- The tour will begin on October 7 with a concert at the Teatro Real (Madrid), with the attendance of H.M. Queen Sofía, and will continue in the following days through Bratislava, Budapest, and Vienna.
- The Freixenet Symphony Orchestra, featuring Arabella Steinbacher as soloist, will perform on its tour: ‘El Puerto’ from the work Iberia by Isaac Albéniz, the Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, Op. 19 by Sergei Prokofiev, and the Symphony No. 8 in G major, Op. 88 by Antonín Dvořák.
- The new academic year at the Reina Sofía School brings several academic novelties. Two new programs are created, in contemporary music and historical interpretation; the violin professorships begin under Christoph Poppen and the piano professorship with Milana Chernyavska, and Susan Bullock CBE will be the new professor of the singing professorship.
Madrid, October 6, 2021.- The Reina Sofía School of Music celebrates its 30th anniversary with a tour of Europe, the first in its three decades of existence. The School’s Freixenet Symphony Orchestra, together with its principal conductor, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, and violinist Arabella Steinbacher, will take their talent to four of the most prestigious major European musical centers.
At the presentation, held this midday at the School’s headquarters, its Founding President Paloma O’Shea highlighted the importance of this tour for the institution, “We are celebrating 30 years and, for that reason, we are taking our Freixenet Orchestra on tour through Europe. For our students, playing in such prestigious halls and, above all, sharing the stage with Arabella Steinbacher and maestro Andrés Orozco-Estrada will be an experience difficult to forget. Arabella is, as we all know, one of the great violinists of our time and I am looking forward to seeing what she is capable of doing with Prokofiev’s
The more than 70 musicians that make up the School’s Freixenet Symphony Orchestra will play in Madrid, Bratislava, Budapest, and Vienna. It will be tomorrow, October 7, at 7:30 p.m. when the first concert of the tour begins at the
Afterwards, the Orchestra will travel to Bratislava to participate, from the Reduta Concert Hall, in its Music Festival on October 9. Budapest awaits them the following day, October 10, to play at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music; and they will finish their tour at the famous Musikverein in Vienna, home of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and its celebrated New Year’s Concert, on October 12.
“It is a great pride and at the same time a great responsibility to have such an exceptional orchestra conductor, principal of four symphony orchestras: Vienna, Frankfurt Radio, Houston… and the Freixenet Symphony Orchestra of the Reina Sofía School! He is a great musician and a better person involved in the transformative power of music,” Paloma O’Shea highlighted about the Colombian maestro.
The tour has the support of Abu Dhabi Festival, as a cultural partner, and of the Swiss foundation IF International Foundation. H.E. Huda I. Alkhamis-Kanoo, Founder of the Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation, and Founder and Artistic Director of Abu Dhabi Festival, wanted to show her satisfaction for the work developed between both institutions as a cultural partner of the tour, “We are proud to support the Freixenet Orchestra of the Reina Sofía School of Music on its tour on the occasion of its 30th anniversary. Both institutions work on a common objective, to promote intercultural dialogue through music. The orchestra’s tour reflects our shared mission of cultivating artistic talent and enabling the potential of young people to emerge.”
“The orchestra’s first European tour will be marked by the work, energy, and elegance of conductor Andrés Orozco-Estrada and the outstanding violinist Arabella Steinbacher. While today’s society continues to face the difficulties of the pandemic, I am pleased and excited that the Abu Dhabi Festival and the Reina Sofía School of Music are collaborating once again and bringing live performances to stages throughout Europe.”
The program that the Freixenet Symphony Orchestra will perform on its tour consists of ‘El Puerto’ from the work Iberia by Isaac Albéniz (orchestration by E. Fernández-Arbós), the Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, Op. 19 by Sergei Prokofiev, and the Symphony No. 8 in G major, Op. 88 by Antonín Dvořák.
Andrés Orozco-Estrada was very grateful for his work with the symphony orchestra and for contributing his grain of sand to these 30 years of celebration of the School. “It is an honor to participate in the first European tour of the Reina Sofía School. All the musicians of the School form a great family and we will perform wonderful concerts, in incredible places. We will make music continue to fill us with joy and dreams.”
For her part, Arabella Steinbacher wanted to highlight the careful and professional work with which the day-to-day is developed at the School “I was there on two occasions giving master classes, and I really liked teaching in a center where my own teacher, Ana Chumachenco, has given classes. It is an honor to participate in this concert tour, which we all feel happy about.”
“The achievements of the School in these 30 years are collective. If we have managed to ensure that more than 800 young people live a full musical life and that hundreds of thousands of people benefit from music as a factor of happiness and change, it is thanks to the effort of many, and, above all, thanks to the impulse and closeness of Her Majesty Queen Sofía. Her prestige in the international world of music allowed us to open the School with the best imaginable professors and continues to give all her support to this, our center”, Paloma O’Shea wanted to highlight as a final conclusion.
2021/2022, an academic year with great figures and attractive academic novelties
Thirty years of bringing music closer to society and betting on the talent of young musicians is the best letter of introduction of the Reina Sofía School, which this year brings together 166 students from 32 nationalities.
In the area of interpretation, the German orchestra conductor Christoph Poppen, who was president of the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin, will begin his journey in the Telefónica Violin professorship; Milana Chernyavska, a German pianist of Ukrainian roots will do the same in the Piano Fundación Banco Santander professorship, who takes over from the recently deceased professor Bashkirov. In addition, Susan Bullock CBE, a British soprano who won the Kathleen Ferrier award in 1984 assumes the direction of the “Alfredo Kraus” Singing Professorship Fundación Ramón Areces.
The Reina Sofía School also expands its academic offer with the creation of the historical interpretation program, which has the patronage of Société Générale, taught by Paul Goodwin, and the Contemporary Music Program by Pierre-Laurent Aimard. Important novelties that will serve so that students integrate into their practice knowledge and practices that until recently were exclusive to specialists, and that are increasingly necessary in the current musical profession. In addition, there will be a new professor of the Choir Professorship, Simon Halsey, an English choral director with extensive experience together with the London Symphony Choir.
The School, in its eagerness to turn the stage into an extension of the classroom, has programmed an agenda very interesting artistic for the season of its thirtieth anniversary. Starting with the 30th anniversary tour with maestro Orozco-Estrada, in December there will be Paul Goodwin conducting the Camerata Fundación EDP, in March Johannes Kalitzke will attend to conduct the Sinfonietta of contemporary music and Sir András Schiff as a culmination, in June, with the Freixenet Orchestra on the closing tour of the academic year.
In this year’s master class program, developed in collaboration with AIE, great international names such as Stanislav Ioudenitch, Rena Shereshevskaya, Alban Gerhard, Michel Arrignon, Renaud Capuçon, Ana Chumachenco, Tabea Zimmermann and the Quiroga Quartet, among others, are presented.
At the academic level, in addition, Tarek Al-Shubbak del Castillo, a professional with a great career in the educational and musical field who has worked at Wigmore Hall in London, joins the School’s team as Head of Studies.
“Venturing and Innovating in Classical Music”
On Monday, October 18, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., and in both face-to-face and online formats, the sixth edition of the Program of Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation will begin that the Reina Sofía School teaches to its Master’s students. For the third year, the program starts with a special day in which, for three hours, there are presentations and talks given by great professionals in the sector, presented by the musicologist and disseminator of Radio Clásica, Eva Sandoval.
“New Skills 4 New Artists (NS4NA)”
The Reina Sofía School of Music leads this European project, in association with Cork Institute of Technology (Ireland), Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel (Belgium) and Grupo DEX (Spain) with which the acquisition of digital, business and technological skills by musicians who are beginning their professional career is favored. The first call for this pilot program was developed from March to June of this year, and in the current academic year until December 16, the second is celebrated.
Our past always present: II Alumni Meeting and tribute to Dmitri Bashkirov
In the month of November, the School will celebrate two important events.
Since its foundation in 1991, the Reina Sofía School has educated more than 800 musicians who today occupy prominent positions in orchestras, develop successful careers as soloists or teach young musicians in the best music schools. On its thirtieth anniversary, the School is organizing its II Alumni Meeting for November 6 and 7.
Likewise, the great maestro Dmitri Bashkirov, who died last March 7, will be honored on November 8 and 9, the month in which he would have celebrated his 90th birthday.
