Awarded the ‘National Music Prize’ in 2012 by the Ministry of Culture of Spain, Javier Perianes has been described as “a pianist of impeccable and refined tastes, blessed with a warmth of touch” (The Telegraph). His flourishing international career spans five continents taking him to some of the world’s most prestigious venues, including, Carnegie Hall in New York, the Barbican, Royal Festival and Wigmore Halls in London, Salle Pleyel and the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, Berlin’s Philharmonie, the Musikverein in Vienna, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, St Petersburg’s Philharmonic Hall, the Great Hall at the Moscow Conservatory and Suntory Hall in Tokyo. He has appeared in Festivals such as Lucerne, La Roque d'Anthéron, Grafenegg, San Sebastián, Granada and Ravinia.
Invited by many of the world’s leading conductors, Perianes has previously worked with respected colleagues such as Daniel Barenboim, Charles Dutoit, Zubin Mehta, Lorin Maazel, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Daniel Harding, Yuri Temirkanov, Juanjo Mena, Pablo Heras Casado, Josep Pons, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Robin Ticciati, Thomas Dausgaard, and Vasily Petrenko.
Perianes’ 2015/16 season includes concerts with Wiener Philhamoniker, Chicago and Boston Symphony Orchestras, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, hr-Sinfonieorchester, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Tonkünstler-Orchester, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris and Orchestra of St. Luke’s (Carnegie Hall), as well as a month-long-tour of orchestras in Australia and New Zealand.
Last season Perianes’ concerto highlights featured several prestigious debuts including with Orchestre de Paris, Washington National and San Francisco Symphony Orchestras, and BBC Scottish Symphony. He also returned to the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic and the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo.
Recent and upcoming recitals include performances in Madrid, Barcelona, Leipzig, St Petersburg, Paris, Miami, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Marseille and Hong Kong. Regular chamber music partners include violist Tabea Zimmermann and the Quiroga Quartet, with whom he has recorded quintets by Granados and Turina due for release on harmonia mundi in Autumn 2015.
Perianes records exclusively for harmonia mundi. In May 2015 he released a live recording of Grieg’s Piano Concerto with BBC Symphony Orchestra and Sakari Oramo and a selection of Grieg’s Lyric Pieces. Songs without Words, a selection of piano works by Mendelssohn released in November 2014, has received unanimous critical praise. His previous releases for the label include Schubert’s Impromptus and Klavierstücke, Manuel Blasco de Nebra’s keyboard sonatas, Mompou’s Música callada, ...les sons et les parfums which focuses on works by Chopin and Debussy, and Moto perpetuo - a selection of Beethoven’s sonatas. Perianes’ recording of Falla’s Nights in the Gardens of Spain and selected solo works received a Latin Grammy Nomination.
“Exquisite: precise, perfectly balanced, interpretively fresh performances, couched in consistently warm hues.”
New York Times, January 17th, 2012
The Cuarteto Quiroga, recently appointed quartet-in-residence in charge of the Royal Collection of decorated Stradivarius at Madrid’s Royal Palace, has established itself as one of the most dynamic and unique quartets of its generation. The quartet has won international acclaim from critics and audiences alike for its distinctive personality as well as its bold and original approach to the string quartet repertoire.The group takes its name from the Galician violinist Manuel Quiroga, one of the most outstanding string players in Spanish music history together with Pau Casals and Pablo Sarasate.
Since its foundation, the Cuarteto Quiroga has studied with Professor Rainer Schmidt at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid and the ProQuartet-CEMC, Prof. Walter Levin at the Musikakademie der Stadt Basel, and Prof. Hatto Beyerle at the European Chamber Music Academy. The quartet has also been influenced by András Keller, György Kurtág, Johannes Meissl, Eberhard Feltz and Ferenc Rados.
Prizewinners of several major international string quartet competitions (Bordeaux, Paolo Borciani, Genève, Beijing, Fnapec-Paris, Palau Barcelona), the ensemble regularly appears at main halls and festivals in Europe and the Americas (Wigmore Hall London, Philarmonie Berlin, Les Invalides Paris, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, De Doelen Rotterdam, Auditorio Nacional Madrid, Frick Collection New York, National Gallery Washington DC, HeidelbergerFrühling, Davos Festival, Auditori de Barcelona, Palau de la Musica, Stockholm’s Nybrokajen, Teatro SolísMontevideo, Buenos Aires, among others). The quartet has been recorded and broadcast by RNE, SWR2, SwedishRadio, BBC3, FranceMusique, WDR, Rai, MEZZO TV, etc.
In 2007, the Cuarteto Quiroga was awarded the Spanish National Radio Culture Prize (Premio Ojo Crítico).
The quartet frequently collaborates with musicians such as Valentin Erben, Alain Meunier, Javier Perianes, Vladimir Mendelssohn, Jeremy Menuhin, David Kadouch, choreographer Hideto Heshiki, theatre director Peter Ries and Spanish actor Jose Luis Gómez.
At present, the ensemble is Quartet-in-Residence at the Fundación Museo Cerralbo, their home in Madrid. Its four members teach at the International Summer Academy of Llanes (Asturias, Spain) and hold the StringQuartet Chair at the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Aragón (Zaragoza, Spain). As a corollary of their firm commitment to chamber music education, they often get invited to teach masterclasses and courses at several major Spanish Conservatoires as well as the Spanish National Youth Orchestra (JONDE).
In season 2011-2012, the quartet became Ensemble-in-Residence at the Miguel Delibes Auditorium inValladolid (Spain), taking over from the Jerusalem String Quartet. 2012-13 highlights included their successful US debut with concerts in New York and Washington DC, their return to Wigmore Hall as well as a two-year residency at the Orlando Festival in Holland. Season 2013-2014 saw their return to Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and the Wigmore Hall, an extensive tour to Colombia and the US, concerts in Germany, Netherlands, France, Sweden and Poland and a 6-concert residency at the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, where they performed the complete op.20 by J. Haydn, the six Mozart “Haydn-Quartets” and the complete works for quartet by G. Kurtág, including several spanish premières. 2015 highlights include their debut at New York’s Lincoln Center and a recording of Haydn’s complete Opus 20 with the decorated Stradivarius quartet from Madrid’s Royal Palace.
Their CD album “Statements”, recorded by dutch label COBRA and dedicated to the music of Haydn, Webern and Sollima was awarded the prize for “Best classical music album 2012″ by the Spanish Independent Producers Union and was acclaimed by the international press. The recent recording “(R)evolutions”, dedicated to the early works of the second viennese school, is being praised by critics and audiences, having already received distinctions such as the “Exceptional” label of Scherzo, Spain’s leading magazine for classical music. This coming 2015 will see the release of two CD’s: one dedicated to Brahms String Quartets Opus 51 (Cobra) and another dedicated to the piano quintets of Turina and Granados with pianist Javier Perianes (Harmonia Mundi).
Cibrán Sierra, with the other members of the Quartet, would like to thank Paola Modiano’s heirs for the generous opportunity to play, in her memory, the 1682 Nicolò Amati violin “Arnold Rosé”.
Ana la China is an artist capable of captivating her audience and evoking the most intimate emotions. Her dance has been characterized as intense and wild, an incarnation of the most authentic Flamenco. Ana la China has extensive professional experience, ranging from tablaos and peñas to performances in the most prestigious theaters and international festivals. She has collaborated for many years with renowned artists such as Antonio de la Malena, Luis Moneo, Domingo Rubichi, Miguel Angel Cortés, among others, and has performed numerous times on tour in Europe.
She has often been invited to dance in collaboration with artists from other cultures, in shows such as «La route tzigane» – which she performed on tour in Europe and in Asia with Taraf de Haïdouk and Les Manganiyars du Rajasthan – and «De Bénarès a Jerez» – which she performed on tour in Europe with dancer Kathak Ravi Shankar Mishra, leading to the realization of a documentary film. Since 2006, she has collaborated with musicians such as guitarist Daniel Manzanas, singers Cristo Cortés, José Cortés and Melchor Campos, and percussionist Edu Coquard, and has developed an even more personal style of choreography.
Ana La China began her dance training in Sevilla with Manolo Marin and Angelita Vargas. In 1992, she settled in Granada and worked with Alfredo Iago, Juan Carmona and Chicharrito, with whom she performed numerous shows in Spain and abroad. At the same time, she collaborated with many musicians from Granada—including Rafael Habichuela, Antonio Solera, Jaime Heredia, Pedro Carmona, and, notably, Miguel Angel Cortes—and performed with them during the Festival "Noche del Albaicin," at the Peña de la Plateria, at the Casa Patas de Madrid, and in France, Portugal, Switzerland, and in Italy.
Aside from her frequent tours in Europe with this group, Ana la China has taught flamenco dance in France and in Geneva for the past 15 years, as part of the ethnomusicology workshops held by ADEM.
Dancer Naomi Guerrero began her flamenco career in 1995. She trained primarily with dancer Ana la China and received further training with great dancers such as Carmen Ledesma, Concha Vargas, Mercedes Ruiz, Manuela Carpio, Rafaela Carrasco, el Grilo, and Israel Galván.
Currently, Naomi focuses primarily on flamenco through regular personal practice, teaching, and occasional performances.
She teaches and transmits the art of flamenco to both adults and children through the École-club Migros, the association Arte Andaluz, and in private lessons; she is frequently a substitute for Ana la China at her school. Naomi regularly organizes and presents workshops for dance, compás, and voice, with Juan Manuel Cortés et Melchor Campos.
In addition to teaching, Naomi has performed regularly since 1999, in various venues in Switzerland and in France. In 2007, she began her collaboration with the Compañía Castaña and created the group « la Cueva Flamenca».
Following studies in solfège, accordion, and classic and contemporary dance (with Claude Golovine), Maud la Manuela discovered flamenco at the age of 16 through Ana la China, who offered her the opportunity to become her assistant in 2002.
Maud has a rich and varied background, having trained in Switzerland and in Andalucía with different teachers, such as Javier Cruz, Javier Latorre, Juana Amaya, Mercedes Ruiz, Alicia Marquez, Angelita Vargas, la Chiqui de Jerez, Manuela Carpio, Carmen Ledesma, La Tati, Concha Vargas, Joaquin grilo, and Israel Galván.
Maud has appeared on stage in various venues for the past several years. In 2006, she participated in the show «Doña Francisquita» (choreography by Javier Latorre) at the Grand-Théâtre de Saint-Gall. One year later, she performed as part of a production of The Magic Flute, directed by Omar Porras and choreographed by Isabelle Terracher, at the Grand-Théâtre de Genève.
A dancer with a wide range of experience, Maud is in constant search of artistic expression in the context of traditional flamenco. She passionately shares her knowledge with children and adults, on behalf of Ana la China, and in her teaching during the ethnomusicology workshops held by ADEM in Geneva.
Born in Warsaw in 1976, Marta has been immersed in music since childhood and obtained her diploma in classical percussion at the age of 19. In addition to studying percussion, she also became a member of the a capella group “W Normie” and had the opportunity to perform alongside many notable artists and for Polish television.
Around the same time, she became interested in flamenco and performed as a percussionist in the group “Los Payos”. On several occasions, Marta appeared during the Flamenco Festival of Berlin, collaborating with diverse artists of international renown.
Since arriving in Geneva in 1998, she has performed in several flamenco shows and has had the opportunity to accompany many prominent artists, notably Curro Sendra, Ana la China, Alegria Suárez, Paco Heredia, Canito, and Curro Fernández.
During this period, she participated in a creative project of the EXOS circus, with whom she performed in Austria, France, and Switzerland. The members of the Ateliers d’Ethnomusicologie suggested that she join the ensemble of ethnic and classical percussion in performance at the Arena de Genève, as part of the Red Cross Gala, as well as during the percussion festival “Repercussions” at BFM. At the same time, she performed numerous concerts with the Celtic music group “Celtofools”.
Her capacity to adapt, her exceptional listening skills, and her musical sensitivity have allowed her to perform on stage and in the studio as a percussionist, backup singer, and singer, invited by diverse groups of varied styles, such as: Diana Miranda (Brazilian music), Clem (jazz-world), Celia Ferri (latin-jazz), André Bachleda (folk-jazz), Trio Essential (jazz-Brazil), Viagem (world music), Cappuccino Band and Madias (pop, soul).
She also plays this double role alongside Swiss-Italian singer Lucia Albertoni, with whom she recorded two CDs (compositions and arrangements), the result of their musical collaboration. In March of 2009, the quartet of Lucia Albertoni participated in a broadcast for France 3 in Corsica. The group was on tour in Latin America in 2010.
For the past several years, she has been a member of the jazz quartet “Tri-Bal réunion”, whose album was released in 2009. She has also collaborated with the flamenco dancer “La Burbuja”, in diverse shows and in numerous theaters in Suisse Romande. Recently, Marta collaborated with two musicians from Zürich, a flamenco guitarist, and a jazz flutist, in order to create an original repertoire inspired by these two musical worlds.
Self-taught in jazz and improvisation, her love for the genre has led to recent opportunities to perform on stage with musicians such as Phillipe Cornaz, Stéphane Fish, Joël Musy, Florence Melnotte, Jean-Yves Poupin, and Evariste Pérez, among others.
Manuel Castán began studying flamenco guitar at the age of 15 with Ricardo Salinas. He later studied with Manuel Granados for five years and obtained his diploma from the Conservatorio Superior de Música del Liceu.
For more than 12 years, Manuel Castán has taught flamenco guitar in France and has performed around the world with numerous musicians and groups, such as: a traditional Andalusian choir, Naita y El Encuentro (flamenco), Duo Tzigane with David Mancinelli, violinist Lucas Benech (irish music), singer Kiko Albo (Latin American songs), and the Compañía Zambra in Buenos Aires.
For the past decade, he has accompanied the flamenco dance classes of Lydia Pena (Avignon), La Tini and Rocio Vadillo (Paris), La Chiqui, Carmen Herrera and Manuela Carpio (Jerez, Andalucía). For the past 5 years, he has resided in Jerez de la Frontera (Spain) and regularly spends time in France and Switzerland. A multifaceted guitarist, Manuel Castán also teaches Argentine tango.
Melchor Campos comes from the notable «Montoya» family, one of the most exalted gypsy dynasties in Sevilla. Born in 1975 in Montpellier, he studied voice and guitar early on, at the encouragement of his mother, a singer, and his father, a guitarist. He was also inspired by the great flamenco singer Camarón de la Isla. Melchor Campos began his professional career at the age of 17 with the group «Canastero»; he has appeared on stage in many notable venues, such as Lucerne’s «Festival de la musique Tzigane», which was presided over by violinist Yehudi Menuhin, and featured artists such as guitarists Moraito Chico and Niño Josele and singer Tomasa La Macanita.
In 1999, he participated in recording the disc «Alma» with his cousin José el Francés, along with Vicente Amigo and Niña Pastori. Since then, he has shared the stage with some of the biggest names on the international scene, such as Ishtar (Alabina), Chico Castillo, Omar Bashir, Daniel Manzanas, and Juan Carmona.
Between 2003 and 2005, Melchor Campos appeared in shows such as Instante Flamenco and Barrio Flamenco, alongside Cristo Cortés, El Kuele, Manuel Gutierrez, Sharon Sultan, and José Cortés. He has also worked with renowned dancers such as Andrés Peña, Rafael de Carmen, Ana la China, Jorge Santelmo, among others. In 2004, he met the dancer and singer Kartren Ruimy, with whom he performed in the shows entitled «Flamen’ka» and «Flamen’ka Nueva» at the Espace Pierre Cardin. They collaborated again two years later at the Casino de Paris, and at the Folies Bergères in 2008. He also recorded two albums. In 2007, he participated in a charity event organized by the Playing for Good foundation of Maria Bravo.
With an already extensive background in singing and on stage, Melchor Campos continues to enrich his experience through collaborations with other artists and by continuing his study of flamenco. He innovates, without forgetting his flamenco roots. His typical gypsy voice perfectly serves his generous interpretation.
PROFESSOR JENARO TALENS
Honorary Professor of Hispanic and Comparative Literature and European Studies, Université de Genève
Jenaro Talens was born in Tarifa (Cádiz) in 1946 and began his university studies in 1963 in Economic Sciences and Architecture at the Universidad de Madrid. Three years later, he abandoned these studies and began a Bachelor of Arts degree at the Universidad de Granada, where he also received a doctorate in Romance Philology in 1971, under the guidance of Prof. Emilio Orozco Diaz. He became an Assistant Professor at the Universidad de Valencia in 1978 and a Full Professor in 1982, and later became chair of Spanish Literature, Theory of Literature and Comparative Literature and Audiovisual Communication. Since 1999, he has been a Professor of Hispanic Literature, Comparative Literature, and European Studies at the Université de Genève.
Jenaro Talens has also served as Professor of Literary Theory at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and as Visiting Professor at the University of Minnesota, Université de Montreal, University of California-Irvine, Aarhus University, Technische Universität Berlin, and the Universidad de Buenos Aires, where he was appointed Honorary Professor in the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Urbanism (FADU).
Co-founder of the Shakespeare Institute and member of the Shakespeare Foundation of Spain, he has translated for the stage and has published many works of Elizabethan theater with his team (King Lear, Macbeth, The Merchant of Venice, Othello, Hamlet, As You Like It, Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, Anthony and Cleopatra, The Tempest, etc.).
Jenaro Talens is the author of around twenty books of poetry in Spanish and Catalan, translated and published in several European languages. His works are collected in three volumes: Cenizas de sentido (1961-1975), El largo aprendizaje (1975-1991), and Puntos cardinales (1991-2006), all published by Ediciones Cátedra.
He has translated and edited the works of numerous European and North-American Modernist authors (Francesco Petrarca, Friedrich Hölderlin, Novalis, Johann W. Goethe, Georg Trakl, Ernst Stadler, Georg Heym, Hermann Hesse, R. M. Rilke, Bertolt Brecht, Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, Seamus Heaney, Derek Walcott, Eugenio Montale, Nuno Júdice, Yves Bonnefoy, Natan Zach, among others), as well as the complete poetry and most of the narrative, theatrical, cinematic, radio, and television work of Samuel Beckett—which he staged in 1967 and some of which was the subject of his graduation thesis in 1968.
He has also published numerous articles and books on history and literary theory, semiotics and film theory, which deal with medieval authors (Juan Ruiz, Marqués de Santillana), Baroque authors (Cervantès, Quevedo, Maria de Zayas, Lope de Vega, Baltasar Gracián, Mariana de Carvajal), Romantic authors (Espronceda), and authors of the 20th century (García Lorca, Cernuda, Aleixandre et Buñuel, among others). He coordinated and co-led the production of Une Histoire générale du cinema in 12 volumes (Ediciones Cátedra, Madrid, 1994-1996).
He is director of the collection Signo e imagen (Ediciones Cátedra) and of the magazine Boletín Hispánico Helvético, and is also co-director of Frónesis (Ediciones Cátedra), General Editor of Hispanic Issues (University of Minnesota), and a member of the editorial committee of boundary 2 (Duke University Press), Glosa (Universidad de Córdoba), Discurso (Universidad de Sevilla), Quaderns de Filologia (Universidad de Valencia) et Semiosis ilimitada (Argentina), among other periodicals. In the 1990s, he founded and led the magazine (and later series) Eutopías, now known as the collection Otras Eutopías (Editorial Biblioteca Nueva).
The recipient of numerous prizes (Loewe Foundation International Poetry Prize in 1997, Premio Francisco de Quevedo de la Comunidad de Madrid in 2002, the Premio Andalucía de la Critica in 2003, Premio de la Crítica de la Comunidad Valenciana in 1981 and 1994, and finalist of the Premio Nacional de Literatura), Jenaro Talens has served as Vice-President of the Asociación Española de Semiótica, the Asociación Andaluza de Semiótica, and the Société Suisse d’ Études Hispaniques.
PROFESSOR ANDRÉS
SORIA OLMEDO
Professor of Spanish Literature, Universidad de Granada, Spain
Professor of Spanish Literature at the Universidad de Granada, Andrés Soria Olmedo holds a doctorate in Romance Philology from the Universidad de Granada (1980) and is a Fellow of the Reale Collegio di Spagna in Bologna. He has been a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University (1987) and Visiting Professor at UCLA (1996, 2002), New York University (2006), Brown University (2011), and in Venice.
A member of the Academia de Buenas Letras de Granada since its founding, his research mainly focuses on Spanish literature of the renaissance and the twentieth century, particularly The Generation of ‘27. He has edited Correspondencia (1923-1951) by Pedro Salinas and Jorge Guillén (published by Tusquets in 1992), as well as two volumes of Obras completas de Pedro Salinas (2007) and the anthology Las vanguardias y la Generación del 27 (2007). Andrés Soria Olmedo is the author of many books, including: Vanguardismo y crítica literaria en España (1988), Una indagación incesante. La obra de Antonio Muñoz Molina (1998), and Fábula de fuentes: tradición y vida literaria en Federico García Lorca (2004).
DIEGO
MARTÍNEZ MARTÍNEZ
Director of the Festival Internacional de Música y Danza de Granada, Spain
Born in 1963, Diego Martínez Martínez is currently the director of the Festival Internacional de Música y Danza de Granada. He has previously served as the Director of the Festival Internacional de Música y Danza Ciudad de Úbeda, Director of the Manuel de Falla Archives, and Secretary of the Asociación Española de Festivales de Música Clásica (Festclásica). In addition, he currently serves as Professor of Music with a specialty in flute performance.
A graduate of the Universidad de Barcelona in Cultural Management, under the guidance of Professor Lluís Bonet, Diego Martínez Martínez has worked in public administration and the implementation of cultural projects in his home province of Jaén since 1982. In 1989, he founded the Festival Internacional de Música y Danza Ciudad de Úbeda, followed by the Festival de Otoño de Jaén in 2000, and the Festival de Jazz de Úbeda in 2005. In the past, he has also served as Artistic Director of the Teatro-Auditorio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial (which hosts a festival of music for Christmas, a festival of religious music during Easter, and a lyric festival in the summer) and of the Festival de Música Antigua de Úbeda y Baeza. In 2010, he collaborated with the Sociedad Estatal de Exposiciones Internacionales in organizing the Festival de Música Clásica during the Shanghai Expo. Diego Martínez Martínez is a member of the Asociación de Gestores Culturales de Andalucía.
