The Liceu Conservatoire celebrated the official start of the 2022-2023 academic year in the Conservatori Liceu Foundation’s Auditorium. Once again, the Management and Academic Team of the Center has welcomed the students, especially the first year students.
This year, the event opened with the screening of the video “Creixent Junts” (Growing together). The video, made by Igor Studio on the occasion of the recent celebration of the Liceu Conservatoire’s 185th anniversary, is based on a musical journey that evokes the beginnings of the Conservatoire and the work of education and dissemination of music carried out by the institution. A popular melody serves as a guiding thread to show the great variety and quality of the music made at the Conservatoire.
After, two videos were shown in which the programming of the Liceu Jazz Masterclasses & Concerts cycles, which is carried out in collaboration with the Barcelona Voll-Damm Jazz Festival and the Liceu Jove cycle, which receive the patronage of the Ferrer-Salat Music Foundation and “la Caixa” Foundation.
The students were able to listen to the words of the Conservatori Liceu Foundation’s General Director, Maria Serrat, who celebrated the beginning of the year by emphasizing the values of the institution which are based on public service, consisting in offering a training integral to the students, so that they not only develop their musical talent and skills to the maximum, but also acquire the values and abilities to create spaces of social transformation with their music. The search for excellence and quality in a framework of equal opportunities is also very present, encouraging students to have an ideal environment for study and practice, with study rooms perfectly equipped with high quality instruments. Also, transversality is one of the great values, which manifests itself in an open attitude towards all musical manifestations; and through the exchange of musical experiences with institutions around the world, all the while promoting the internationalization of the work of the Conservatoire. It should also be mentioned that thanks to the philanthropy and patronage of the Foundation’s trustees, the patrons, and various institutions and individuals, emerging talent is supported with an extensive Scholarship Fund Program. The initiative has always been one of the main values of the Conservatoire, manifested in the creation of cultural facilities to respond to the demands of society and spread culture, fundamental to give meaning to the existence of this unique entity.
After the speech of the General Director, there were parliaments by the Conservatoire’s Academic Director, Víctor Estapé and Benjamin Davies (Head of the Composition and Theoretical Subjects Department), Albert Julià (Head of the Chamber Music Department), Manel Valdivieso (Head of the Orchestra and Ensembles Department) and Gonzalo del Val (Head of the Jazz and Modern Music Department). All of them highlighted the joy of meeting the students again after the difficult previous courses as well as the main novelties of this course.
As in previous years, the students were able to enjoy musical performances performed by their classmates. Oriana Kemelmajer, second-year piano student and Ferrer-Salat Music Foundation’s scholarship holder, performed Le Festin d’Ésope, Op.39 no. 12 by Charles-Valentin Alkan. Secondly, the group formed by Eva Verde (vocals and Ferrer-Salat Music Foundation’s scholarship holder), Alexander Peña (guitar and Ferrer-Salat Music Foundation’s scholarship holder), Arnau Prats (double bass), Jordi Morant (alto sax) and Pau Planas (drums) performed «Bahia con h» by João Gilberto and «Just one of those things» by Cole Porter.
At the end of the event, the students held meetings by Departments, in which the educational project of the Higher Music Education studies was explained in its different aspects, the objectives and characteristics of these study programs, intended for the training for soon-to-be professional musicians in an environment of high academic excellence and within the framework of a long tradition that looks to the future.