Catalan musicians return to Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival

Barcelona (ACN).- This Friday, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival will open in the county of Yorkshire, in northern England. Once again, the line-up features many Catalan musicians and composers. This is part to an agreement, begun last year and continued for its success, between the festival and the Ramon Llull Institute, the public body dedicated to the promotion of Catalan culture abroad. The UK festival is an international leader in contemporary and experimental music, and its aim is to encourage international exchanges between artists. This year, the festival, which will run until November 30, will also have a presence in Barcelona, through cooperation with the British Council and Barcelona’s L’Auditori concert hall. Carlos Casas, Ferran Fages and Hèctor Parra are just some of the Catalan artists forming part of this year’s line-up. Carlos Casas, a sound and visual artist, will open the Festival on Friday with ‘Avalanche’ the track released at the Catalan music festival Sonar in 2010, and since released in the UK. The Catalan artists will be performing a range of music from classical symphonies, to free jazz and concert piano.

Another feature will be Hèctor Parra, who released his latest symphony ‘Absence’, accompanied by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Ilan Volkov. Parra was resident composer last year, and according to the festival director Graham McKenzie in his presentation of this year’s programme, his presence made it "very useful to know the Catalan contemporary music."

In addition, the ensemble ‘Crossing Lines’, led by Luis Codera, will be presented on Saturday and will include two world premieres prepared for the occasion. Ferran Fages will also offer another world music track, ‘Filament’, which was commissioned by the festival itself. Luis Codera will also close the event, with 'π' , initially released in the UK, a track heavily influenced by free jazz and noise. Other Catalan artists featured include Josep Sanz Quintana who will present ‘Triphonie’ and Alistar Zaldua will play ‘Contrejours’. Finally, Kathryn Schulmeister will interpret two pieces by Joan Arnau Pàmies, and Agustí Fernández and Peter Evans will perform a piano and sax concert.

The Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival is the most important festival in the UK dedicated to contemporary and experimental music, which for 37 years has presented a programme of concerts, multimedia performances, lectures and screenings of contemporary music. The aim of the festival is to provide an international platform for participating artists, allowing them to access new audiences and encouraging exchanges between different countries. To this end, the Huddersfield Festival has partnered with the L’Auditori concert hall of Barcelona, where five concerts will be on offer on the 24^th and 25^th of November, also through collaboration with the British Council.