Madrid, June 18, 2024.- This afternoon, the closing ceremony of the 2023-2024 academic year of the Reina Sofía School of Music and the presentation of awards of the institution took place in the Auditorium 400 of the Reina Sofía National Art Center Museum, under the presidency of Her Majesty Queen Sofía. This year, the ceremony was also dedicated to the commemoration of the Tenth Anniversary of the Proclamation of H.M. King Felipe VI.
The event began with the intervention of Paloma O’Shea, Founding President of the School, in which she made an assessment of the important activity of this center of higher education throughout the last year.
“I thank Ángeles González Sinde, president of the Board of Trustees of the Reina Sofía Museum, which welcomes us, and Paz Santa Cecilia, general director of the INAEM, of the Ministry of Culture, who has given us the magnificent building adjacent to ours on Calle Requena. The architects Cruz and Ortiz are already working on the renovation project and it will allow the School to take a new step forward, collaborating with other institutions and consolidating the Plaza de Oriente as a cultural focus, with the Teatro Real, the Royal Palace and the Galería de las Colecciones Reales”.
“If the School is among the main centers in Europe and is, therefore, an attractive partner for these collaborations, it is thanks to the commitment of the School’s patrons and its educational model, which it has tenaciously maintained since its foundation: personalization of teaching, intense teacher-student relationship, extension of the classroom on the stage and insistence on ensemble music. The result of this model is the musicality that distinguishes our nearly one thousand alumni, who occupy the stages of the world.”
Next, Her Majesty Queen Sofía presented the Diplomas to the most outstanding students in the professorships of: violin, viola, cello, double bass, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, piano, voice, composition and chamber music (string quartets, wind quartets and groups with piano).
Subsequently, Queen Sofía presented the School Plaques, for their decisive contribution, to the professors Juliane Banse (Alfredo Kraus Voice Professorship” Fundación Ramón Areces), Wies de Boevé (Double Bass Professorship Unidad Editorial) and Simon Halsey (Choir Professorship); and to Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, Founder of the Cisneros Foundation and the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection, and one of the first collaborators of the School through her Fundación Mozarteum Venezuela and, later, promoter of the Sinfonietta and member of the International Circle of the School since its inception in 2015.
Likewise, they received the Medal of Honor, the highest distinction awarded by the School, made by the sculptor Julio López Hernández, for their outstanding collaboration with the institution: the maestro Ivan Monighetti, professor of the Aline Foriel-Destezet Cello Professorship, the Casals and Quiroga quartets, founded within the School in 1997 and 2003 respectively under the initial patronage of Fundación Prosegur, and the recently deceased Péter Eötvös, who was advisor to the Sinfonietta, conducted the School’s orchestra on several occasions, and was composer-in-residence of the Santander Music and Academy Encounter.
The ceremony concluded with a concert by the Freixenet Orchestra of the Reina Sofía School under the baton of Sir András Schiff, which addressed a repertoire composed of the Concerto for harpsichord, strings and basso continuo in F minor BWV 1056 (version for piano and orchestra) by Johann S. Bach and the Symphony No. 4 in A major op. 90 “Italian” by Félix Mendelssohn.
VIII Meeting of the International Circle of the Reina Sofía School
Before the closing ceremony of the course, the VIII Annual Meeting of the International Circle of the Reina Sofía School of Music was held, under the presidency of S.M. Queen Sofía.
This organization, created in 2015 with the aim of promoting the School internationally and consolidating the support of a group of patrons from around the world, ensures that the center of higher musical education continues to be a project without borders. In addition to financing the education of young musicians, the members of the Circle act as ambassadors of the School in their respective countries.
It is currently made up of 32 members who contribute up to 8.5% of the School’s annual budget.
