SIDETRACKS AND DETOURS: Island Life: Festive Fare, Festivals & Tours 1 2 2026

SIDETRACKS & DETOURS

Festive Fare and Festivals

news, interviews, previews, reviews

edited and presented by Norman  Warwick

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Island Life

DUO OPUS 22 review and interview

review & interview by Norman Warwick

In our November 2025 issue of Sidetracks & Detours we reviewed a guitar and violin classical music due, making a name for themselves as Duo Opus 22. We had caught them at an open concert in the black of night up in the mountains around Femes. I reprise a small part of our review, after which I requested an e mail interview with them

The guitarist finger-picked his way beautifully into the programme in a few opening bars before being joined by the lady with a glorious, ephemeral violin accompaniment. In such scant artificial lighting, and in only a deliberately very  low-point of amplification, this music sounded  at one with the rural countryside, as if creeping down the mountainside to meet us.

The applause between pieces was polite and unobtrusive but that was, I think, because all of us in the audience were so spellbound by the clarity and beauty of the playing by this string duo. This was a free concert we were being treated to and it was so lovely and tranquil that applause seemed almost to be a distraction.

The concert was of 75 minutes duration but so many glorious melodies were packed into that short time and the audience was enraptured throughout.

There were pieces that might have been intended for dance, and even a couple of more upbeat pieces in which the guitarist strummed his strings fiercely, redolent of the famous chugging sound of Johnny Cash train songs and for these pieces our lady violinist seemed to rozzle up her bow in the way Sis Draper did in that old Guy Clark song in which

she brought music down the  mountains
and threw lightning in the air
and there was Honey on that violin
and magic everywhere.

Duo Opus 22 closed the Naturaleza Sonora concert with a gorgeous interpretation of the song, Granada, It was proudly but sensitively played and I surprised my 73 year old self by recalling  how my late father and my later grandfather used to sing the song in pubs across Prestwich, near Manchester in the UK.  They would then collect pennies in the ir caps from the audience until they had enough money to buy fish and chips:  one of each six times with scraps (fish and chips) on their way home, for my grandparents, my mum and dad and for me and my brother.

There was a dignified standing ovation for Duo Opus 22, as the concert finished. If I had paid fifty pounds for a ticket for this concert I´d have been quite happy, but there was no admission fee, so I was even happier.

As we left, I approached the violinist who, it transpired, spoke excellent English, and gave her a Sidetracks & Detours business card, hoping to  secure an interview with Duo Opus 22 in the near future.

DUO OPUS 22: EXLUSIVE INTERVIEW with Norman Warwick

´MUSIC PLAYS WITH US, AND LET´S US PLAY WITH IT: MUSIC MAKES US BETTER PEOPLE AND SAVES US FROM BECOMING AUTOMATONS.

The near future is now here, and Sidetracks & Detours are proud to include the exclusive interview below with a couple of classical musicians for whom we predict a bright future indeed.

Good evening! We are so happy to be sending to you our response to the interview questions you sent to us after our recent concert in Femes. 

We can’t tell you how excited we were to read your review of that performance and we, of course, look forward to seeing the interview in print. We want to thank you again for your work and your generous help to our project.

So, who are the two members of Duo Opus 22, and what is Duo  Opus 22 all about?

We are Claudia Guerra Martín (violin) and Daniel León Sánchez (guitar). Sometimes we focus too much on adding a narrative to the concert that we forget the essential thing: introducing ourselves. It was a pleasure meeting you after the show.!

Duo Opus 22 is, in part, a whim. We’ve known each other for several years and have always enjoyed sharing music together. Last year, we were fortunate enough to find the motivation to formalize our career as a professional duo, as part of a course in our Master’s program in performance. It’s, in a way, an academic project!

what can you tell us about your music and what it means to you

As for our working method, we specialize in Spanish music, and for the moment, that’s what we’ve focused on most. Our first project, entitled “España Peregrina, del exilio al olvido” (Wandering Spain, from Exile to Oblivion), offers a brief overview of Spanish music from before the Spanish Civil War, composed by authors who suffered its direct consequences: some exiled, others executed. We also explore repertoire from other eras, primarily the 19th century, in which we find a wealth of original, high-quality music for guitar and violin that doesn’t receive the recognition it deserves.

Ultimately, the Opus 22 duo is the manifestation of our interest in discovering, exploring, sharing, and enjoying music. Furthermore, we capitalize on the fact that the guitar and violin are instruments we can take anywhere, as we saw in Femés, so it’s also a way to bring music to every corner of the world. Our relationship with ROFE was pure chance: They were looking for a group to bring classical music to the “Naturaleza Sonora” concerts cycle, and through various contacts, they found us, and were interested in our proposal, and supported us. Finally, regarding the question of what music means to us… it’s as boundless as it is simple: Music is everything. We are incredibly fortunate to dedicate ourselves to one of the most beautiful things a human being can do and fortunate to be able to share it among ourselves and with the public. Making music awakens our sensitivity every day we play our instruments, a sensitivity that in today’s world is not only incredibly important but absolutely essential. It humanizes us, moves us, and stirs our emotions like nothing else in the world, and honestly, playing together is one of the most fun things there is! In a world and society like today’s, where everything is so individualistic and, paradoxically, impersonal, where everything is immediate, media-driven, and bland, music makes us stop for a moment, listen to our senses and emotions, and to ourselves. It pauses this voracious and sometimes absurd lifestyle and reminds us that there is so much more beyond money, work, traffic, and the things that wear us down every day. It uplifts us, teaches us, invites us to think and feel like nothing else, transports us, evokes childhood memories or memories of other times, reminds us of people, places, or things, or reveals new landscapes to us, physical or purely mental, real or imagined. Music plays with us and lets us play with it; it makes us better people and saves us from becoming automatons.

When did you begin to study music ?

Like any musician, it’s sometimes hard to remember how many years we’ve dedicated time and effort to instrumental practice… It’s many years of academic training (around 14-15 years) that generally begin with the spark of a child’s curiosity. We’re fortunate to be able to say that we’ve spent more than half our lives (not very long yet) learning, and it’s even more satisfying to be able to say that we’ll continue learning throughout our lives. As we mentioned, the duo emerged in our final year of training, in the Master’s program in Performance and Research, so it’s a project that’s only a year old. Highlighting just one moment is especially difficult, since every time we go on stage together, not only as duo partners but as a couple, it’s a dream come true. It’s indescribable, as is the excitement we feel when we receive news, concert offers, works dedicated to the duo (we’ve already had a couple of composers write music for us), concert ideas, discover new music, and so much more. Overall, our favorite moment of the duo has been this first year in which, as we say, we have fulfilled a dream.

Where did you meet and what part did music play ?

We met about five years ago while studying at the Gran Canaria Conservatory. We were classmates!

Today, we’re fortunate to say we’ve performed in many places, not only in the Canary Islands and Spain, but also across Europe. So far, as a duo, our short journey has taken us to various venues and events in Gran Canaria, from concerts to photography exhibitions and even weddings. We’ve also played in La Palma and Lanzarote.

Outside the archipelago, we’re starting to book concerts in Madrid (where we currently live), and we’re lucky enough to have taken Spanish music to Austria, giving a small concert in Graz, where we lived for a while. However, it’s worth noting that although we’ve only been performing as a duo for a year, our individual performing careers are much more extensive. Overall, we’d like to share our music in many places. We feel it’s a kind of “duty” we have. Sharing music is our mission, so any place that welcomes us will be welcome. We’ll start in Madrid, where, as we say, we hope to schedule events frequently.

Why, do you think, music is important to so many of us?

Thank you so much for receiving our work with such sensitivity and affection! The artistic experience is, to a certain extent, a mystery: Why does it move us? Why does it make us feel? Why does each person feel something different? It stirs our emotions in a truly inexplicable way, and for us, the key lies in conveying it with deep affection, humility, and respect for the music, with conviction and naturalness, and above all, with a genuine desire to say something. There is a strong academic and technical foundation, the result of many years of refinement, study, and discipline. However, that emotional component is something that comes from within, from the experiences of each performer and also those of the audience. A musician cannot move someone if the listener doesn’t allow themselves to be moved. Ultimately, we simply do what we want, we enjoy it, and we live it, and the audience, who come seeking a dose of emotion and sensitivity that only music can provide, receives it in that way if the work is genuine.

Thank you again very much for believing in us. 

We thank Daniel And Claudia for sharing their hopes and dreams of a life ahead filled with music. We hope that they might keep us informed of what we are sure will be a successful career and that we might be able to announce future concerts around the continent, and maybe the world for Duo Opus 22. We certainly look forward to listening to whatever recordings they might release.

Come what might we will always have fond memories of that favourite concert up in the mountains on Lanzarote. I like to think that the late Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, author of the wonderful Under Milk Wood, might have described the concert in his own words as

 (under a sky) “starless and bible-black,” a profound, silent darkness over the sleeping village of Femes, emphasizes the deep quiet where only secret animal sounds and the falling dew, (and a gentle sound of violin and guitar) can be heard, setting the stage for the listeners to peer into the town’s dream-filled lives. It’s a velvety, unseeing blackness, like the houses themselves, silence broken only by the distant sea (and the glorious playing by enchanted musicians). 

island life

LULU MORA Paseo Maritimo Playa Blanca 20 / 12 / 2025 7.30 pm

concert review by Norman Warwick

Oscar Noda Gonzales, The Mayor of our home town of Yaiza here on Lanzarote had written on the back page of the programme of December arts events of 2025 that he held ¨profound gratitude to the people of Yaize for everything they have done to build a municipality that stands as atrue example of well-being, respect and harmonious existence. In these times when intolernace seems determined to creep into our daily lives , I feel immense pride in belonging to a community that remains firmly coimmitted to family values, to our traditions and to a deep sense of pride in belonging to our town.´

He signed off by wishing the people of Yaiza and people all around the world, a New Year filled with health, peace and unity.

The booklet itself contained news of all the arts events, including Christmas celebrations, to be held in Yaiza in the month of December and it was in that booklet that we first learned of a very special music group..

Lula Mora was founded in December 2022 in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The group, led by Sara Caride and Silvia Izquierdo, combines music and poetry, creating bridges between their two cultural and geographical identities: Galicia and the Canary Islands. I learned that much by reading an article in Voz about the girls and on-line excitement about them.

I found half a dozen songs that Lulu Mora (left) have placed on Spotify. I checked them out and they are the real deal. They deliver great harmonies that put me in echoing distance of bands like First Aid Kit, and even, if I dare say it, the Trio years of Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt. There are genuine Americana characteristics in the guitar runs, too, and in the heart of the melodies.  I immediately dropped a line to Peter Pearson, my colleague at Sidetracks and Detours who pens the Americana column, All Points Forward, in our quarterly blog. If anyone would tell me I was just being delusional, it would be Peter. It is true that he didn´t respond as fervently to Lula Mora music as I have done, but whilst neither attesting nor contesting my rating of them, Peter  nevertheless admitted he could hear why I recognised Americana sounds in their music, saying  I have sampled Lula Mora. Yes it is like Spanish Americana. Its a pity about the exclusively Spanish lyrics. It does narrow the audience outside Spain. I hope you enjoy the concert and manage to obtain an interview.

At this great concert, however, I realised they are worthy of all the interest they are attracting. Their lyrics draw on personal experiences to speak of important matters such as encounter, change, hope and sisterhood. They sing and recite in Galician and Spanish, and their voices are accompanied by the sounds of guitar, ukulele, double bass, keyboards and synthesizers. Their music is based on the singer-songwriter genre but moves away from it too, including sounds from other genres such as indie, rap, folk or roots.

They played tracks from Hogar (2025) their first album: an adventurous  conceptual album whose songs are spun in order, building a story. The scenic proposal combines music with other disciplines such as performance or theatre, in a show of at least 80 minutes long in which through the scenography and the script, different reflections about belonging, migratory processes and personal roots are crossed.

Their musical proposal has been presented in several venues and festivals, highlighting the LXXI Festa do Albariño (Galicia), the Fibra Sonora festival and the LalaMusic Fest. They have collaborated with the international artist Muerdo, with whom they recorded their single Primavera (Puipana Rec). Their project has appeared in local and regional press and radio, such as Radio Televisión Canaria, La Voz de Galicia or Cadena Ser.

Through their music, Sara and Silvia began to strengthen their relationship and become friends . Their project aims to unite Galician and Canarian culture , as well as to express the social changes they would like to see, which they define as “activism.”

Galician is one of their symbols, and Galicia is becoming increasingly important within their duo. Silvia, who didn’t know the language, was amazed by “ how beautiful and poetic it sounds ,” and even dreams of being able to speak it someday.

Their first performance within Galicia was at a book signing for Sara’s father, a writer, where they were able to showcase some of their songs.

Now they have presented their performance here on Lanzarote and I hope our local press will include reviews celebrating these ladies who are addressing the future of the world by listening to the past of this world. Their music is daring  and perhaps even dangerous. I don´t sense  they are playing into different genres just to shock the critics of the music industry, In fact this concert reassured me that music of a number of genres  is safe in their hands, and when musicians can play across the categories they can blend those categories as they do so, and create new ones.

Seeing Lula Mora live in the darkness of night, playing on a stage full of mis en scene only 30 feet away from where the tide was on turn around to go out again, was another of those Concierto de Yaiza Naturaleza (concerts by other musicians, such as Duo Opus 22, who reflect the sounds of the Canary Islands in their music, was an exhilerating experience. The soft sound of an ebbing tide rolling back sandy stones was a perfect accompaniment to gently plucked guitars, and hand-held percussive instruments, as the wind took beautifully precise harmonies curling away into the night. After listening to their spotify tracks I had immediately identified Lula Mora as creating a unique sound, albeit one that echoes some of my own preferred tastes like First Aid Kit and Emmylou Harris. To hear them live at this gorgeous venue (right) even that put me in mind of The Incredibler String Band and furthermore recalled the music of Kate And Anna McGarrigle., and boy, how much I would love to hear this duo perform Talk To Me Of Mendocino. Lulu Mora delivered poetry, music, acting and dancing in an eighty minute concert with sea at their back and a long, long row of restuarants along the sea walk in front of them. There were thousands of tourists wandering along the sea-walk but many of them stopped to hear one song or just to see what was going on before hurrying along to their reserved tasbles, but there was also an adience of a hundred or so who had come into town purely to listen to this talented and slightly avant-garde group that is Lulu Mora. Amongst them we bumpred into a couple of friends we hadn´t seen for a year or so. Jaqueline and Isobel are yoginis and Jaqueline also sings in the Yaiza Ladies Choir. They both told us how highly they hold Lulu Mora and agreed with us that it will be rewarding to look out in the future for these two women (right) who seem to be shaping an excellent future for themselves and their music.

By now it was nine o´clock and the night winds had started blowing across the bay and the last island ferry crossings of the day were disembarkng their passengers before mooring for the night. Playa Blanca was busy and ´restuarnat row´ was doing a roaring trade. We managed to find a table for two at Puerto Blanco, one of our favourite eating places along the strip. We each ordered fillet of pork in a sweet and sour sauce with vegetables of peppers and sprouts, and tomatoes and fries on the side. The size of the fillets looked massively daunting but they were soft to the knife and melted in the mouth, oozing out the sweet and sour. I had a dessert of Creme Catolina, all washed down with two cervaza sin alcohol whilst my wife Dee had two white wines. The service was excellent and we also enjoyed the company of two Polish ladies, one of whom started the conversation by looking across to our table and asking ´Are you here on Honeymoon?´ The answer to the question should have simply been NO, but instead we fell into chatting about this being our fiftieth year as a married couple, and oh, whereabouts in Poland, and are you here on holiday? Good fun !

It was soon time to ask for our bill which came accompanied by a complimentary shot each of Vodka Caramel ! The bill itself came to only 48 euros complete with tip

Our ten minute drive home saw me able to sit on the sofa just as the strains of the introductory music to Match Of The Day were being played and I caught up with all the eight games played in the English Premier League earlier in the day. I then rewound to catch the final of Strictly Come Dancing, which was was won by a former lady football and tv soccer pundit.

By now it was 2.a.m. and as I turned off the tv and tripped to bed, I knew it would be the delicate harmonies of the concert that would send me off to the land of nod. And, dear readers, so it was.

42nd International Canaries

Classical Music Festival 2026

The agreement guarantees a full programme of nine concerts across Lanzarote and La Graciosa next January and February.

Jesús Machín, Cabildo Councillor for Culture, emphasised the importance of the collaboration. “This collaboration consolidates the presence of the Canary Islands Music Festival in Lanzarote as an essential cultural event, bringing the highest level of artistic performances to the public in unique settings,” he stated.

Machín expressly thanked the Regional Department of Culture, led by Migdalia Machín, for its involvement and organisation, “thus reinforcing the prominence of the Canary Islands Music Festival season after season.”

Full Concert Schedule

The 2026 festival will feature a total of nine musical events with internationally renowned ensembles and artists. The confirmed schedule is as follows:

• January 11: Ensemble Nexus, Teatro Municipal de Tías (7:00 p.m.).
• January 13: Guiguan Project & Markus Stockhausen, Teatro Víctor Fernández Gopar “El Salinero” (8:00 p.m.).
• January 15: Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria, Auditorio Jameos del Agua (8:00 p.m.).
• January 19: Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Auditorio Jameos del Agua (8:00 p.m.).
• January 20: Pieles · ARAHAL, Auditorio Jameos del Agua (8:00 p.m.).
• January 23: Gabriel Ducatenzeiler, Convento de Santo Domingo, Teguise (8:00 p.m.).
• January 30: Il Giardino d’Amore, Teatro Víctor Fernández Gopar “El Salinero” (8:00 p.m.).
• February 6: Raquel Lojendio y Chiky Martín, Teatro Víctor Fernández Gopar “El Salinero” (8:00 p.m.).

Tickets for all concerts can be purchased through the official festival website on the ICDC portal at https://www.icdcultural.org/fimc/conciertos. The island’s full programme and ticket access are also available at www.culturalanzarote.com.Tags:lanzarote

42^nd

International Canaries Classical Music Festival

ENSEMBLE NEXUS

Teatro Tias 11 / 1 / 2026 7.00 pm 20 euros

Imagine a child discovering the sea… what would it sound like? That’s what ‘Angel of Sand’ , a work by Cecilia Díaz Pestano that was premiered at the 42nd FIMC, tries to describe.

This was performed by Ensemble Nexus, an octet of string musicians from the islands. The “nexus” that unites them: to explore in depth the fascinating world of chamber music and to continue enjoying its infinite expressive, sonic, and human possibilities.

‘ Angel of Sand ‘ will be the centerpiece of a program that begins with Mozart’s Quintet in G minor and closes with Mendelssohn’s Octet in E flat.

Violins:    Sergio Marrero, Adrián Marrero,                        Preslav Ganev, Sara Muñoz

Violas:                  Adriana Ilieva, José Alvarado

Cellos:                  Carlos Rivero, Janos Ripka

‍” From shadow to light “

‍WA Mozart: String Quintet in G minor, K. 516                                            

C. Díaz-Pestano:        Angel of Sand – Premiere work | Commissioned by FIMC                            

F. Mendelssohn: String Octet in E-flat major, Op. 20  

In 1787 Mozart wrote a pair of revolutionary quintets, the viola quintets when  compared to the doubling of cellos in similar works of Boccherini and Schubert). Mozart decided to make these quintets very different too, shaping the major chord K.515 with a bright, sunny disposition and making the minor K.516 darker and more tragic.

This dark to light transition was captured wonderfully by Ensemble Nexus by reciting one part, the calm before the storm, as a string quintet of four violins and a cello, and then creating an edgier, more stormy atmosphere as an eight piece unit with two cellists.

The quintet and then the octet captured both the gentle, wandering and wondering part of the text and then  the movement that featured sharp, angry, accented chords, and . They captured the light and airy and dark and bleak of the pieces and demonstrated individual and ensemble talents with this Mozart masterpiece.

The female violinist who played in both ensembles was smiling throughout the dreamy passages, and the excellent male cellist called out to, and responded to, his four colleagues in the violin section and throughoput the rest of the concer the ensembles delivered pretty and perfectly pizzicato from various instruments.

After a short interval there came a work by C Diaz-Pestano, who has said we should imgine a young child visiting the beach for the first time and hearing the sea, ad then we shouldf imagine what the sea might sound like to him. As I listened to the piece I followed her instructions, and i´m sure Ensemble Nexus were also doing so as they created a world of wonderment and excitement.

The work was given an outstanding premier performance by Ensemble Nexus at the Lanzarote 42nd FIMC. This string  octet of musicians from the eight islands ably demonstrated the ‘nexus’ that unites them by exploring in depth the exciting world of chamber music, enabling we in the audience to continue enjoying its infinite expressive, sonic and human possibilities. I feel sure that the composer must have been delighted by the delivery of Angel of Sand.

Because the word imagination begins with an i, I allowed my own imagination to sweep across the seas to a world of my faourite musical genres. Not only the title of the piece, but also its thought-provoking music and its players put me in mind of a very different, yet strangely similar, piece of music by Bob Dylan, who said he wrote the lyrics to Every Grain Of Sand in one sitting, feeling the influence and inspiration of Auguries Of Innocence, a poem by William Blake !

Ensemble Nexus also patently enjoyed reciting Felix Mendelssohn’s String Octet in E-flat Major, Op. 20, a landmark chamber work composed in 1825 by the 16-year-old prodigy. The piece was scored deliberately for just such a double string quartet (four violins, two violas, two cellos) andwas delivered with excuberance by Ensemble Nexus. It is noted for its youthful brilliance, orchestral sound, and innovation as the first true string octet, bridging chamber music with symphonic scale, featuring four movements including a famous scherzo later orchestrated for orchestra.  

This glorious Romantic chamber music, praised for its technical perfection, was delivered with exuberance, and played on the bridge that joins chamber music with orchestral texture. 

The disappointingly less-than-sell-out audience had enjoyed the reral treat of of comprehensive introductions to each piece and the obvious pleasure each individual membertook in the music and in the playing of their colleagues. Everyone in the theatre stood to offer the players a well-deserved ovation, and as we then all streamed out of this lovely, homely venue there was busy and excited chatter in the air, emphasisng how everyone had loved the evening.

As we drove home both my wife Dee and I were as thrilled as we have been at all the more than twenty concerts concerts we have witnessed over the past five yearts of these Classical Music Canary Islands Festivals. Suddenly Dee, announced Mozart as her favourite composer, a long-held thought she said had finally been confirmed for her by Ensemble Nexus and as soon as we got home she created a spotify playliist of the Mozart music we had heard tonight.

I have long held Dvorak slightly higher than Mendellsohn as my own favourite.

Felix Mendelssohn, of course, famously composed many pieces titled in German for solo piano, creating a popular new genre of short, lyrical piano pieces that expressed deep emotion without needing literal lyrics, believing his Music Without Words could convey meaning more powerfully than words, so I had to live with a strange irony when I chose the work as the soundtrack of my Just Poets web site, that was shop window for my own poetry !) Mendelssohn published his pieces in eight volumes between 1829 and 1845, with some individual pieces also existing, including one for cello and piano, published posthumously. 

My love for Dvorak was re-confirmed when we recentlñy attended a concert performance of his New World Symphony at the Arrecife Victor Gopa Theare in Arrecifie in November, when Lanzarote Ensemble offered that audiencec a performance brimming with emotion, precision, and energy. I was delighted to have the opportunity to enjoy the virtuosity of local musicians and the evocative power of a symphony that has moved generations, and I figurtatively place a crown on his head as my favourite composer ! Until now. After last night it seems appropriate to offer a crown to another ensemble

So thank you Ensemble Nexus for playing Mendelssohn, my favourite composer of all time. And thank you Lanzarote Ensemble for playing Dvorak,… my other favourite composer of all time !

42nd International Canaries

Classical Music Festival 2026

42^nd

International Canaries Classical Music Festival

GUIGUAN PROJECT 13 / 1 / 2026 8.00 pm 15e

Victor Gopa Teatro, Arrecife, Lanzarote

42^nd FIMC international classical music festival

Guiguan Project is a recordingcollaboration between three musicians who share a deep desire to develop a unique style rooted in their island heritage: Javier Infante (guitar), Alexis Lemes (timple), and Javier Colina (double bass) featuring Mark Stockhausen

A. LEMES/J. INFANT: Guiguan

A. LEMES: Sorondongo

A. LEMES: Waltz of the Leaves

J. INFANTE: Berber Dance

J. INFANTE: Song of the Sea

A. LEMES: Tanganillo

J. INFANTE: Train to Berlin

A. LEMES: Rabbit Folías

J. INFANTE: Jameos

A. LEMES: Seguidillas a Machín

concert review by Norman Warwick

The members of Guiguan Project summarize the project in a single phrase: The sublime art of listening. They are participating in the #EnParalelo program alongside one of the great innovators and improvisers of the European jazz scene, Markus Stockhausen, in a collaboration that promises to take this musical experience to new heights, creating an enriching dialogue between their artistic visions.

Javiar Infante was known to me as a marvellous guitarist and everyone on Lanzarote and around the other seven Canary Islands must know the name of Alexis Lemis, an incredibly sensitive timple player. I have to be honest again and admit that I hadn´t heard of Javier Colina but I knew that he and Stockhausen must be great musicians to be playing alongside Javier and Alexis. My faith was highly reward by this concert of guitar (Javier Infante), timple (Alexis Lemis), double bass, (Colina), the trio who have collaborate on an album called Guigan, full of a dozen glorious tracks of high production values and exquisite playing. The timple, (so tiny compared to the guitar and double bass, of course, nevertheless holds it own on the, album, which is encased in a beautiful and informative sleeve.

Alexis Lemes is the Lanzarote musician and instrumentalist reveals who has risen from self-taught beginnings, shaped by his personal passion for music in general, and the timple in particular. Lemes honed his skills primarily through his participation in various folk groups and ensembles.

Although he admits he misses having had more formal training, Alexis believes his restless spirit and desire to explore diverse styles stem in part from this self-taught approach. Even so, despite having played jazz and contemporary music, he acknowledges that traditional music, folklore, remains his greatest passion.

For his creative process, he says he uses analog and artisanal methods, and enjoys writing and rewriting everything he composes, reviewing it with his collaborators.

Alexis and guitarist Javier Infante have occasionaly played together as a duo they recorded Guiguan as trio with Javier Colina and heree they were tonight playing as a quartet with Marcus Stockhausen !

I have to be honest and admit I hadn´t heard of the double bass player, Colina, on the Guiguan album until, seeing his name on the cover (left) that I bought at the merchandise table before the concert.

I have since learned that Javier Colina is a musician born in Pamplona in 1960. Javier began playing the double bass on his own, after having studied piano.In the early 1990s, he began to stand out as a double bassist in various flamenco jazz projects and as a prestigious sideman. With drummer Guillermo McGuill, he formed the trio of pianist Chano Domínguez from Cádiz, with whom Colina participated in numerous jazz festivals and appeared in Fernando Trueba’s documentary Calle 54.

Since then, Colina has maintained a constant activity, working with important figures in jazz (George Benson, Dizzy Gillespie, and more), and several well respected names on the flamenco scene. It is intrigueing, as well, to think he has also played with The Fort Apache Band of the New York trumpeter and percussionist Jerry González, as well as with Javier Paxariño, Carlos Núñez, Pancho Amat and Compay Segundo.

I also now know that Markus Stockhausen is the son of the world-renowned composer Karlheinz Stockhausen and has collaborated extensively with his father around the globe. He grew up immersed in classical, jazz, and avant-garde music, and since 2002 has focused on his own compositions and improvisations, including intuitive music that transcends all musical styles. He has directed and recorded numerous jazz projects.

Winner of the WDR Jazz Award in 2005, the JTI Jazz Award in 2017, the Silberne Stimmgabel des Landes NRW in 2017, the Echo Jazz Award in 2018, and, in 2021, the German Jazz Award for Best Brass Player of the Year, Markus is committed to peace in many ways: to a united and respectful global community, and to a “new” human being who leaves behind old paradigms and lives wholeheartedly for a more humane and beautiful world.

Tonight, in the newly re-furbished Teatro De Victor Gopa in Arrecife we witnessed these four gentlemen demonstrate their unique way of interacting when interpreting pieces such as “Sorondongo,” “Tanganillo,” “Seguillas a Machín,” “Vals de las hojas,” “Dana del bereber,” “Canto del mar,” “Tren a Berlín,” “Folías Conejeras,” and “Jameos,” including an original piece, the eponymously entitled “Guiguan,” which the three instrumentalists recorded on for the cd, performed together with their guest artist. As I stood to my feet at the end of the concert to give the players a loud and long standing ovation from the whole audience, I was thinking of how many boundaries they had crossed tongith with this unusual line-up of instruments, with music how their echoed music had crossed boundaries into countless genres ´across the universe to retrieve from the past the music they can weave inbto theree and now and then send it on its way to the future. Fanciful, I know.

The musicians say the music the Guiguan album offers, and represents, in their own words, ´ an opening towards a genuine musical language, inspired by contemporary music, jazz, and the deep musical roots of his homeland. Ultimately, this project is an emotional portrait that paints with notes an experience that touches the heart and awakens the soul.´

Most of tho album tracks were played tonight, with the massively talented trumpeter.. The four have come togethert to perform on stage as Guiguan Project and the trumpet added soul to strings picked, strummed and flailed. The concert was surprisingly, and frequently, deliuvering fascinating rhythm but the mood was entrancing and joyous.. Each of the four players were obviously in awe of the others three and there was no wonder in that. As we say in football and rugby terms and relay races each player passed on the music with sympathy and empathy, and the baton was never droppoed. It was all so seamless when one instrument took over the lead role from another. The double bass talked in its own language like a ventriliquist´s dummy and sometimes even put me in mind of the rockabilly beginnings of Buddy Holly.

Taking it in turn to ´conduct´ Infante and Lemes did so with and and a wink, leading a concert that was full of highlight performances from each of the four musicians.

Thirty years ago I took part in part in a public debate on the subject of whether music enhances poetry. Being a poet my answer was a firm ´of course it does´ and I felt I had plenty of arguments to support my stand.

I am not sure that if somebody the day before yesterday had asked me whther a trumpet could enchance a guitar, a timple and a double bass all being played so beautifully, I might not have been so sure of a positive response. I am positive now !

Every player and his instrument ion this concert enchanced the other, whether flying in unison like a skeet of geese or flying solo like Jonathan Livingston Seagull..

Festival Season Ticket For 3 Special Events

International Canaries Classical

Music Festival 2026

International Canaries Classical Music Festival

THE MAHLER CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

Jameos Del Agua, Lanzarote, 19 / 1 / 2026

8.00 pm admission 20 e

42^nd FIMC international classical music festival

photo Since its creation in 1997, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra (MCO) continuously keeps shaping its distinct sound, independent artistic identity, and agile and democratic structure. To this day, the MCO is still governed by its musicians in collaboration with its managing office.

The orchestra is constantly on the move in search of the next musical horizon. It has, to date, performed in over 40 countries across five continents. 

The MCO’s sound is characterized by the chamber music style of ensemble playing among its alert and independent musical personalities. Its core repertoire, ranging from the Viennese classical and early Romantic periods to contemporary works and world premieres, reflects the MCO’s agility in crossing musical boundaries. 

The orchestra received its most significant artistic impulses from its founding mentor, Claudio Abbado, and from Conductor Laureate Daniel Harding. The MCO works closely with a network of Artistic Partners who inspire and shape the orchestra in long-term collaborations. Current MCO Artistic Partners include pianists Mitsuko Uchida and Yuja Wang. Concertmasters Matthew Truscott and José Maria Blumenschein lead and direct the orchestra regularly in chamber orchestra repertoire, while the MCO’s longstanding collaboration with Artistic Advisor Daniele Gatti focuses on larger symphonic works.

MCO musicians all share a strong desire to continually deepen their engagement with audiences. This has inspired a growing number of offstage musical encounters and projects that bring music, learning and creativity to communities across the globe. Since 2012, Feel the Music has opened the world of music to deaf and hard-of-hearing children through interactive workshops in schools and concert halls. MCO musicians are equally committed to sharing their passion and expertise with the next generation of musicians: since 2009, they have, through the MCO Academy, worked with young musicians to provide them with a high-quality orchestral experience and a unique platform for networking and international exchange. Welcome Home: a concert about finding the place where you belong is a concert format in which school groups are invited on a multicultural journey, fostering introspection and contemplation on the theme of “Belonging”. These endeavours highlight the MCO’s commitment to enriching lives through music and promoting inclusivity.

Each summer, the MCO forms the core group of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra. Meetings with Conductor Laureate Daniel Harding and Artistic Advisor Daniele Gatti bring the MCO to numerous prestigious festivals and concert halls in Europe. Since 2024, the Orchestra has assumed the role of Artistic Director of Musikwoche Hitzacker for five years. 

classical music festival

42^nd

International Canaries Classical Music Festival

ARAHAL

Jameos Del Agua, Lanzarote

January 2026 8.00 pm 25 e Duration: 90 minutes

*Premiere (Pieles Company)

Jonathan Rodríguez, Artistic Direction

Oswaldo Bordón, Stage Direction

Itahisa Darias, Violin, Whistle & Percussion

Laura Álvarez, Vocals & Percussion

Jeremiah Martin, Accordion and Piano

Fernanda Alonso, Flutes

Juan Antonio Mora, Bass & Double Bass

Fatima Rodriguez, Vocals & Percussion

Ventor de la Guardia, Percussion

Fede Beuster, Percussion

Guillermo Molina, Silbo & Percussion

Carlos Castañeda, Percussion

Synopsis:

The Pieles company premieres its new show as part of the #EnParalelo Festival at the 42nd FIMC. An interdisciplinary proposal rooted in tradition. Percussion, voice, stone, seed… and silences merge into an ancestral song that connects the Canary Islands, North Africa, and the Sephardic legacy, and with which Pieles opens a threshold to the intimate, the sacred, and the collective.

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classical festioval music

42^nd

International Canaries Classical Music Festival

ORCHESTRA PHILHARMONIC Gran Canaria

Jameos Del Agua, Lanzarote 15 / 1 / 2026 8pm 25e

Karel Mark Chichon, Director

Sergio Marrero, Violin

Adriana Ilieva, Viola

Synopsis:

The Gran Canaria Philharmonic Orchestra (right) visited the islands of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura for this 42nd FIMC. Under the direction of Maestro Karel Mark Chichon, they present a Mozart program featuring the overture to ‘La finta giardiniera’, the Sinfonia Concertante, and Symphony No. 29.

These works date from the 1670s, a period when the genius had to balance his work as a salaried musician at the Salzburg court with his inexhaustible creativity and output. For the Sinfonia Concertante, they will be joined by soloists from the orchestra: Sergio Marrero (violin) and Adriana Ilieva (viola).

WA MOZART:

• Overture “La Finta Giardiniera”
• Concert Symphony
• Symphony No. 29

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classical music festival

42^nd

International Canaries Classical Music Festival

GABRIEL DUCATENZEILER KAPP

Convent of Santo Domingo, Teguise 23 / 1 / 2026 8.00 pm admission 20 e

42^nd FIMC international classical music festival

The versatility and virtuosity of the young Gabriel Ducatenzeiler Kapp was reflected in the program he presented at this 42nd FIMC: he performed works from the Baroque period (Bach) to the present day (Laura Vega), including the great piano masters (Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninov).

Ducatenzeiler (Gran Canaria, 2002) is one of the most promising pianists in the Canary Islands. Trained in Gran Canaria and Germany, he has won several awards and enjoys an active career as a concert pianist.

‍“ The piano tells stories: tales of film and music ”

‍JS Bach: Aria – Goldberg Variations  

L. Vega: Bachiana Canariense

S. Rachmaninoff: Etude Op. 39 No. 1

Lv Beethoven: Sonata No. 30 in E Major Op. 109

F. Liszt: Consolation No. 3

F. Chopin: Ballade No. 1

F. Chopin: Ballade No. 4

review

The versatility and virtuosity of the young Gabriel Ducatenzeiler Kapp was reflected in the program he presented at this 42nd FIMC: performing works from the Baroque period (Bach) to the present day (Laura Vega), including the great masters of the piano (Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninov).

Tonight he was giving a solo performanDucatenzeiler (Gran Canaria, 2002) is one of the most promising pianists in the Canary Islands. Trained in Gran Canaria and Germany, he has won several awards and enjoys an active career as a concert pianist.

Tonight he was performing a solo performance in a magnificent old-building ´theatre´ hosting this concert is actually  situated in the centre of the former Lanzarote capital, Teguise, and formerly served as Convent Santo Domingo

The Convent of Santo Domingo opened as a contemporary art centrer in December 1998 with the exhibition “Sohha por este papel dentro” (Sohha for this paper inside), a tribute to the Portuguese poet Frédéric Pessoa by the Canarian artist Pepe Dámaso. Since then, its two naves have hosted exhibitions of great artistic quality, and its size and architectural features have made it the most sought-after art gallery on the island.

Despite its short history as an art gallery, the venue has featured nationally renowned artists and works, thanks to the Department’s own annual programming and collaboration agreements with other entities such as the CAAM (Center for Modern Art), Casa Colón, the Manuel Ojeda Art Gallery, the Los Aljibes Exhibition Hall, the MIAC (International Museum of Contemporary Art) Punto de Encuentro Art Gallery.

The purpose of this municipal gallery is well defined: it seeks to promote the work of artists by allowing them to showcase their artistic abilities and to bring contemporary art closer to the general public.

The Convent of Santo Domingo can be considered a multi-purpose building; concerts, meetings, festivals, and other events of different kinds are held there.

Located in the square of the same name, it was founded in 1698 by Captain Rodríguez Carrasco, a resident of Teguise. For this purpose, he had donated several properties and some of his own houses.

The authorization document for this convent is dated February 10, 1725 and is signed by the Bishop of Sigüenza, Don Álvaro de Castilla, Don Alonso Castellano, Don Mateo Pérez Galeote and Don Baltasar de San Pedro Acevedo, Secretary of the King’s Chamber.

The license was granted on January 18, 1726, and documents are preserved regarding an expansion of the existing temple on the site (the church of San Juan de Dios) to adapt it for this conventual purpose.

The Dominican convent and church constituted the architectural complex currently formed by the town hall in Teguise and the Church of Santo Domingo, future Island Sacred Museum.

When the building was rehabilitated for this purpose, it suffered in 1980 one of the greatest artistic outrages that has ever taken place on this island.

The company in charge of the restoration tore down and destroyed the polychrome ceiling of the sacristy, the original ceramic floors, the wooden dividers of the tombs on these floors, the altarpieces of the different advocations, the stairs of the pulpit… and the false domes of the dressing room of the Virgin of the Rosary, which had its walls covered with allegorical frescoes.

In that same year, 1988, a basement was discovered beneath the floor of that dressing room, containing an old ossuary with over 100 skeletons, some semi-mummified. This ossuary was exposed when the upper domes were destroyed, suffering severe deterioration.

The convent features a double-layered façade, a bell gable to the left, two large doors, and a glazed oculus. Above the right-hand door, in red, are the symbols of the Dominican order.

The roof is gabled and covered with red tiles. The volcanic stone chapel attached to its right side lost its roof in the 19th century.

Inside, there are two naves, one 36 meters long and 8 meters wide, and the other slightly smaller. They are separated by four semicircular arches made of red and black ashlar stone.

In the Town Hall premises, two arches have been discovered: one that connected to the interior of the convent and another that connected to the residences of Captain Gaspar Carrasco.

Name : Former Convent Church of the Order of Saint Dominic
Type : Religious Architecture
Period : 17th-18th Centuries
Location: Teguise
Address : Plaza de Santo Domingo, 3
Ownership : Ecclesiastical

The rectangular building still has an attached blind chapel. The naves have gabled roofs, while the chapels have hipped roofs, covered with Arabic tiles and Mudéjar coffered ceilings.

The façade features two doorways with semi-circular arches and alfiz (rectangular frames) corresponding to the number of naves. The right side is finished with a Baroque gable decorated with spheres and diamond points. It has an oculus and Baroque decoration above the alfiz, including a medallion with symbols of the Order. The left side features a crowning element and a lintel window, two gargoyles, and to its left, a bell gable with two openings and a Baroque finial.

In addition to the two naves, it has a sacristy with a coffered ceiling and two lower rooms. A high altar with mural paintings and an ossuary beneath it.

During the 1988 restoration, altarpieces, the pulpit staircase, the flooring, polychrome decorations from the sacristy ceiling, and the altar ceiling were removed, and serious damage was caused to the mural paintings.

The only religious building in Lanzarote that displays, both inside and out, a 17th-century work (left aisle) and an 18th-century work (right aisle). Inside, two altarpieces, the sacristy, the high altar with mural paintings, and the lower room used as an ossuary are noteworthy

The confidence and self-assurance of Gabriel Ducatenzeiler Kapp was immediately obvious as he stepped outside the curtain and moved to centre stage to a warm and expectant applause from an over-flowing audience. Extra seating had ben added to the back rows to accommodate a multi national audience. The German fans who had turned out to support him were mostlñy seated in the seven or eight front rows, left of the aisle, and Gabriel spotted them as soon as he entered the stage. Dressed casually in black, his curly hair and infectious smile made him look a little younger than his 24 years. He stood confidently and smootthly introduced himself and the programme ahead to the audience, in both Spanish and German. Even to your single-lingual reporter it was apparent that he was doing so in an informal manner and the audience quickly decided they liked his personality.

And then he took to the piano stool and played in what was almost a state of rapture, indicating how much he loved and understodd the music, and yet was still happy to interpret it in his own respectful way.

The Goldberg Variations is a musical composition for keyboard by Johann Sebastian Bach, consisting of an aria and a set of thirty variations. First published in 1741, it is named after Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, who may also have been the first performer of the work. It was a layered and varied delivery that sent the score flying over solid, deeper notes and held the audience in a pin-drop silence.

The composer of Gabriel´s second recital, L Vega, was born in Gran Canaria, Spain in 1978 and began her musical studies at four years of age. After graduating in later years after studying piano, oboe and music theory at university in Madrid  she concluded her doctoral studies at The Univeristy of La Laguna on Tenerife.

Laura´s catalogue now includes seventy of her own works and since 2011 she has been a member  of the Royal Canarian Academy Of Fine Arts. Last year she became a member of The Academy Of Music Of Spain.

Tonight Gabriel played her Bachiana Canariense with the deftest of touches, in a fitting nod to a modern composer whose music stood, on merit, aloingside a few the most magificnet composers of the past.

.odern composer whose music stands contemporaneouslñy with some of the most magificnet composers of the past.

The Études-tableaux are two sets of piano studies composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff  in 1911 and 1916. They are given the opus numbers Op. 33 and Op. 39, respectively.

These sets were intended to be “picture pieces,” essentially “musical evocations of external visual stimulation.”  Rachmaninoff did not disclose what inspired each piece, stating: “I do not believe in the artist who reveals much about his pictures. Let them paint for themselves what they most suggest.”  Nevertheless, he willingly shared the sources for some of these studies with the Italian composer Ottorino Respighi when the latter orchestrated these pieces in 1930.

I have to admit here that Rachmaninoff is not one of my favourite composers and these pieces perhaps suffered from my prejudice on this occasion. There was the syncopation he is noted for, and I can live with that, but there was stop and brake changes of tempos and percussive packages.

The following piece, equally adventurous, was more melodic to my ear. Gabriel played Beethoven´s Sonata, Number 30 in E major, and captured all  its wonderment of being at one with nature. Although some people consider these as minor pieces within Beethoven´s piano  studies, Gabriel treated them with all due gravitas whilst seemingly in a state of rapture as he played them.

After the interval, Gabriel came out to an even stronger applause, showing him how much we had all enjoyed the first half and how much were all looking forward to  the second half and, in football parlance, were hoping that the concert might have to go into extra time. After all, we English in the audience know a lot about extra time and so , too, do the Germans !

Gabriel´s interpretation of this polyrhythmic piece was delightful and he captured the mood by listening to the sounds he was making and then allowing his soul to create wonderful evocative, and provocative, harmonies.

Ballade No. 1 in G minor , Op. 23 is a ballade for solo piano by Frédéric Chopin , completed in 1835. It is one of his most popular works, and Gabriel seemed to serve it to us with delight.

Ballad dates from sketches Chopin made in 1831 during his eight-month stay in Vienna.  It was completed in 1835 after his move to Paris, where he dedicated it to Baron Nathaniel von Stockhausen, the Hanoverian ambassador to France. In 1836, Robert Schumann wrote about the ballad: “I have a new ballad by Chopin. It seems to me to be the work closest to his genius (though not the most brilliant). I even told him that it is my favourite of all his works. After a long, thoughtful pause, he said emphatically: ‘I am glad, because I like it best too; it is my dearest work.'” 

The ballad features prominently in several films. It is performed on screen in Gaslight by Polish pianist Jakob Gimpel, credited as the pianist.  A performance of the piece is central to the plot of Roman Polanski ‘s film The Pianist (2002) , where it prompts a German officer to hide and supply food to the pianist, Władysław Szpilman , played by Adrien Brody . On the soundtrack, the piece is performed by Janusz Olejniczak .  It also appears in the 1991 film Impromptu, in a scene where Chopin is playing the piece when George Sand interrupts him and meets him for the first time.

The piece was also the subject of the 2013 Channel 4 documentary , Chopin Saved My Life .  It is quoted in Mieczysław Weinberg ‘s Symphony No. 2 (“Kaddish”). 

A version of the piece was also used as the ending theme in the critically acclaimed Japanese anime Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso ; however, this arrangement also includes a violin part over the original piano piece. 

 In 2010 , The Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger spent a year learning the ballada and wrote a book about the experience, Play It Again: An Amateur Against the Impossible . 

Gabriel concluded his concert with a recital of Chopin´s Ballad number 4, a fitting summary of the mixture of due diligence he had paid to his hands on the keyboard and how closely he had listened to his heart and soul to ensure we in the audience hung on tight to enjoy a ride that, to me, felt like a flight in a hot air balloon with the world laid out beneath us.

Gabriel was brought back to the stage three times to play an encore, and chose a different piece each time, rather than simply reprising those he had played in his programme.

He played these encores with fluidity and obvious joy, particularly the surprising and wonderful The Entertainer, which was a key segment in the then very popular film The Sting starring Robert Redford and Paul Newman. My wife Dee and I remembered this is as a rag time fun tune that hit  the UK singles charts, played  by Marvin Hamlisch  in 1974 when we were just kids of 22. Gabriel stayed faithful to that recording of our youth, and rounded off a perfect night.

Despite that we,  in our mid seventies now, we  couldn´t quite manage to Turkey Trot out of the theatre but we managed a perfect dah dah dah dah  dee dum de  dum vocalisation in the car for twenty miles back home to Playa Blanca.

42nd Internatioaln Canaries

Classical Music Festival

ILGIARDINO DÁMOR (Soprano)

Victor Gopa Teatro, Arrecife,

30 / 1 / 2026 8.00 pm admission 20 e

Il Giardino d’Amore comes from an Italian name, which literally means Garden of Love. The inspiration for its creation was the philosophy of the orchestra members, to gather among „the circle of friends” to share music with the feeling of deep, joyful and expressive sensitivity, compared to the secret garden, guided by love for art and love for each other.

Il Giardino d’Amore was founded in 2012. In 2022 the orchestra is celebrating it’s 10th year anniversary of development and growth.
Il Giardino d’Amore was founded by violinist and conductor Stefan Plewniak during the Bach Festival in Cracow. At that time he was working with Jordi Savall and Le Concert des Nations in Barcelona which was very inspiring in the process of the creation of his own orchestra.

This year 2022 Il Giardino d’Amore had opening gala concert of the the Gstaad New Year Festival in Switzerland with Adèle Charvet and Natalia Kawałek. The orchestra is launching it’s own Summer Garden Festival, the anniversary recording, and two concert tours as part of the 10th year anniversary celebration.

2021 Il Giardino d’Amore started by the Spanish concert tour with Jakub Józef Orliński. Following concerts was took place in France, and Poland. The Il Giardino d’Amore orchestra and choir recorded Leclair opera ballet “Scylla ed Glaucus” for the Versailles label with such great cast as Mathias Vidal, Chiara Skerath, Florie Valliquette, and Victor Sicard. The orchestra and choir performed also Monteverdi „Vespers” and took part in the Actus Humanus Festival in Gdansk performing Vivaldi complete Concerti op.11.

In 2020 Il Giardino d’Amore prepared program with Beethoven Symphony and Piano Concerto no 5 at Gstaad New Year Festival as part of the 250 years anniversary of Beethoven. The Orchestra was invited also by Magnetic Festival in Italy, and Dell’Arte Festival in Brazil.

In 2019 Stefan Plewniak in cooperation with Jean Christophe Cassagnes created the program called Baroque & Pop, presented for the first time in South of France in the open air concert for 5000 people
The orchestra cooperated also with the talented countertenor Filippo Mineccia resulting in the fruitful concert and new projects.

In 2018 Il Giardino started new, inspiring cooperation with the french baroque dance specialist Hubert Hazebroucq, resulting in the US concert tour called Le Roi Dance giving concerts in NYC and Philadelphia, Rochester.

In 2017 the orchestra held their first tour in China with the Handel opera repertoire. The same year Il Giardino d’Amore has recorded new CD with outstandingvocal duo – countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński and mezzosoprano Natalia Kawalek .Handel´s – Enemies in Love released in 2018 was chosen as a CD of the week by The Times, and CD of the Month by Opera Netherlands.

The aim of 2016 was focused in large projects with Polish sacred, and dance music. A Concert tour in USA was dedicated to promote CD ”The Heart of Europe – Corona Regni Poloniae 1500 – 1750” with a monumental music of Gorczycki, Zieleński, and Mielczewski released in the fall of 2017.

The fascination with the French baroque music started by the recording of Cantates & Petits Macarons, the CD with french cantatas and chamber music in 2013, than presentation of the opera ballet by J.Ph.Rameau Les Indes Galantes ,in 2015 and 2016, and representations of another opera by Rameau, Naïs on tour in 2017, leading to the recording of the Leclair opera ballet in 2021.

In 2014 Il Giardino performed in the prestigious concert hall of Mozarteum in Salzburg, as well as was invited to the festival in Oslo, Norway. During their second tour in USA they performed in Carnegie Hall New York and California, where members of Il Giardino led the master class at the Universities of Los Angeles and San Diego.

The first US and Canada tour took place in 2013 one year after orchestra creation, launching the first CD called Amor Sacro Amor Profano for the label Ëvoe Records, and presenting this program as part of the NYC Baroque Celebration Festival, followed by concerts in Toronto, Rochester, Buffalo, and Bedford.

IL GIARDINO D´AMORE

A GREAT FOOTBALL TEAM & AN INCREDIBLE STRING BAND

review by Norman Warwick

As I watched and listened to the most adventurous, beautiful, classical concert I have ever witnessed I knew that my lack of any deep knowledge of the genre was going to let me down ! I have not the classicl background or vocabulary to do justice to this amazing, all action but refined, event. I found mysef counting the number of musicians, so that I could pad out this report and trying to identify the instrument each of the eleven players was playing. And then it struck me, … Eleven, like a football team ! A good football team, say like the Manchester United side of Best, Law and Charlton in the sixties or The Manchester City team of the first half of 2020,s, or like the Spanish sides of Messi and Barcelona, or Zidan´s collection at Real Madriid.

This orchestra did everything those excellent teams did, because Il Giardino D´Amore have great players. Stefan Plewniak might have been in charge of directing the violin, but he was also the team captain and centre forward. He it was who somehow finished so many moves, (or movements in classical music terms), with a flourish. Dressed in an all black Fagin-like outfit he stayed in midfield for long periods, accepting passes from his team- mates then literally skipped through the midfield before running on to score (anoither musical term) ! Quite often in this concert I could see football images,… the goalkeeper was a young musician who protected what looked like an ancient harpsichord that sounded heavenly even as it carried some state of the art technolgy as well. He it was who played the ball out of the penalty area towards his two full backs, in the shape of a cello and a baby cello, and those two female players distributed the ball (the music) to a talented midfield who cleverly passed it on ´with sympathy´as my school football coach used to say to me some sixty years ago now.. The midfield was packed with violinists and a heavy enforcer who carried a huge, medieval looking multi-stringed instrument that might have been a lire ?

Then there were two wingers, both violinist and both female: One was a long-legged girl with Rapunzel´s curly red hair. She was wearing a long, slinky, but elegant dress and and her partner on the other wing looked just as elegant in more subdued black dress, and in all there five ladies on this football-style eleven piece team. They all danced and played elegantly too.

I was constructing this football music analogy whilst paying attention to the mischief on stage and thinking I had never really seen or heard anything like it. This orchestra was effectively a string band,…. and then it dawned on me who it was they reminded me of,….. I:S:B:,…..The Incredible String Band. I saw three concerts in the UK by The Incredible String Band between 1960 and 2000 and marvelled at the multi-instrumental musicia ns and songwriters, working in the folk genre. Having made that link I finally sat back and stopped worrying and after the interval IL Giardino D´Amore proved me right,…..suddenly they were off the stage, with the two wingers each playing their instrument on either side of the upstairs circle and in the central aisle of the downstairs seats the midfield enforcer played a lovely piece on that big medieval instrument of his.

The opening pieces of the evening, two of Vivaldi´s conciertos for Violin, sandwiching J M Leclair´s Tambourine and two pieces of Bach had demonstrated the musicians´ abilities to make modern that we considered classical, with clever use of light percussive hand-helds like the triangle and the tambourin that Rapunzel had strapped round her hips.. The acoustics allowed the music to always sound perfectly balanced despite the players moving about the stage so much.

The real challenge I guess was the apres interval capers that saw musicians rambling around the sidetracks and detours of the audience area, allowing us to hear music on the move,….. in stereo.

So, were they an orchestra and / or a football team? Yes, they were all that and more,….they were an Incredible String Band.

42nd international Canaries

classical music festival

42^nd

International Canaries Classical Music Festival

RAQUEL LOJENDIO & CHICY MARTIN

Victor Gopa Teatro, Arrecife 8.00 pm 25 e

6 / 2 / 2026

Born in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, this soprano studied at the conservatory in her hometown and at the Liceu Conservatory in Barcelona with Carmen Bustamante, in addition to studying classical ballet at the Royal Academy of Dance in London. She has received advanced training from María Orán and Krisztina Laki. Her repertoire ranges from Bach and Mozart to Stravinsky and Shostakovich, and includes the roles of Morgana in Alcina, Pamina in The Magic Flute, Violetta in La traviata, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Marguerite in Faust, and Susanna in Il segreto di Susanna. She has sung Ortlinde in Die Walküre at the Teatro Campoamor in Oviedo, Lina in Las golondrinas and Queen Isabel in Gaztambide’s El sueño de una noche de verano at the Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid, La traviata at the Teatro Villamarta in Jerez, and Faust at the Auditorio de Tenerife In concert halls, she has sung The Three-Cornered Hat with Juanjo Mena alongside the Berlin Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. At the Teatro Real, she participated in Macbeth (2017).

SOPHIE ROSE MUSIC

Her open letter

to Soundtracks & Detoursannouncing her debut tour

Hey there!

I hope this finds you well.

I’m happy to be sharing with you that I’ll be going on my first tour in March. It’s really amazing to get to this stage and be able to curate some special shows. As it’s currently the UK’s annual Independent Venue Week, I thought I’d share a little about some of the venues on this tour…

All of these venues are smaller, intimate spaces with the majority of them 40-50 seats. I like to think of them as storyteller venues – my favourite kind. They have all the things I love about independent venues, calm, warmly lit, cosy environments for us all to get comfortably lost in music, thoughtful spaces, where you can see how much care, art and music have reached every corner of the room, in the way they’re decorated in thoughtful curation offered lovingly to the overall feel.

The first two dates are collaborative events, the first being at a grassroots event space in Manchester called Henhouse Presents. Think bluegrass, candlelit speakeasy and you’ve got the Henhouse! Here I’ll be sharing the stage with Emilia Quinn and Susannah Clegg for the ‘Storytelling Underground’ writers round.

The second show is for Country Roads at Acanteen in Chelmsford, Essex. A very thoughtfully curated event series by the lovely Madeline Christy. Showcasing UK and international grassroots country and americana music in the heart of Chelmsford. I’ll be supporting the Nashville based trio July Moon for it and I can’t wait!

We then move on to my three headline shows, which I’ll share a little more on soon. The gorgeous Libra Theatre Cafe in Camden will be where I debut a headline show in London (Camden!!) and in my now home ground of Oxford, I’ll be crafting a show in my favourite independent bookshop, the lovely Caper in the heart of Magdalen Rd. We finish off the tour at the simply beautiful Cafe 9 in Sheffield, a venue that’s seems to have been on my bucket list for years now!

My special guest for the headline shows is William Jack. I was completely made up when William told me he was available and would love to join me on this tour. I wanted to be able to share a live experience from an artist I was so greatly moved by, with those who come along.

Presented by Folkandroots William Jack is an Australian multi-style cellist and songwriter known for incorporating his jazz guitar background into an unconventional style of cello playing. His music moves seamlessly from virtuosic folk & bluegrass, to non-Western sound worlds.

William is so incredibly skilled and gifted – his artistry is completely unique. If you haven’t seen him live, I can guarantee you will have never seen a musician play quite like him before. I’m not giving too much away, but you can find him online (or be extremely pleasantly surprised at a show!)

And then of course, there’s me! I’ll be sharing songs that I’ve been writing for an album I hope to release in the future, and I’ll be joined by some really special musicians to bring my songs in formats not previously heard or seen, I’ll be sharing some poetry too, something I haven’t done live in a long time.

Will you be joining us?

If you’re thinking of doing so, please secure your tickets sooner rather than later if you can by heading to https://sophierosemusic.co.uk/tour

I hope to see you join me on my debut tour. With love,Sophie x

SIDETRACKS & DETOURS

will publish the next chapter of

SONGWRITERS & INVISIBLE ANGELS

on Sunday 5th April 2026

featuring

BILL MORRISEY & GARY HALL

by

Peter Pearson and Norman Warwick

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