concert

The renowned performing arts festival Temporada Alta has revealed the first big names for its 23^rd edition, which will take place in the cities of Girona and Salt (north-eastern Catalonia), from the 3^rd of October until the 8^th of December. The headliner on the international scene this year is MacbETH, an adaptation by Brett Bailey of Verdi’s opera relocated in the centre of post-colonial Africa and sang by twelve African voices. Pau Miró's adaptation of Angel Guimerà's Catalan classic Terra Baixa (Lowlands) in a solo-performance by the actor Lluís Homar and the play Ruz-Bárcenas, based on the 2013 corruption scandal involving the People's Party (PP), are also amongst the more than 90 shows that will perform in this festival that is a springboard for fresh talent.

This year's edition of Barcelona's performing arts summer festival, Grec, attracted around 80,000 spectators and achieved a 58.15% capacity utilisation in the shows which require payment. According to provisional statistics, taken before the event was over, for the 79 shows that made up the summer festival there were 136,291 seats available and 67,623 tickets were sold, filling 49.61% of the potential capacity. However, overall there was total of 79,254 spectators. Last year 66,466 people attended the shows which required payment and 55,766 tickets were sold. The total number of spectators who attended the festival this year, both paying customers and those who went to free shows, amounted to 127,471 people, whilst in 2013 there were 119,000 individuals.

Three of Catalonia´s most popular music groups played in Central Park in New York City on Sunday 21^st July as part of the SummerStage Festival. The three Catalan performers, Mishima, Txarango and Headbirds, participated in the event under the slogan ´Catalan sounds on tour´, with the aim to internationalise Catalan musicians and performers. The festival is organised by New York´s City Parks Foundation with the object to raise awareness of the richness of different cultures, and this year includes the participation of the Ramon Llull Institute (IRL), Catalonia's public body to promote Catalan language and culture abroad.

Sónar, Barcelona´s ‘Festival of Advanced Music and Multimedia Art’ came to end on Saturday night with a total attendance of 109,000 people, the second best in the festival’s 21 year history. However, it is a 10% less than 2013 record figures. 53% of those attending the 2014 edition were foreigners. Sónar by Night on Saturday has claimed the ability to make the masses dance with a program marked by disco anthems from Nile Rodgers of Chic to performances by Rudimental and DJ Snake. Massive Attack were among the best performers of the night, in their second concert after the opening day. Multiple simultaneous stages with performances from some of the biggest names in electronic music gave national and international festival-goers a lot to choose from.

Joan Colomo, Alberto Montero and the band Anímic are playing on the same day, Saturday 3^rd May, at one of the main musical events of the UK, combining international artists with cinema and digital arts. The festival gathers more than 40,000 punters and 3,000 professionals, taking place from the 1^st to the 3^rd of May in different Liverpool venues. The Sound City Festival is a must-go event to discover new pop and rock talents, among which are the 3 Catalan representatives. The first is the singer and song-writer Joan Colomo, who will be presenting his latest album 'La fília i la fòbia'. The second is Valencia-born composer Alberto Montero, who will play parts of his 'Puerto Príncipe' album. Finally, the last Catalan band is Anímic, who will show their latest work 'Hannibal'.

With all tickets sold out months ahead, the audience which gathered Saturday in the Sadler 's Wells Theatre listened with much emotion to Barcelona Singer Sílvia Pérez Cruz and Guitarist Raül Fernández Miró, during the closing concert of the 11th Flamenco Festival London. The Catalan musicians have interpreted three Flamenco themes and performed songs from their latest album, still unnamed, which will also lead them to New York next week. The new album, the first common release after eight years of collaboration, includes songs in Catalan, French, English and German. The musicians will officially present it in a concert at the Tívoli theatre in Barcelona on the 25th of April.

One of Barcelona’s main cultural institutions celebrated its 35^th anniversary last weekend. Barcelona’s contemporary music scene of the last 3 decades cannot be understood without El Taller de Músics school. For this reason, Santiago Auserón, la Mala Rodríguez & Refree, Cris Juanico, Miqui Puig, Andrea Motis & Joan Chamorro or the guitarist Biel Ballester are some the most prestigious artists who participated  in a tribute concert at the ‘Palau de la Música’ on Sunday. The famous Original Jazz Orquestra played throughout the evening, in an event that was also a vindication of a cultural project in times of economic crisis. Founded in 1979, El Taller de Músics is Barcelona’s most prestigious school for jazz, flamenco and fusion music. The school gives significant style freedom to its students and also organises numerous concerts.

On Thursday, Barcelona’s L’Auditori concert hall has hosted the opening concert of the Barnasants festival for independent singer-songwriters. This year around, Dani Flaco set things in motion with a performance that spiked interest in the festival. The Catalan singer is scheduled to give two further concerts: one on Friday and one on Saturday. In his latest album, Flaco shifted away from his rockiest side to quieter and more intimate airs of acoustic folk. The 19^th edition of Barnasants’s music festival, epitomised by the slogan ‘La pàtria és el poble’(The motherland is the people), will address Catalan resistance, by offering over a hundred concerts to the audience, from both old and new generations of songwriters.

The 51^st edition of the International Festival of Porta Ferrada, located in the Costa Brava town of Sant Feliu de Guíxols, closed its doors with an average attendance of 91%. The event contained 21 music, theatre and dance performances, which had a total attendance of 11,105 people, 10,296 who paid for tickets and 890 going to the free events on offer. 6 shows were complete sell-outs: 5 of the 10 in the Espai Port (the main stage of the festival), and the ‘Concerts per a nadons’ (Concerts for babies). Albert Mallol, Artistic Director of the Porta Ferrada festival, told the CNA that it is important try to find new venues to be added to the iconic locations that already exist in order to increase the amount of musical and theatre performances.

Next March, L’Escolania de Montserrat, one of the oldest music schools in Europe and one of the most famous children’s choirs, will carry out its first ever tour in the United States. On the 13^th, 14^th and 16^th of March 2014 the choir will sing in concerts in the cities of New York, New Jersey and Washington, respectively. Following this landmark tour they will continue to offer performances throughout Catalonia and then they will begin the recording of their new album. The last time the choir group sang in the Americas was in January 2004 when they played in Puerto Rico. L’Escolania de Montserrat is based in the Benedictine abbey of Santa Maria de Montserrat, located in the centre of Catalonia, and has produced many prevalent composers and performers down the years.

Held in UNESCO’s World Heritage Poblet Monastery, the first edition of the Festival of Ancient Music was a sell-out, and will have a second edition next year, according to the organisers. The Festival was launched by the Catalan conductor, interpreter, composer and researcher Jordi Savall, who in 2012 received the Léonie Sonning Prize, considered Music’s equivalent of the ‘Nobel Prize’. The event aimed “to compensate” for the lack of such music festivals in southern Catalonia and also to honour the memory of soprano Montserrat Figueras, who died in November 2011. Figueras was one of the greatest vocalists and experts in Early Music and Savall’s life partner. The first edition of Poblet Festival included 3 concerts by Jordi Savall, all played within the monastery’s church, which is the location of the most of the tombs of the old Catalan kings.

On Saturday evening, 90,000 people gathered in FC Barcelona Camp Nou stadium to attend a concert backing Catalonia’s right to self-determination. The event, organised by a civil society entity – Òmnium Cultural – and without public funding, called for a self-determination referendum in 2014. The two largest political parties in Catalonia, which share a parliamentary stability pact, stated that a specific date for a self-determination vote should be fixed after December 2013. In addition, they insisted that the Catalan President will send a letter to the Spanish Prime Minister in July asking for this vote to be organised. However, in Madrid, the reactions have been almost non-existent. The Spanish Justice Minister insisted that a referendum would be illegal since sovereignty is rooted into the Spanish people as a whole.

The British band met all expectations as headliner of the festival with a macro-concert crammed full of well-known hits. The younger sister of Beyoncé, Solange, the post-dubstep king James Blake and the eclectic quartet Django Django were also the main acts of a very intense night.

The XX performed last week at the Poble Espanyol in Barcelona. The band from London played songs from their hit albums ‘xx’ and ‘Coexist’. Besides their great performance, Barcelona-based producer John Talabot also put on a great show with his first album ‘ƒIN’. Talabot’s music can be labeled as melodious techno, with a dark and creepy atmosphere. The Catalan producer played for less than an hour after which the stage was rebuilt for The XX.

‘Primavera als Bars’ is a pre-festival date of the city with one of its main music events, the Primavera Sound. This free show will bring 22 international and local music bands to fifteen bars, restaurants and hotels around the city of Barcelona. These concerts kicked off on the 24th of April and will finalize on the 18th of May. All these concerts are free and offer the chance to get to know young local artists like Núria Graham or to international bands such as the Americans Purling Hiss.