The talented musicians of CAM Xàbia honour Santa Cecilia with three fantastic concerts
The weekend also offered an opportunity to introduce the new young musicians to both the orchestra and the band.
Over three evenings of the past weekend, the Centre Artístic Musical de Xàbia (CAM) has been honouring Santa Cecilia, the patron saint of musicians whose feast day falls on November 22nd each year. And it has been a very special year for the musical group which has been celebrating its 60th anniversary.
The three concerts took place inside the fortress-church of San Bartolomé in the heart of the historic centre. The first, on Friday 22nd November, featured the orchestra of CAM Xàbia, under the direction of Joan A. Bou Vaya, and the evening began with the presentation of three new young musicians in front of a packed audience: Elena Mata Espasa and Daniela Frolova on violin and Alba Castillo Lao on the cello. The performance featured Handel’s ‘Water Music Suite Nº2’ and Astor Piazolla’s ‘Oblivion’, before the orchestra was joined by the Music Overload 2024 choir for Vivaldi’s ‘Gloria’ and Hubert Parry’s ‘I Was Glad’.
The following evening, it was the turn of the band formation, under the direction of Gonzalo de la Guía, which played music from the Fiesta de San Jorge, Altred Reed’s ‘Praise Jerusalem’ and Robert Smith’s ‘Symphony Nº 1 · The Divine Comedy’ before ending the evening with a rousing and emotional rendition of the ‘Anthem of Valencia’. The evening also saw the public presentation of the new young musicians of the group: Lucas Hamilton Català, David Pastor Blasco, and Fran Marín Miralles on percussion, Gisela Fernández Silva and Joan Espinós Vallés on flute, Maria Devesa Buigues and Alia Segarra Martínez on saxophone, Xavi Cruañes Puig on trombone, and Gemma Valera Cardona, Waly Córnez and Sophia Chapman on trumpet.
The final concert, early on Sunday evening, featured the junior members of both the orchestra and the band under the direction of Miriam Llerena Martín, . Both assisted by a few experienced heads, probably very much still young in their hearts, the youth orchestra played a series of short pieces by K & H Colledge, John Barry, Strauss, The Beatles and the track ‘When Christmas Comes to Town’ from the animated film ‘The Polar Express.
The youth band took their places for the second act of the evening, a journey through space with pieces by James Curnow (‘A Day in Space’), Miguel A Ibiza (‘Una Aventura Especial’) during which there was a special visit by a spaceman, and then concluded with three pieces from Gustav Holtz’ ‘The Planets’ – ‘Mars’, ‘Venus’ and ‘Jupiter’. Like the previous evening, the performance ended with an albeit shorter version of the ‘Anthem of Valencia’.
