- A programme of seventeen days to celebrate the 17th edition of the Festival Internacional de Música de Cine de Tenerife, which this year has as its theme the wonderful world of comic books and their characters.
- Guest composers and artists include the composer of ‘300’ and “Guardians of the Galaxy” Tyler Bates, videogame composer Jesper Kyd, prestigious band Juno Reactor, Joseph LoDuca, Lolita Ritmanis, Michael McCuistion, Kristopher Carter and drummer Greg Ellis.
The Festival Internacional de Música de Cine de Tenerife (FIMUCITÉ), Europe's oldest festival in this field, directed by renowned composer and conductor Diego Navarro, presents the key information of its 17th edition, which will take place from June 30th to July 16th, 2023. The programme, which is returning to its original summer dates, is extended to 17 days in which there will be a selection of concerts and parallel activities that will delight fans and new audiences alike, with exceptional guests.
The Festival will kick off with a summer film season in light of the success of last year's edition, with five open air screenings, free of charge, in the Parque García Sanabria de Santa Cruz de Tenerife. This initiative is in collaboration with the Distrito Centro-Ifara department of the capital's Council. As part of this event, Fimucité has reached an agreement with the Festival Nits de Cinema Oriental de Vic, through which we will screen two Indian action blockbusters: 'Krack', the highest-grossing film in 2021 in India, and 'Action Jackson' (2014), starring Ajay Devgn, a huge Indian movie star who is also in 'RRR' (2022), Oscar-nominated for Best Song this year.
Opening Concert
For the first time, the concert programme will kick off with a new performance by the Pop Culture Band on Saturday the 1st of July at the Teatro Guimerá de Santa Cruz de Tenerife. For this year, the Band's director, Gonzalo de Araoz, has prepared a show called 'Es la hora de…' ('It's time for...'), featuring songs that have featured in scores for comic-based movies and TV shows. Canarian singer Cristina Ramos, known for her success in TV shows such as 'Got Talent España', 'La Voz México', 'World's Got Talent' in China or 'Tu cara me suena', and popular for her spectacular voice and mise en scene, will be one of the guest performers in the band, as a lead vocalist.
The Teatro Leal de La Laguna will house two huge concerts this year. On Friday the 7th of July, we will host an original format, 'Electronic Penderecki', which will take us into a shared universe of cult filmmakers David Lynch and Stanley Kubrick, and will serve as a tribute to Polish composer and conductor Krzysztof Penderecki, who passed away in 2020, and was renowned for his composition style, based around atonal works, some of which have featured in classic horror movies such as 'The Shining' or 'The Exorcist'. There will be a performance of pieces specifically selected for this concert, which will see a fusion of a string, piano and harp orchestra with electronic elements created by UK band Juno Reactor, pioneers of psychodelic trance, trip hop and electronic music, who made their Fimucité debut last year in our symphonic concert with a spectacular, unforgettable performance. This first part of the concert will be a dark, fascinating journey where we will explore new sounds, an experimental exercise the likes of which has never been seen before at the Festival.
The second part of the concert will be eminently dedicated to Angelo Badalamenti, author of the iconic music for the TV series 'Twin Peaks', for which he was awarded a Grammy and nominated for three Emmys. His collaboration with screenwriter and director David Lynch also reached other titles such as 'Blue Velvet' or 'Mulholland Drive', among others, and his passing last December at the age of 85 leaves behind a laudable legacy of scores.
The tribute to Baladamenti will continue at the Teatro Leal on Saturday July 8th with 'Jazzladamenti', a jazz tribute to the Itallian-American composer, performed by the Big Band de Canarias, who return to Fimucité after their visit during the Festival's tenth edition, in 2016, where they performed a tribute to Lalo Schifrin. Joseph LoDuca, who took part in the Festival in 2014 and was a close relative and friend to Baladamenti, has worked on the arrangements that will make up part of the concert.
On Sunday, the 9th of July, the Paraninfo Universitario de La Laguna will host the concert 'Héroes del píxel', which will cover the videogame music composed by Denmark's Jesper Kyd, famous for his work on sagas such as 'Hitman', 'Assassin's Creed' or 'Borderlands'. The composer will visit the Festival and will attend the concert, as performed by the Joven Orquesta Sinfónica Fimucité, conducted by José Antonio Cubas, and featuring, for the first time, the Coro Polifónico de la Universidad de La Laguna. The concert, which will enthrall videogame fans, will feature a number of World Premieres.
Symphonic Double Bill
The grand finale, on the third weekend of the festival, will be the symphonic concerts hosted at the Auditorio de Tenerife on Friday 14th and Saturday 15th of July, dedicated to the world of comic books and their characters, heroes and villains alike, who have greatly inspired the audiovisual world throughout its history. The first concert is called 'Concierto Excelsior: El legado de Stan Lee', and will offer up a programme where we will enjoy the majestic soundtracks of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as well as adaptations of the iconic publisher's stories and characters to TV.. One standout performance is the World Premiere of the score to "Werewolf by Night" by composer Michael Giacchino, who also directed the film, specifically prepared for this concert. Of course, we couldn't forget one of the studio's major emblems: Spider-man and the legendary score by Danny Elfman. Títles such as "The Incredible Hulk", X- Men, Black Panther or The Avengers, among others, will also delight the audience.
'Dioses y Detectives', dedicated to DC Comics, is the symphonic concert that Fimucité is preparing for Saturday the 15th of July, with a programme in which we will hear the scores that we have enjoyed on the big screen alongside superheroes such as Superman and Batman, villains such as The Joker, and other characters from "film noir", such as The Crow. Special mention goes to the performance of the score for "The Batman", also by Giacchino, alongside the Suite from legendary film "300" by Tyler Bates. We will also be able to enjoy titles such as "Man of Steel", "Superman" or "The Rocketeer", and the World Premiere of "The Killing Joke" by Lolita Ritmanis, among others.
Thus, Fimucité, once again, offers up two distinctive symphonic concerts, one conducted by Diego Navarro and the other under the baton of a guest conductor, an eagerly awaited appearance that was hindered by the pandemic breakout in 2020.
These concerts will also feature big-name guests, such as Tyler Bates, a frequent collaborator of James Gunn and Zack Snyder, and composer of the scores for '300', 'Guardians of the Galaxy', 'Deadpool 2', 'Watchmen', or TV show 'The Punisher', all of which will be performed this year at Fimucité.
Others who are returning to Fimucité include trío Dynamic Music Partners, whose members, Lolita Ritmanis, Michael McCuistion and Kristopher Carter, composed the music for several animated Marvel and DC movies, such as 'Batman Beyond'.
Also returning as a guest musician to the festival, extraordinary drummer Greg Ellis, whose performances have been part of over 200 film, TV and videogame soundtracks, including '300', 'Iron Man', 'Guardians of the Galaxy' or 'Assassin's Creed'.
Fimucité Film Scoring Academy
This year also sees sees a longer programme for the Fimucité Film Scoring Academy, which will take place over 6 days, from the 10th to the 15th of July, with more speakers and guests than ever. Geared towards students and professional musicians who are interested in the creation of music for audiovisual fields, the Fimucité Academy is one of the most eagerly awaited parallel activities of the festival, with exceptional master classes, free of charge. This year, the encounters will once again take place at the IACtec Centre del Parque Científico y Tecnológico de Tenerife, in Las Mantecas (La Laguna).
Fimucinema
In this seventeenth edition, the competition section of Fimucité, Fimucinema, changes its rules thanks to an agreement signed with the organisers of the International Film Music Critics Award (IFMCA), the "Golden Globes of film music" voted for by the International Specialist Press. Thus, this year, the nominees in each category will also be the candidates to the Fimucinema Awards and a jury chosen by the festival will select the winners from this shortlist. The awards will be handed out at the beginning of the 'Héroes del píxel' concert on Sunday, July 9th..
Fimucité will also, once more, host the Premios de la Música para el Audiovisual Español organised by Musimagen, the Asociación de Compositores de Música para el Audiovisual. The wards ceremony will take place on Friday the 14th of July at the Auditorio de Tenerife, where we will hear a suite of the winning scores.
Agreement with SONAFILM Festival
FIMUCITÉ has signed an agreement and will be present this August at the 5th edition of film music festival SONAFILM, Festival de Música de Cine de la Marina Alta in the east of Spain, a fantastic genre event which is rising through the ranks admirably. We will soon announce the concerts to be held and those we are working on.
Ticket and VIP pass sales
The tickets for the concerts at Fimucité 17 will go on sale shortly. As well as individual tickets, two types of pass will be available: the traditional pass, which includes both symphonic concerts at the Auditorio de Tenerife, and a new VIP pass, which includes tickets for all six concerts programmed for the festival. This pass, designed to meet the demands of the festival's die-hard soundtrack fans, will also include products and additional services to be announced shortly.
FIMUCITÉ is sponsored by the Cabildo de Tenerife, Ayuntamiento de Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Ayuntamiento de San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Gobierno de Canarias, Auditorio de Tenerife and Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife, Teleférico del Teide, and the support of Fundación Disa, Emmasa, Fundación SGAE via the Consejo Territorial de SGAE en Canarias, Fundación "la Caixa" via CaixaBank, and the collaboration of Domingo Alonso Group, AUDI as the Official Festival Car, and La Fundación Diario de Avisos, Grupo Plató del Atlántico and Televisión Canaria as our main media partners.