Introduction
The Aula Magna of the Vitoria-Gasteiz Conservatory of Music welcomes the Fifth CARMELO BERNAOLA International Music Festival, distinguished by its firm commitment to the music of our times. Outstanding international performers participate in concerts programmes with proposals that reflect the diversity of the most modern music.
Opening the festival is Musicatreize, a versatile vocal ensemble from Marseilles conducted by Roland Hayrabedian, which that specialises in performing the contemporary vocal repertoire and intermingles past and present, classical works and newly-penned compositions in its concerts.
The American quartet So Percussion is one of the more novel instrumental groups of our day. Its striking concerts explore new pathways through projects that incorporate the tímbric wealth of contemporary percussion. An authentic innovation fruit of constant experimentation and sonorous research.
Chamber opera is joining the festival for the first time with Der Kaiser von Atlantis (The Emperor of Atlantis) by Viktor Ullmann. A masterpiece composed in 1943, it denounced the injustice and violence of the Third Reich. With musical director Andrea Cazzaniga and stage director Josu Rekalde, this concert has been co-produced by EITB, the University of the Basque Country and Ensemble Kuraia.
The last concert features the Ensemble Espacio Sinkro from Vitoria-Gasteiz, conducted by Maite Aurrekoetxea, presenting a new programme especially conceived for the festival. An intense historical tour through the twentieth century to the present, with major chamber works and the world premiere of a work by young composer Sara Varas.
This year marks the centenary of the birth of Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992), a fundamental composer of universal music. Domenico Tagliente, Wolfgang Reisinger and Daniel Oyarzabal offer three monographic concerts dedicated to his extensive organ works in the churches of San Pedro and the Carmen.