Plural Ensemble, organizer of the Ensemble Festivalcelebrates its 30th anniversary in the fifteenth edition of this musical encounter that is committed to discovering new contemporary Spanish music and introducing the public to the repertoire of our time. Their concert is one of four that the festival programs between September and November at the Teatros del Canal in the Community of Madrid.
The Ensemble Festival, with an artistic and informative character, is a unique opportunity to enjoy the most outstanding contemporary music groups in Spain. This edition will also see the participation of Taller Sonoro from Seville, Vertixe Sonora and Grupo Enigma from Zaragoza.
In the four concerts, works by a representative group of current Spanish composers of all generations, stylistic currents and current aesthetic trends will be presented, also allowing a discussion between the public and some of the programmed performers and composers. Admission is free until capacity is reached.
He Seville Sound Workshop will inaugurate the cycle on September 7 with Alla ricerca, an anthology of the 24 years of the group’s life, in which they have undertaken the search for new works, languages, styles, composers and performers to try to understand what is happening around us, because, they emphasize, “art is nothing more than a reflection of our world, passed through the filter of artists.”
In Alla ricerca, the authors who have accompanied Taller Sonoro since his first works, such as Nuria Núñez, coexist with others with whom he maintains a close relationship, already a great friendship, such as José Manuel López López and César Camarero, of whom he will perform two works from 1992, his first great works, and the last his Monologue III.
Likewise, in his research we found great performers who have also contributed their creation to the world of composition, such as the percussionist and pioneer in the interpretation of contemporary music in Spain, Pedro Estevan. Finally, the very young Sevillian cellist Esteban Jiménez stands out, winner this year 2024 of the Lutoslawsky Cello Prize in Poland, with a special mention for the best interpretation of contemporary music. In the Ensemble Festival concert, Jiménez will perform solo the sonata of the Madrid composer David Ruiz Molina.
On September 15th he will play Ensemble Vertixe Sonora de Galiciaa collective that includes prominent soloists of contemporary music from Galicia and Portugal. The group was created to promote the creation of current musical productions. For ten years, they have been organizing the Vertice Xonora Festival in the main cities of the Galician community.
Vertixe Sonora has participated in two albums of contemporary music: Ins ofene, with pieces by the Spanish composer Lula Romero, and La dimension fragile, which brings together six pieces by the Mexican composer Víctor Ibarra.
Madrid Plural Ensemble On October 30th, it will celebrate its thirtieth anniversary as a contemporary music group. Founded by its conductor Fabián Panisello, this instrumental ensemble specializes in 20th and 21st century music. Each year, it develops a stable season of concerts and tours, alternating the most demanding solo repertoire with works for ensemble.
Throughout his career, he has participated with great critical and public success in the main specialized international festivals, such as the New Music Week in Shanghai, the Sound Ways in Saint Petersburg, Música de Strasbourg, the Quinzaine Musicale in San Sebastian and the Festival d’Automne in Warsaw, among others. And he has collaborated with artists such as Peter Eötvös, Salome Kammer, Hilary Summers, Cristóbal Halffter, Marco Blaauw, Jörg Widmann, Luis de Pablo and Toshio Hosokawa.
He Enigma Group of Zaragoza will close the Ensembles Festival on November 3. The name of this group brings together the Chamber Orchestra of the Auditorium of the Aragonese capital and was founded in 1995 by the Canarian composer and conductor Juan José Olives, who was its artistic director until his death in 2018. Since its creation, it has worked rigorously and has evolved by bringing together a chamber group focused mainly on the interpretation of 20th century and strictly contemporary music, without renouncing chronologically earlier works and without expanding the cast to perform symphonic music.
Enigma has been a guest orchestra at festivals and cycles in Madrid, Barcelona, A Coruña, Valencia, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Mexico, Havana, Paris, London, Moscow, Sofia and Dublin, among others. Among its chamber recordings, the album dedicated to Joaquím Homs stands out, another that brings together works by current Aragonese composers; two monographs dedicated respectively to Ángel Oliver and Luciano Berio, and one that includes pieces by Paul Hindemith. Furthermore, since 1997, it has carried out important work in teaching and disseminating music to young people.
