The Festival of Contemporary Music of Tenerife Meets Ten Years With Artists From Africa, the United States and Taiwan

From May 22 to June 16 there will be, besides the concerts, previous talks, master classes and the third edition of the Tenerife Percussion Camp.

The Festival of Contemporary Music of Tenerife (FMUC) celebrates its tenth anniversary from tomorrow [Wednesday 22] until June 16 with concerts by artists from Africa, the United States, Taiwan and the Canary Islands, previous talks, master classes and the third Tenerife Percussion Camp. The details of the present edition of the festival were given today [Tuesday 21] by the insular director of Culture and Education, José Luis Rivero; the director of FMUC, Francisco Díaz; the assistant to the management of Ascanio y Química, José Ramón Revuelta; and the technician of Culture of the Disa Foundation, Andrea León.

José Luis Rivero emphasized the special nature of this event, not only because of the size of the festival, but also because it was ten years old. "I am one of the lucky ones that has been from the beginning, when we began coinciding with the economic crisis, but the time, the public and the public and private institutions that support the festival have given us the right in this bet", explained the insular director.

Rivero spoke of the faithful FMUC audience and the one who discovers it every year: "People who come here discover a sound landscape that they can not imagine, not only because of the aesthetics and the scenic display of this type of spectacles, but also because of the discovery new sounds ". Finally, he highlighted "the momentum that makes this festival possible in the careers of local musicians".

The director of FMUC recognized that "there are many shared experiences in these ten years in which we have lived 42 concerts with more than 160 musicians of 14 nationalities that have premiered 16 works on the island, five of them commissions from the Tenerife Auditorium". Francisco Díaz explained that "in this edition there will be a world premiere, La Fortaleza, by Francis Hernández, during the DifrAcción Ensemble concert, as well as two other premieres in Spain with the Tenerife Symphony and Twincussion".

José Ramón Revuelta commented that his company's collaboration with the festival happens "because we believe in the collaboration between culture and industry". "We intend that the festival go further and that it can be a support for newcomers who are starting", added the assistant to the management of Ascanio y Química, the sponsoring company. For Andrea León, "it is exciting to see how the festival has grown every year and for the Disa Foundation it is a pride to be part of the sponsorship of this project that turns the island into a national benchmark for two weeks".

The programming of this tenth anniversary pursues the same objectives and values ​​that saw the festival emerge: fill a vacuum of contemporary programming, make visible the percussion as a discipline of creation, promote the talent of its interpreters and create links between the international and local scene.

The Auditorium of Tenerife, the Conservatory of Music of the Canary Islands and the Paraninfo of the University of La Laguna (ULL) will host the current edition of the festival. The first date will be a seasonal concert of the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra, Concert for marimba and orchestra, with which FMUC collaborates and in which the renowned American marimbist Leigh Howard Stevens participates. It will be Friday [day 24] at 7:30 p.m. in the Symphony Hall of the Tenerife Auditorium and the repertoire will be composed of works by Debussy, Kurka and Bartok.

Taking advantage of the visit of the specialist in marimba, whose techniques have spread throughout the world, the same day of the concert there will be a talk with Stevens about the work Concerto Orchestra and Marimba, by Robert Kurka, at 10:00 in the Sala Symphony directed to the students of the Conservatory of Music of the Canary Islands.

In addition, before, on Wednesday [day 22] at 4:00 p.m., there will be a work session at the Conservatory aimed at percussion students of Middle and Higher and Elemental Grades, musicians in general and composers.

The repertoire of Leigh Howard Stevens ranges from Renaissance music, Bach preludes and fugues to original marimba works written by contemporary composers for him. Percussionists from all over the world have adopted their revolutionary approach on the grip of the four drumsticks. It is difficult to find a single aspect of the marimba technique, the repertoire or the design that has not been profoundly modified by Stevens, founder of Malletech, a world leader in the design and manufacture of percussion instruments.

The program will continue on Monday [day 27] at 7:30 p.m. with a DifrAction Ensemble concert in the Chamber Hall of the Auditorium of Tenerife