Author: Miriam Durango Title: M 83 Technique: Computer Graphics Year: 2005

The Canary Islands' Music Festival, an old aspiration of diverse sectors of the islands' society, celebrated its first edition in January 1985, and on the initiative of the President of the Canary Islands at that time, Jerónimo Saavedra, it was declared "European Year of Music", in commemoration of the tercentenary of Bach, Haendel and Scarlatti.

The three basic objectives of the Festival were firstly to enrich the cultural offer of a region which possesses an age-old tradition as regards the musical aspect, ageing from the dawn of the past century when the European opera companies stopped at the Canary Islands on their way to South America, making good use of the stay in order to offer a series of representations which contributed in creating an important musical tradition. It must not be forgotten that in Las Palmas of Gran Canaria, the Philharmonic Society of Las Palmas, which is the eldest private society of concert organization in the country, existing for over 150 years, having been one of its presidents Camille Saint-Saëns in person.

The second objective was to give an international status to the Canary Islands through something more than the traditional "cliché" of sun and beach which typifies the islands.

Its third and last aim was to promote tourism to the islands in a more specific musical aspect, and at a much greater level than normal up to that moment.

Today, when the XXIIth edition is on the verge of being enlightened, without beating about the bush, we can admit to being entirely satisfied with the level of fulfilment of the above described objectives. Most satisfying of all is the third aim, because whith the new Auditorio de Tenerife, the offer of the former places available has been doubled. This in turn will make an agreement possible with tour-operators in order to promote the Canary Islands as a destination which has a specific cultural aspect.

The guarantee of a perfect organization, the public reply and of course as a result of the mild climatic conditions (it is the only Festival in the whole of Europe which is celebrated in winter), this all goes to ensure that the gathering in the Canary Islands holds a preferential position in the diaries of all the Musical Greats.

Almost all of the first figures of the musical firmament have passed through the Festival. For example we can mention the names of Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Muti, Carlo Maria Giulini, Daniel Barenboim, Sir Colin Davis, John Eliot Gardiner, Frans Brüggen, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Kurt Masur, André Previn, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Riccardo Chailly, Bernard Haitink, Iván Fischer and those who have already passed away, Vaclav Neumann, Sergiu Celibidache and Sir Georg Solti as conductors who privileged us with their visit, and some of them more than once. Just as impressing is the list of soloists who have taken part in the Festival, and as example to name but a few, we have Alfredo Kraus, Plácido Domingo, José Carreras, Mstislav Rostropovich, Krystian Zimerman, Ivo Pogorelich, Maria Joâo Pires, Vladmir Ashkenazy, Isaac Stern, Midori, Shlomo Mintz, YoYo Ma, Katia and Marielle Labèque, Radu Lupu, Henryk Szeryng, Cheryl Studer, Felicity Lott, Vladimir Spivakov, and many more whose names are too numerous to cite at the moment.

Extremely important are the absolute debut performances, which are commissioned directly by the Festival, a decision which was adopted from the VIth edition on. Since then the following composers, amongst others, have written or are going to write works to be premiered at the Festival: Tomás Marco, Luis de Pablo, Juan J. Falcón, Cristóbal Halffter, Sofia Gubaidulina, Wolfgang Rihm, José Ramon Encinar, Enrique Macías, Luciano Berio, Krzysztof Penderecki, Alfredo Aracil, Arvo Pärt, Hans-Werner Henze, Joan Guinjoan, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Juan M. Marrero, Aribert Reimann, Emilio Coello, David del Puerto, Dori Díaz and Jose Mª Sánchez-Verdú. The mentioned list draws up a reliable statement in how important the Festival is in the position of the contemporary musical composition.

The Festival starts every year on 7th January, and continues until the first days of February. It takes place in the two capitals of the Archipelago, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Santa Cruz de Tenerife, where each and every one of the concerts is repeated. In addition to those, there is also a full concerts calendar on each of the smaller islands, Otros Escenarios (Other Venues).

The long journey throughout these years deserves that Canarian people and all music lovers join together for the celebration of the tventy-second aniversary of our Festival, enjoying once again its great programme.