capella reial de catalunya

A new season of music is ready at the Auditori Concert Hall, in Barcelona for the 2017-18 season. Worldwide artists will perform at the Catalan home of classical music in a mix of multicultural performances from beloved soundtracks to concerts by famous orchestra directors as Venezuelan Gustavo Dudamel. The 17/18 season will continue to promote the emerging artists but it will also include ancient music through an ambitious project: the ‘Jove Capella Reial de Catalunya’. This new ‘ensemble’ of young talents, led by the world-famous Catalan musician Jordi Savall, will offer a concert dedicated to the first great Catalan baroque composer, Joan Cererols.

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.