offer the programme Paseo por el Siglo XX (A Walk through the 20th Century), a concert that brings together pieces by Boulanger, Rota, Bartók and Ravel. The orchestra’s Asturian double bass player, Iker Sánchez Trueba, will make his debut as a soloist in a seasonal programme. The event will be on Friday [5th] at 7:30 p.m., in the Auditorio de Tenerife.

D’un matin de Printemps is a short scherzo composed in 1917 by Lili Boulanger and is making its debut in the record of performances of the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra. The piece is an entertaining and inventive proposal with impressionist hues that contrasts with the rest of his work and with the wartime climate that Europe was living through at the time.

In 1971 Nino Rota wrote Divertimento concertante for double bass and orchestra, an eclectic neo-Romantic work that pays tribute to the soloist Franco Petracchi which mixes classical musical heritage with the influences of northern Europe and an immersive cinematographic atmosphere.

At the start of the second part, the Symphony Orchestra will play The Miraculous Mandarin Op. 19, BB 82, a suite composed by Béla Bartók between 1918 and 1924, which tells the story of the same name by Menyhért Lengyel and whose première was banned in Hungary in view of its apparent violence.

The evening will conclude with La Valse, by Maurice Ravel, a choreographic poem for orchestra presented in 1920 which was initially created as a ballet piece for the businessman Sergei Diaghilev. With a score that is very fast-paced and full of colour, the author pays tribute to the Vienna of Johann Strauss.

Perry So, who was already with the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra in April 2021, will be the conductor of this concert, replacing Nuno Coelho who has cancelled his scheduled participation due to a serious family problem. Perry So is currently chief conductor of the Navarre Symphony Orchestra, a role he joined in September 2022. He was born in Hong Kong in 1982, where he received early musical training in piano, organ, violin, viola and composition. He subsequently graduated in Comparative Literature from the University of Yale, specialising in Central European music and literature from the 20th century.

During this period, he founded a student orchestra and directed opera productions with graduands. In 2008 he undertook to conduct studies at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore under the guidance of the maestro Gustav Meier and received First Place and the Special Prize at the 5th International Prokofiev Conducting Competition in St Petersburg. Following this recognition, he was appointed Assistant and then Associate Conductor of the Hong Kong Philharmonic, and he was subsequently invited to conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Principality of Asturias Symphony Orchestra.

Having consolidated his presence on the five continents, Perry So recently made his debut with the San Francisco Symphony, and he has been in the orchestra pit of the Royal Danish Opera – The Magic Flute – and Yale Opera – Eugene Onegin – as an opera conductor. Among the latest milestones of his career, three important tours stand out: a tour of Milan conducting the Nuremberg Symphony, another around the Balkans in 2013 with the Zagreb Philharmonic and a third tour lasting seven weeks around South Africa conducting three orchestras during which he performed the Réquiem by Verdi as part of the South African National Arts Festival.

Aside from these projects and invitations, maestro So has conducted more than 30 orchestras around the world, such as the San Francisco Symphony, the National Orchestra of Wales, the Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie, the Symphony Orchestra of New Zealand, the Symphony Orchestra of Shanghai, the Residentie Orkest of The Hague and the Philharmonic Orchestra of London, as well as half a dozen Spanish orchestras. Likewise, he has acted as an assistant conductor for highly renowned conductors such as Edo de Waart, Esa Pekka-Salonen, Gustavo Dudamel, Lorin Maazel and John Adams.

Perry So is a member of the Conducting Faculty at the Manhattan School of Music, and he has also produced a large number of album recordings conducting the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the BBC Concert Orchestra, repeatedly earning acclaim for critics and winning the Diapason d’Or in 2021.

The Asturian double bass player Iker Sánchez Trueba, who joined the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra in 2018, began his music studies with Oscar Allen and Andrea Baruffaldi. He completed Higher Studies at the Higher Conservatoire of Music of the Principality of Asturias with the highest grade and obtained the End of Degree Prize “Ángel Muñiz Toca”.

In 2010, he took first place in the second category of the Franz Simandl International Competition in Blatná, Czech Republic. Three years later he received the first scholarship from the Asturian Jazz Collective, giving him the chance to hold several concerts with different musicians on the regional scene.

In 2014 he became a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Spain (JONDE) and in 2016 a member of the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester (GMJO), in both as a soloist. Sánchez regularly collaborates with different groups, such as the Philharmonic Orchestra of Oviedo (OFIL), the Orchestra and Choir of Madrid (ORCAM) and the Symphony Orchestra of Madrid (OSM). He has also been a guest soloist with the Symphony Orchestra of Castile and León (OSCyL). All of this has enabled him to perform under internationally renowned conductors such as Philippe Jordan, David Afkham, Jonathan Nott, Daniel Harding, Lorenzo Viotti and Fabio Luisi.

ATADEM, the Tenerife Association for Friends of Music, has scheduled its usual talk on the works that will be performed in this concert. On this occasion, the talk will be provided by Sergio Rodríguez González. The meeting, with free entry for members and the general public, begins at 6:30 p.m. in the Sala Avenida of the Auditorio de Tenerife "Adán Martin".

The tickets for this new event can be purchased until the day of the concert 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.