music

The City Hall and The Coliseum Theatre are the new locations of the Guitar Festival, which will play host to popular bands such as Els Amics de les Arts, Jorge Drexler and the Waterboys. The Festival is taking place from March 10th to May 26th and is including all kind of guitar focused proposals. This Guitar Festival is considered to be one of the most important consolidated music events in Barcelona, with around 25.000 spectators per year. The budget for this 2012 has increased by 3.5% and will include new improvements and musical offers.

The 58th edition of the prestigious international piano competition awarded the jury’s first prize to Soo Jung Ann, who is 25 years old. The Japanese interpreter Nozomi Nakagiri and Ukraine’s pianist Vadym Kholodenko won the second and third prizes. Nakagiri also received audience’s prize. The competition ran from March 9th to March 21st, and the final was held at Barcelona’s Palau de la Música Catalana. 89 artists of 23 different nationalities participated in this year’s edition. More than 100 Catalan families offered their grand pianos for the occasion.

The coastal city, located in southern Catalonia, is experiencing a significant renovation of its cultural infrastructure and will host special events throughout the year such as the inauguration of the Tarragona Theatre. Tarragona’s new status as Capital of Catalan Culture 2012 has triggered this year’s local artistic activity with a vast cultural agenda accessible to all citizens. Activities started in February with the first Congress of Catalan Booksellers. Initiatives like the inauguration of the Tarragona Theatre, the Historical Archive, the new Center of Contemporary Art and the Banc de la Cultura are some of the novelties expected to take place at the city this year.

No workers will be laid off and no strikes will be organised. The management and workers of Barcelona Opera House have reached an agreement on the theatre’s deficit reduction measures. The management has decided not to proceed with the temporary mass layoff of 90% of the staff for 2 months after accepting the workers proposal to give up their extra payment in the summer. The agreement guarantees the regular schedule of the opera season, with the exception of ‘A Florentine Tragedy’, due out in April, which might be cancelled.

Legendary British band to play alongside Wilco, Franz Ferdinand, Death Cab for Cutie, XX, Beirut, Yo La Tengo, The Drums, and Mudhoney, among others in a strong 2012 lineup. The festival will be held from May 30th to June 3rd in Barcelona.

The city theatre offers 26 very different shows in its winter-spring season, which will focus on opera and Spanish-style operetta (zarzuela). Puccini’s ‘La Bohème’, Verdi’s ‘Aida’ and two zarzuelas respond to public demand for more classical-based shows.

The Catalan opera diva, acclaimed worldwide, gave a concert at the Gran Teatre del Liceu surrounded by her friends, colleagues, pupils and a grateful audience. Only three days away from reaching half a century of performances at Barcelona’s opera house, Montserrat Caballé also celebrated this special anniversary by unveiling an exhibition on her career in the same venue.

’10 milles per veure una bona armadura’, the second album from the Barcelona group ranks first at the annual list of best selling albums in Spain, compiled by The Apple Store

The Great Escape Music Festival, in the UK, known for its commitment to up-and-coming groups, continues to support bands from Catalonia and other Catalan speaking areas. The latest edition of the festival brought together groups that have already performed over the past three festivals such as Mishima or Manel. This year the organisers also decided to include an exclusive space in the programme for bands from the Balearic Islands.

Married to viol player Jordi Savall, the Catalan Montserrat Figueras was one of the world’s most recognised experts and talented instrumentalists specialised in medieval music, as well as music from the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Together with Savall, they founded the groups Hespèrion XXI, the Capella Reial de Catalunya and the orchestra Le Concert des Nations. Figueras received many accolades, such as the ‘Officier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres’ in France and a Grammy Award.

In-Edit 2011, Barcelona’s International Music Documentary Film Festival ended its ninth edition after eleven days of showings that gathered 54 national and international new releases and around 30.000 spectators. ‘Next Music Station: Morocco’, a documentary produced by Al-Jazeera and directed by Fermín Muguruza, has been this year’s National Prize winner. The International Prize was for ‘Last Days Here’, about the life of Pentagram’s singer, Bobby Liebing. Another great surprise was the presence of musician Michael Nyman, author of many Hollywood soundtracks.

The Catalan capital will be enjoying the 43rd edition of its jazz festival until December 1st. In the current edition, many Catalan artists will participate in the festival, such as Andrea Motis, Lluís Coloma, La Vella Dixeland or Biel Ballester. International figures such as Michel Camilo, Omar Sosa or Paolo Conte will also be on Barcelona’s stages.

Barcelona’s Opera Theatre offers only three portrayals of the Catalan composer Xavier Benguerel’s opera ‘Jo, Dalí’ (I, Dalí). It is a four act opera, which comes to the Barcelona theatre for the first time. Xavier Benguerel is one of the most recognised classical music contemporary composers in Catalonia.

Amongst the numerous acts, a special tribute, sponsored by Alice Cooper and Amanda Lear, was paid to the painter Salvador Dalí. The festival was held in the town of Figures, in northeast Catalonia. It is the best year that the festival has experienced.

The OBS performs a repertoire of Italian Baroque music. The concert was held at Santa Maria’s Cathedral, in La Seu d’Urgell, in the Western Catalan Pyrenees, next to Andorra.