XXXIV CYCLE OF MUSIC IN THE CATHEDRAL :: diocesisastorga.es

-All concerts will take place at 20:30 on August 17, 20, 22 and 24.

– The cycle continues thanks to the efforts of Roberto Fresco, a musician from Asorgano, who is responsible for the selection and hiring of musicians.

On Tuesday, July 30, the official presentation of the XXXIV Music Series took place in the Cathedral, where the Asturian exhibition will be held for four days in August.

As the musical director of the Friends of the Cathedral Association, its organizer, emphasized, these are four very different, diverse and very interesting concerts.

The President of the Friends of the Cathedral Association, Elianes Fernández, thanked the institutions that collaborate with it for their support, highlighting the increase in the contribution of the Astorga City Council this year, which amounted to 3,600 euros, compared to 3,000 last year . former. For its part, the Provincial Council of León, through the León Institute of Culture, will contribute 2,000 euros. Although this assistance does not cover its total cost, which is 10,000 euros: 6,000 for the musicians’ expenses; 3,000 for stationery and printing press and 800 for the organ tuning. In this last aspect, the dean of the Cathedral, D. F. Javier Gay, recalled that the main temple values ​​​​that it hosts cultural events of this type, and is also committed to the cycle, performing the arrangement of 2-3 organ pipes. . almost 300 that it has, and the amount of which has grown to more than 10,000 euros.

TICKETS

Tickets will be sold at the city’s Casa del Sacristán on Friday, August 16, from 12:00 to 14:00, and on August 17, 20, 22 and 24 from 12:00 to 14:00 and from 19:15. For this purpose, a voluntary donation of six euros is requested for three concerts. With the exception of the one on August 20, which, due to its high quality, amounts to eight euros.

ABOUT CONCERTS

The first of these, on Saturday, August 17, will be given by Mercé Sanchis i Bros and will be a purely organ concert. The performer has a diploma from the Barcelona Conservatory in piano, organ, chamber music and harpsichord.

She was the organist chosen by Benedict XVI to perform at the dedication of the Sagrada Familia church on 7 November 2010. Since August 2009, she has been the pianist and organist of l’Escolania de Montserrat, a group with which she has recorded several albums and toured worldwide.

Diego Ares will be in charge of hosting a special concert at the Cathedral on Tuesday. August 20. Unlike the other concerts, this one will take place in the sacristy of Seo due to the peculiarities of the instrument. A native of the Bercian city of Corullon, the author He is considered one of the leading harpsichordists. of his generation.

He currently resides in Switzerland, but has given solo concerts in Europe, Japan and Canada. As a soloist, he has played with the Symphony Orchestra of Brittany, the Orchestra of the City of Granada, the Dutch Bach Society…

He taught harpsichord, piano and basso continuo in Germany and Geneva.

The duo of Peyo Irigoyen and Ignacio Arraquistain will be in charge of the cathedral’s musical accompaniment on Thursday. August 22 with a special concert organ and cyst

a traditional Basque instrument. These young people explored the various possibilities of playing and enrichment that these two instruments could offer, although they were not the first to do so, and in doing so they combined tradition and modernity with their own repertoire based primarily on Baroque pieces adapted to the t’hista and newly created compositions.

The fourth and final concert will be performed by Carlos Fernandez Bollo on Saturday. 24 August. This is a repertoire with variations from the beginning of the Baroque, with another repertoire sometimes using improvisation on the base. The translator has been the principal organist of the Leon Cathedral since 2024.