Barcelona Festival of Song

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The Barcelona Festival of Song is a unique Summer Program created for the purpose of promoting the Latin American & Spanish Art Song repertoire, a rich and wonderful repertory gaining interest and prominence after decades of dormancy and generating demand for live performances and recordings. With this program we are filling a hole in the training of the classical singer, that until today continues being focused mainly in the Centro European music tradition.

The centerpiece of the Barcelona Festival of Song is a course focused on the history and interpretation of the Latin American and Spanish Vocal Repertoire; however, the Festival also presents public concerts with well-known singers, pianist and guitarist and the participants in the course. All performances are open to the public and take place in venues located in beautiful Barcelona, Spain.

Among the faculty are some of the most important and internationally renowned scholars, researchers, teachers, and performers of the Latin American and Spanish Art Song genre. The Festival provides participants with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to gather with performers from around the world to learn about and practice interpreting this important repertoire.

All participants have the opportunity to perform at the two final concerts in Barcelona. Outstanding participants will be selected to perform at a concert in New York CIty sponsor by North-South Consonance, Inc. in the Fall of 2009.

Pianists and guitarists have the opportunity to work with singers and to get to know this beautiful repertory. In the interest of expanding the repertoire, every year the Festival commissions a renowned Ibero-American composer to compose a new cycle of songs that will premiere during the festival.

One of our unique offerings is that each of the participants at the Festival has his/her own personalized development program, designed around his/her unique abilities, level of development and goals. The goal is to reinforce their strengths and to identify and overcome their weaknesses. For this reason there is no age limit.

Our program is design for voice students and voice teachers. Every year, among our participants we receive university teachers who are interested in learning vocal literature, history and interpretation of this repertoire. We provide them with all the necesary information to be able in the future to guide their students about available resources, repertory, diction, etc.

Since its successful debut in 2005, the festival has received students and faculty members from important U.S. and European Universities. Participants of this program receive a total immersion course where they attend master classes, lectures, diction classes, body awareness sessions as well as perform in public concerts.

Festival participants are exposed to important aspects of Ibero-American culture; learn Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, and Catalan diction; receive live coaching at master classes and private lessons; they also have the opportunity to explore the tourist-friendly city of Barcelona, learn about its history, and enjoy its beaches.

The Festival honors the great Catalan singer Conxita Badía (1897-1975) who, in her long career on both sides of the Atlantic, was one of the first promoters and performers of the Spanish and Latin American Art Song. In 2009 the Festival will be in honor of Colombian composer Jaime León (1921).

The Festival takes place at the Ateneu Barcelonès, a grand edifice that houses perhaps the largest cultural resource in Catalonia, with the richest selection of programs for the public. The center sponsors political debates of local and national politicians, book readings, film screenings, art shows, concerts, and more. L'Ateneu is located inside El Palau Savassona, the old residence of Josep Francesc Ferrer de Llupià Brossa, a former Baron of Savassona. This wonderful building, is an equally-dignified neoclassical contrast to the famous Gaudi-inspired architecture that dominates much of modern Barcelona.