The 9th edition of the Arona International Music Festival 2018 will be focused on the flute, the guitar, the percussion and the trombone
The Arona International Music Festival (FIMA, from its name in Spanish: Festival Internacional de Música de Arona), has already begun, and in the StarExcursions Blog we did not want to miss the chance to talk about it. Last Friday, the 9th of February 2018, the 9th edition started. This edition will last until the 17th of the same month. As usual, the event located in Southern Tenerife is focused on different types of audiences, from professionals to inexperienced public. To achieve this goal, it will develop a varied range of activities, which will all take place during the nine days the festival lasts, and all of them in Los Cristianos Culture Centre.
At the same time, FIMA coincides with another event: Maspalomas International Trumpet Festival, which will be developed in the Southern part of our neighbour island, Gran Canaria. This coincidence was the perfect excuse to start a collaboration between them.
The Arona International Music Festival will have a big number of international artists
It is not a small event; the Arona International Music Festival harbours a wide number of important artists from different parts of the world, who will impart their workshops and also perform on stage. It is the case of reputed musicians such as the Japanese pianist Tomoko Sawano, who is currently a professor at the Berlin Art University, as well as in the Franz Liszt from Weimar Music School.
We will have the presence of the Spanish Paco Varoch as well. He is a professional musician, specialized in the flute, and he acts as piccolo solista in Les Dissonances band. At the same time, he collaborates with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. Another important visit will be the one from the Hungarian Györgi Gyivicsan, who is a member of the Slokar Quarter, as well as a professor at the Szeged University of Hungary.
The guests will develop a double function
All these professionals, and many others, will be the ones who will develop a double function during the event. On the one hand, they will act as teachers in the different workshops that will take place. On the other hand, they will act as musicians on stage. In order to make the teaching part possible, the facilities of the Los Cristianos Culture Centre will be available for them, while the performative side will be developed at the Infanta Leonor Auditorium, which is placed in the same locality.
The courses are aimed to professionals working at the conservatories and music schools, as well as to their students or also for other types of music professionals who would like to improve their knowledge. This year the specialties in which the festival will be focused on are percussion, flute, piccolo, guitar and trombone. The main attraction of these activities is the fact that the guest artists themselves will be the ones that will teach, from the 13th to the 17th of February.
The concerts are the main ingredient of FIMA
The other strength of the festival are the concerts, which enlightens the professionalism and high standards offered during the workshops. Placed in the Infanta Leonor Auditorium of Los Cristianos, both types of activities are aimed to make the Arona International Music Festival a worldwide referent of this music modality.
The organizers of the event were not satisfied with just all this high-standard activities in the Southern municipality of Tenerife. They wanted to make both music professionals and students participation in FIMA an incredible chance for them, in order to compensate the need of coming to a place which is so far from the European continent, geographically speaking.
The large concert program for this 9th edition started last Friday at 20:00, with the performance of CinemArona. It was a original film soundtrack concert in which themes of very well-known movies were played. The soprano Candelaria González participated in this concert, followed by the Arona Music Band.
A variety of fields in the FIMA concerts
Many other performances will take place during the next days. For example, the multidisciplinary spectacle of contemporary dance, percussion and audiovisuals called Iwa Pelé (Tuesday, the 13th); the trombone and piano recital performed by Györgi Gyivicsan and Tomoko Sawano (Wednesday, the 14th); the guitar concert by Isabel Martínez (Thursday, the 15th) or the piccolo and piano recital developed by Paco Varoch and Tomoko Sawano (Friday, the 16th).
The Arona International Music Festival is possible thanks to the mediation of the Patronato de Cultura and the Music and Dance School, which have collaborated with the Sociocultural Association Banda de Müsica de Arona in order to organize the event. On the other hand, the Arona city council offers its support to make sure that this annual activity is properly developed. The counselor of Culture and Education, Leopoldo Díaz Oda, has manifested his opinion about this festival in the following way:
“FIMA will be an opportunity to enjoy the performative quality, not only of the cited musicians, but also of a remarkable presence of professionals that are coming from different parts”
As it has already been mentioned, among the participants of the FIMA we will count with the presence of the guitarist Isabel Martínez, international performer and guitar professor at the San Javier Conservatory of Music of Murcia; the soprano singer Candelaria González, sing professor at the Municipal School of Music and Dance of Arona; the Cuban percussionist Juan Javier Rodríguez, percussion professor at the Professional Conservatory of Music of Tenerife, who, along with the dancer Paloma Hurtado, will as well perform in the multidisciplinary act Iwa Pelé.
Twinning between the Arona International Music Festival and the Maspalomas International Trumpet Festival
Finally, it is worth mention the twinning that has taken place between the Arona International Music Festival and the Maspalomas International Trumpet Festival, which will become real by an activity. In it, a trumpet masterclass will be included, which will be taught by the director of the cited festival, Sebastian Gil Armas, as well as by the coordinator, José Vicente Araña.
Here there is the full concert program:
Friday, the 9th of February, 20:00
CinemArona: Original soundtrack concert by soprano singer Candelaria González and the Arona Music Band.
Infanta Leonor Auditorium.
Tickets: 5 €.
Saturday, the 10th of February, 20:00
Agrupación de Pulso y Púa of the Municipal School of Music and Dance of Arona.
Infanta Leonor Auditorium.
Free entrance, limited seating capacity.
Tuesday, the 13rd of February, 20:00
Iwa Pelé: multidisciplinary spectacle of contemporary dance, percussion and audiovisuals.
Infanta Leonor Auditorium.
Tickets: 5 €.
Wednesday, the 14th of February, 20:00
Trombone and piano recital by Györgi Gyivicsan and Tomoko Sawano.
Infanta Leonor Auditorium.
Tickets: 5 €.
Thursday, the 15th of February, 20:00
Guitar recital by Isabel Martínez.
Infanta Leonor Auditorium.
Tickets: 5 €.
Friday, the 16th of February, 20:00
Piccolo and piano recital by Paco Varoch and Tomoko Sawano.
Infanta Leonor Auditorium.
Tickets: 5 €.
Saturday, the 17th of February, 20:00
Closing concert.
Infanta Leonor Auditorium.
Free entrance, limited seating capacity.
Ticket sales at Los Cristianos Culture Centre, in the Auditorium website (www.arona.org) or at the box office from two hours before the beginning of every concert.
The photographs have been kindly shared by the press department of the Arona International Music Festival.