Maestro González will conduct the Freixenet Symphony Orchestra of the School in the opening concert on Wednesday, October 23, in the Symphony Hall of the National Music Auditorium, offered by the BBVA Foundation Viola Chair.
Madrid, October 18, 2019.- Today, Friday at 12:30 p.m., Juan Pujol, assistant to the director of the BBVA Foundation, Paloma O’Shea, founding president of the Reina Sofía School of Music, Julia Sánchez Abeal, general director of the School, Òscar Colomina i Bosch, new dean of the School, and the orchestra director Pablo González presented in a press conference, at the School’s headquarters, the opening concert of the new academic year 2019-2020, which will take place on Wednesday, October 23 at 7:30 p.m. in the Symphony Hall of the National Music Auditorium of Madrid.
The Freixenet Symphony Orchestra of the Reina Sofía School of Music will perform with a program that includes “Concerto for Violin, op.77” by Brahms and the “Symphony No. 6 in B minor, op.74 ‘Pathétique’” by Tchaikovsky.
The Ukrainian violinist Eva Rabchevska (1996), a student at the School since 2014 in the Telefónica Violin Chair with Professor Zakhar Bron, will be the soloist.
Presenting the School’s novelties, Paloma O’Shea gave a warm welcome in her first official act to the new dean of the School, Òscar Colomina i Bosch. “We are very excited about this incorporation, which will open a very positive stage in our institution. Òscar is a very prominent musician who trained in Valencia as a violinist and later in London as a composer and conductor. His music has been performed by orchestras as important as the Philharmonia of London or the Los Angeles Philharmonic and by numerous contemporary music ensembles. He is a highly distinguished orchestrator and an open-minded artist who knows very well the changing nature of musical life today. He comes from being Director of Music at the Yehudi Menuhin School of Music, where he has left a very deep mark.”
“His predecessor, Fabián Panisello, will remain linked to the academic life of the School. For the next academic year, we will have a Composition Chair directed by Fabián, and he will do it brilliantly because he is a magnificent composer”.
Expressing gratitude for Maestro González’s generosity, the previous occasions in which he has conducted the orchestra, and his dedication to the young musicians of the School, she highlighted the great artists who will also share the stage with the students throughout this academic year: “András Schiff at the Closing of the academic year, Kolja Blacher at Christmas and Johannes Kalitzke for the Sinfonietta; and with Andrés Orozco-Estrada, our principal conductor of the symphony orchestra, we are already preparing an important tour of Central Europe. We will also receive a visit from Maestro Iván Fischer and the tenor Javier Camarena, who join the event already enjoyed in September with the conductor Dudamel”.
The Reina Sofía School, an institution that serves as a stimulus and inspiration through contact with these great figures of the musical scene, is also committed to contemporary music, and as Paloma O’Shea emphasized, “within the Music for a School commissioning program, the great English composer Sir Harrison Birtwistle has accepted to compose a work and come as a resident to the Music and Academy Encounter of Santander next summer. Jörg Widmann, Francisco Coll, Antoni Ros-Marbà and Fabián Panisello are currently composing for that same program”.
For his part, the Asturian maestro, happy to conduct the Freixenet Orchestra for the third time, wanted to emphasize its good work, the capacity for personal growth of those who are part of it, and was very happy with the chosen program. Works by Brahms and Tchaikovsky with which “the young musicians will learn a lot and will make us all enjoy”.
“The collaboration with the School began more than twenty years ago and is, for us, strategic because it is an institution of excellence and at the base of this prestige is the vision and leadership that its president has been able to maintain in times of prosperity and in complicated times,” highlighted Juan Pujol, assistant to the Director of the BBVA Foundation.
Gratitude that Doña Paloma O’Shea returned, “That the BBVA Foundation sponsors the Viola Chair practically from its creation, supports the Sinfonietta with which we make contemporary music, and promotes concerts like this opening one, is a sign of confidence that fills us with pride and reaffirms us in our objectives: to help young musicians and bring music closer to society”.
The BBVA Foundation’s patronage of the Reina Sofía School of Music began in 1995, and from 2001, it assumed ownership of the Viola Chair, currently directed by professors Diemut Poppen and Nobuko Imai. The BBVA Foundation’s participation in the School’s teaching projects was expanded in the 2011-2012 academic year with the Sinfonietta, which this Foundation has supported since its inception, and which allows students to perform works from the contemporary repertoire. Its connection is completed with the “Spring Concert Series”, which is held every year at the Palacio del Marqués de Salamanca, headquarters of the Foundation in Madrid. The support for the School is integrated into the BBVA Foundation’s extensive Music program, which includes composition commissions, recording of works, concerts, lecture series and publications, specialized forums on orchestra management, and support for theaters and musical formations with which it makes possible concerts and top-level operatic programs. The BBVA Foundation puts into practice highly innovative research, recovery of musical heritage and creation projects with the Leonardo Grants in Music and Opera; and recognizes excellence through the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Music and Opera and the Spanish Association of Symphony Orchestras – BBVA Foundation Composition Award.
Opening of the Academic Year 2019-2020 of the Reina Sofía School of Music
Program:
– Concerto for Violin, op.77 by Johannes Brahms
– Symphony No. 6 in B minor, op.74 “Pathétique” by Pyotr I. Tchaikovsky
Wednesday, October 23, 2019 at 7:30 p.m., Symphony Hall of the National Music Auditorium.
Concert offered by the BBVA Foundation
Freixenet Orchestra of the Reina Sofía School of Music
Pablo González, conductor
Eva Rabchevska, violin
