The Oscar-winning composer Justin Hurwitz and the festival founder, Diego Navarro, will conduct the orchestra at weekend

 

The Tenerife International Film Music Festival (FIMUCITÉ) was founded and will be directed by the composer and orchestra conductor Diego Navarro. This 18th edition will conclude this weekend at the Auditorio de Tenerife and is dedicated to musicals, featuring two important concerts whose tickets have been sold out for weeks. Details were provided by the President of the Island Council, Rosa Dávila, the Vice-president and Councillor for Tourism of the Island Council of Tenerife, Lope Afonso, the Island Minister of Culture and Museums of Tenerife, José Carlos Acha, the Mayor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, José Manuel Bermúdez, the General Director of Cultural Innovation and Creative Industries, Cristóbal de la Rosa, the director of FIMUCITÉ, Diego Navarro, and the two-time Oscar-winning composer of La La Land, Justin Hurwitz.

The president said the festival "is the world's longest-running event involving film music, now in its 18th year, and is celebrating in style, with a programme that has met acclaim". Rosa Dávila also thanked "Diego Navarro and his staff because this festival highlights the importance of Tenerife as the location of extraordinary events such as this festival. In addition, the festival is made possible by people who proudly represent the Canary Islands. She invited guest composer Justin Hurwitz 'to fall in love with our island, just as we have fallen in love with his music".

Diego Navarro said, "We're ecstatic with this year's festival, and the fact that tickets have sold out so far in advance is exhilarating". Regarding the first scheduled concerts, the festival founder and conductor said, "La  La Land brought musicals back to the public's attention with a story about the struggle of two artists to fulfil their dreams, reminiscent of Hollywood classics in the genre"'. He described Saturday's concert as "a journey through the best musicals in cinema history, led by the orchestra and an ensemble of pop-rock musicians and solo artists, all from the Canary Islands". He encouraged authorities to "continue taking good care of this cultural gem so that it may see further development in the future".

The composer Justin Hurwitz, who won two Oscars for his work in La La Land, said he was thrilled to visit Tenerife: "a beautiful place to work with an orchestra that's performing wonderfully. Damien Chazelle, the director of La La Land, and I have worked together for many years, and we never expected that the film would be so successful or still make such an impression on spectators. The public's response and everything else makes it worthwhile".

José Juan Lorenzo, head of the region's tourism agency, explained that calls for sponsorship had helped "to create one of the best programmes of cultural, sports, gastronomic and scientific events offered by tourism authorities in Europe". He added, "We have improved the tourism experience for those who visit us every year. At the same time, Canarian citizens will benefit from the scheduled events which have become a landmark in the Canary Islands and of which this festival is a clear example".

The Vice-president of the Island Council of Tenerife, Lope Afonso, acknowledged that "this year's festival is special because it coincides with Diego Navarro's win at the Academy Awards. Justin Hurwitz is well-known in music for his great talent as a composer. This year's festival is a golden opportunity to establish Tenerife as a destination for culture and tourism, which we know is a winning combination."

Cristóbal de la Rosa pointed out "the tremendous technical complexity of these concerts' and praised 'the hard work of the Auditorio de Tenerife's technical staff to make this possible". He said that "visual arts provide people with a kind of well-being that is often taken for granted', and that 'having tickets sold out repeatedly over the course of 18 years is quite the accomplishment. It's worth mentioning and should be taken into account. He concluded by saying, 'These kinds of projects should be developed further in the future".

José Manuel Bermúdez described the FIMUCITÉ festival as "a story of perseverance, of overcoming all obstacles to become what it is today: a story of success and an example of what we can do here in the Canary Islands if we put our minds to it". He congratulated and thanked the festival organiser, Diego Navarro, a friend awarded for his achievements by the cultural authorities of Santa Cruz and his collaborators. "Tomorrow, our capital shall become a "city of stars", he said, about the title of the Oscar-winning song of La La Land".

Minister of Culture José Carlos Acha said, "Eighteen years ago, I was a councillor for cultural affairs when we launched the festival FIMUCITÉ, which we considered the soundtrack of our lives and a means of making Santa Cruz de Tenerife a landmark in the world of film music. Using soundtracks to connect with the public is the first step towards getting people involved in other kinds of music, and one of our priorities is to engage new spectators, which is why we support this festival. Music is a necessary part of films and of our lives".

Justin Hurwitz composed the music used in the film La La Land and was awarded two Oscars for Best Soundtrack and Best Original Song (City of Stars, along with Benj Pasek and Justin Paul). Tomorrow, 19 July, he will conduct the Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife starting at 7:30 p.m. with a screening of the said film, during which the orchestra will play in synch with the film's images, dialogues and sound effects. This new live-to-picture experience echoes the FIMUCITÉ's past programmes, which featured performances of the music of films such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Bram Stoker's Dracula. The orchestra will be accompanied onstage by a jazz band comprised of 10 members, including the extraordinary pianist Polo Ortí, who will be the principal soloist of this concert.

Directed by Damien Chazelle, La La Land combines passions for music and film in a modern musical set in Los Angeles. Starring Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, it tells the story of struggling actor Mia and jazz musician Sebastian, who meet and fall in love in the City of Stars. Hurwitz composed the music for piano and afterwards for an orchestra of 95 musicians, which resulted in a thrilling and richly textured sound that takes spectators back to the classic musicals of Hollywood.

The FIMUCITÉ's grand finale is scheduled for Saturday, 20 July at 7 p.m. It features an extraordinary journey through the best musicals in the genre's history and their adaptations to the big screen, conducted by Diego Navarro. The programme A Million Dreams includes the interpretation of monumental works and world premieres of symphonic arrangements of soundtracks of films such as A Chorus Line, The Wizzard of Oz and The Greatest Showman. as well as well-known pieces from other beloved musicals, such as An American in Paris, Singin' in the Rain, My Fair Lady, Phantom of the Opera, West Side Story and Les Miserables.

On this occasion, the Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife will be accompanied by a pop-rock ensemble and the participation of top-ranked Canarian soloists, such as Cristina Ramos, Carmen Acosta, Néstor Galván and Fran León, among others. This is an extraordinary opportunity for spectators to sit back and imagine 'a million dreams', as sung by Hugh Jackman, Ziv Zaifman and Michelle Williams in The Greatest Showman (2017), which is based on the life and times of circus visionary Phineas Taylor Barnum.

With these events, this year's festival will draw to a close. The shows at the Teatro Leal in La Laguna, the Teatro Guimerá in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and the Auditorio de Tenerife are sold out, and the summer cinema, workshops and conferences have reported buoyant ticket sales.

FIMUCITÉ Film Scoring Academy

The programme of the FIMUCITÉ Film Scoring Academy will conclude today with two long-awaited sessions. A lecture titled ‘Evolution of the Musical’ is to take place at 4:30 p.m. at Espacio Cultural CajaCanarias in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The lecture will be given by Paco Dolz, creator of the specialised website Love4musicals.com. An expert on the subject, Mr Dolz will lecture on the most legendary musicals in cinema history, the music of which will be performed at the festival's final concert A Million Dreams.

The finishing touch of FIMUCITÉ Film Scoring Academy 2024 will be a round table to take place from 6 p.m. onwards with Justin Hurwitz, Paco Dolz and Robert Townson, one of the world's most prolific producers of film music. Cinema and music enthusiasts alike are invited to take part in this special event whose attendees will be given the opportunity to explore the fascinating world of musical composition for film through an in-depth discussion of the box-office success of La La Land. Moderated by Gorka Oteiza, founder and director of the digital media firm SoundTrackFest, the round table will be an exclusive event that will perfectly enhance enjoyment of the live-to-picture experience of La La Land in concert.

The open-air concert

In addition, FIMUCITÉ will offer an open-air concert this Thursday in Plaza de España of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Admission is free of charge, and the music will be performed by the Municipal Music Band of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, which is the oldest of its kind in Spain, directed by Juan Antonio Domínguez Martín. Along with a selection of solo singers, the concert is to start at 8 p.m. with a delightful selection of the scores of films from West Side Story to Chicago, Les Miserables, Cats, The Lion King and Moulin Rouge.

The Tenerife International Film Music Festival, the world's longest running festival dedicated to soundtracks and audiovisual music, is directed by the composer and conductor Diego Navarro. Its sponsors include the Tenerife Island Council, the Tenerife Tourism Council, the Canary Islands Government through the agency Canarian Tourism and the Regional Institute of Cultural Development as well as the councils of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and San Cristóbal de La Laguna. FIMUCITÉ also wishes to acknowledge the collaboration of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife and the Auditorio de Tenerife, the special collaboration of the Disa Foundation, Emmasa, the SGAE Foundation, the CajaCanarias Foundation, the Ciudad de La Laguna Isla Calavera Festival of Fantasy Cinema of the Canary Islands, Domingo Alonso and AUDI as the official car of the festival, and the Diario de Avisos Foundation, the Grupo Plató del Atlántico and the Canarian Television as its most important media partners.