- The Cathedral of Ibiza will host a concert on November 26, presided over by Her Majesty Queen Sofía
- The VIII Chamber Music Series, jointly organized by the World Heritage Cities Group and the Reina Sofía School of Music, begins on Saturday, October 30 in Cáceres and will visit unique spaces in the fifteen Spanish cities that make up the Group
Madrid, Thursday, October 21, 2021.- Her Majesty Queen Sofía will preside over the Chamber Music Series concert on Friday, November 26 in the Cathedral of Ibiza. The series begins on Saturday, October 30 in Cáceres and will visit unique spaces in the 15 Spanish cities with the UNESCO seal, until the month of December. The presidents of the two co-organizing institutions of the series, the Founding President of the Reina Sofía School of Music, Paloma O’Shea, and the President of the World Heritage Cities Group of Spain and Mayor of Mérida, Antonio Rodríguez Osuna, attended the presentation of the Series, which is now in its eighth edition.
The President of the Group highlighted that “we are pleased to renew the experience of the seven previous editions, in which we managed to bring to our cities 15 exquisite chamber music concerts, performed by the young talents who are trained at the Reina Sofía School of Music, some of them from our Cities, and considered one of the best music education centers in the world. As we recall each year, we are faced with two brands of excellence, that of the School and UNESCO, which meet in this project that unites youth, talent, heritage and culture.”
The president recalled that “thousands of people have enjoyed this series of top-level concerts over the years, which have been held in unique and exceptional spaces that few cities in our country can offer: cathedrals, churches, palaces, museums, monasteries and other historical buildings converted into modern and functional auditoriums. This musical program enriches the already powerful and varied cultural agenda of our 15 UNESCO Cities that have wanted to make Culture their indisputable hallmark of identity.”
“This eighth edition of the series continues the line initiated in 2014 for the programming of high-quality concerts, within the framework of the cultural projects that our Group has been developing through its Education, Culture and Sports Commission.”
Likewise, Antonio Rodríguez Osuna thanked Queen Sofía, who already presided over the inaugural concert of the 67th edition of the International Classical Theater Festival in Mérida, starring the Freixenet Symphony Orchestra of the School, for returning to another World Heritage City, in this case Ibiza, where she had announced her presence in 2020, but the trip had to be suspended due to the pandemic.
“Queen Sofía assured us that the trip to Ibiza was postponed and we are very pleased to announce her support once again for this Music Series and the School that bears her name, with her attendance at the central concert of this series, on November 26 in the Cathedral of Eivissa.”
For her part, the Founding President of the Reina Sofía School of Music, Paloma O’Shea, referred to the raison d’être of this series: “To make chamber and orchestral music resonate in the unique places, full of history, that the cities of the Group have.
Our music and its spaces enhance each other and enrich the public’s experience. We have repeatedly verified this in the last seven years and we have every intention of continuing to verify it in the future.”
This year the spaces selected to host the series are: the Cathedral of Ibiza in Dalt Vila in Ibiza, the San Francisco Auditorium in Ávila, the Alhóndiga in Segovia, the Co-Cathedral of Santa María in Mérida, the Sala Orive (Palacio de Orive) in Córdoba, the Church of San Pedro Mártir in Toledo, the Old Cathedral in Salamanca, the Igrexa de Compañía ou da Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, the assembly hall of the Tatiana Pérez de Guzmán el Bueno Foundation “Palacio de los Golfines de Abajo” in Cáceres, the Ciudad de Cuenca Auditorium, the Seminari de la Cooperativa Obrera Tarraconense in Tarragona, the Convent of Santo Domingo de Guzmán in San Cristóbal de La Laguna, the Church of San Pablo in Baeza, the Minor Basilica of Santa María de los Reales Alcázares in Úbeda, and the cloister of the Regional Archaeological Museum of Madrid in Alcalá de Henares. For the second year, coinciding in time, the performances in Baeza and Úbeda will be within the program of the XXV Early Music Festival of Úbeda and Baeza, on December 10 and 12.
All concerts will be developed following the security and hygiene protocols established in each autonomous community and city against covid-19.
