May 2023. Spain is Music Tours. Performance Tour Ideas for Spain and Portugal

May 2023 Ideas for your performance tour in Spain and Portugal
International Choral Music Festival Barcelona
Special Venues: Catalan Music Palace
Great Spanish Musicians: Pau Casals
Meet us at SYTA Conference

International Choral Music Festival Barcelona

The Festival Internacional de Cant Coral de Barcelona was held for the first time in 1964. Since then, the Festival has been repeated annually until the current edition.
Every year more than 600 people actively participate in the event representing choirs from all over the world. Thus, choirs from Holland, Belgium, Norway, Turkey, Venezuela, United States, Germany or Spain have been in Barcelona.The Festival involves an intense activity of choral concerts that take place in various locations in Barcelona and its metropolitan area. In addition, choral singing workshops are organized by international teachers. At the same time, choral conducting masterclasses are offered by renowned specialists.And, above all, the event has been the premiere of new works by Spanish composers. The choirs meet the challenge of preparing these pieces in the Festival’s workshops to be able to perform them in the closing concert held in the impressive Palau de la Música. Other concert venues include the Basilica of Santa Maria de Montserrat and the Church of Sant Gaietà in Barcelona, one of the oldest international choral festivals in the world.Throughout these years, more than 400 choirs from other countries, more than 160 Catalan choirs, 80 conductors of international reference, a total of 40,000 choristers and more than 250,000 spectators have participated. These figures show how the Catalan choral tradition has made a fundamental contribution to the international projection of Barcelona during no less than half a century of history.

Special Venues: Catalan Music Palace

The Palau de la Música Catalana was built between 1905 and 1908 by the modernist architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner as the headquarters of the Orfeó Català, financed with funds from popular subscription. The building is located in the district of Sant Pere, one of the most beautiful areas of Barcelona.

The Palau de la Música Catalana is an architectural pearl of Catalan modernism, the only concert hall declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO (December 4, 1997), which is currently an inescapable meeting point of the cultural and social life of Catalonia. It also constitutes a symbolic and sentimental heritage of a whole people that identifies with its history.

The modernist building is articulated around a central metallic structure covered with glass, which when receiving natural light turns the most significant building of Domènech i Montaner’s work into a magical music box where all the applied arts are combined: sculpture, mosaic, stained glass and wrought iron. To enjoy this masterpiece, the Palau de la Música Catalana offers guided tours, an unavoidable appointment to know every corner of this modernist jewel.

Great Spanish Musicians: Pau Casals

The Catalan composer, considered one of the most important musicians of the 20th century, became one of the greatest cello virtuosos in the world.

Pau Casals revolutionized the way of playing this stringed instrument with a technique of his own invention.

Endowed with enormous charisma and growing popularity, Pau Casals was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and performed his music before great world personalities such as John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

In addition to standing out as a performer, Casals was also recognized for his activism in the defense of peace, democracy, freedom and human rights, which earned him prestigious awards such as the UN Peace Medal and a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Casals also publicly expressed his opposition to Franco’s regime.

Spain is Music Tours, as a proud member of SYTA Student an Youth Travel Association, wil be present at the Annual Conference that will take place at the beautiful city of Winnipeg in Canada. See you there¡