The Tenerife International Film Music Festival opens this Friday with an ample selection of concerts and parallel activities.
Guests of FIMUCITÉ XI include, amongst others, Italian composer Fabio Frizzi who stars in the first concert of the festival programme, and Trevor Jones, the South African film score composer who is responsible for creating the music from ‘The Last of the Mohicans’.
The technical and artistic team of the Tenerife International Film Music Festival (FIMUCITÉ), which is being directed by the composer Diego Navarro, would like to share information about the intense concerts and events programme that will be running from September 22nd – 30th, 2017 that will delight film music fans with soundtracks written for the small screen and the big screen alike.
FIMUCITÉ XI has been made possible thanks to the support and sponsorship of the Cabildo de Tenerife, the Canary Islands Government, Santa Cruz de Tenerife City Council, Arona City Council and La Laguna City Council. This year the main themes revolve around the fantasy genre: music from sword and sorcery, epic scores created for video games, soundtracks from Italian horror films, and even the music that accompanies the celebrated adaptations of works by Stephen King.
The first concert in the programme, ‘The Beyond (Composer’s Cut)’, will take place this Friday September 22nd at 20:00 at the venue Auditorio Infanta Leonor in Los Cristianos. The event will consist of a “live-to-picture” performance during which the composer Fabio Frizzi will be performing his scores together with his band whist the film by cult Italian director Lucio Fulci is being screened. The band musicians are Alessandro Errichetti (guitar), Riccardo Rocchi (guitar), Federico Tacchia (percussion), Alessio Contorni (keyboard), Roberto Fasciani (bass) and Giulietta Zanardi (vocals).
Frizzi will receive the honorary FIMUCITÉ-Antón García Abril Award in recognition of his professional achievements. The filmmaker’s daughter, Antonella Fulci, will also be visiting Tenerife in order to join us in paying homage to the composer, which coincides with the 90th anniversary of Lucio Fulci’s birth (1927-1996). This will complete the retrospective on his work that has been organized in collaboration with Filmoteca Canaria.
On Saturday September 23rd the venue Teatro Guimerá in Santa Cruz de Tenerife will host two performances of the concert ‘Tarantino Unchained’, which focuses on music encountered in the films by Quentin Tarantino. This American director is one of today’s most influential filmmakers, and winner of two Oscars, two Golden Globes, two BAFTAs, and the Cannes Film Festival’s Golden Palm, amongst others. Performing on stage will be the The Pop Culture Band, resident artists of FIMUCITÉ since 2014, who are led by musical director Gonzalo de Araoz. The idea behind this concert was inspired by the 25th anniversary of ‘Reservoir Dogs’, Quentin Tarantino’s debut feature film. The concert programme also includes music from the films ‘Pulp Fiction’, ‘Kill Bill Vol.1 and Vol.2’, ‘Jackie Brown’ and ‘Django Unchained’. In addition, the audience will also enjoy performances by Cristina Ramos (winner of ‘Spain’s Got Talent 2016’), Sandra Morales, Patricio González, Héctor Quintero, Fran León and Yapsi Mata.
The first showing of “Tarantino Unchained” will take place at 19:00 and the second showing at 22:00.
On Sunday September 24th, the Teatro Leal in La Laguna will play host to the concert ‘Todo sobre Almodóvar’. The sensational Canary artist Esther Ovejero will lend her voice to a collection of songs from films by the Spanish film director and take the audience into the unique world created in his films. The musical selection includes: the tango sung by Carlos Gardel in the film “Volver”, interpreted by Estrella Morente for the film of the same name, the bolero “Un año de amor” sung by Luz Casal in the film “Tacones Lejanos”, the version of “Quizás, quizás, quizás” sung by Sara Montiel in the film “La Mala educación” and “La bien pagá”, a song sung by the director himself in “¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto?”, amongst others.
This year, the organisers of the XI Tenerife International Film Music Festival (FIMUCITÉ) have strengthened their ties with the Higher Conservatory of Music and the Professional Conservatory of Music resulting in two thrilling concerts that will be performed by many of the Canary Islands talented youth musicians in the Teatro Guimerá in the island’s capital city.
On Wedneday September 27th, the Symphonic Band of the Professional Conservatory of Music of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, under the direction of José Toledo, and Ramón García i Soler as guest conductor, will be performing the concert ‘Soundtracks of Spain’, dedicated to music from Spanish cinema. It will include arrangements from films such as ‘¡Bienvenido Mr. Marshall!’ (‘Welcome Mr Marshall!’), ‘Capitán Trueno y el Santo Grial’ (‘Captain Thunder and the Holy Grail’) and ‘Atrapa la Bandera’ (‘Capture the flag’).
This proposal, that is founded on collaborative ties with Musimagen (Spanish Association of Audiovisual Composers), marks a historic milestone, as it is the first time that an international film music festival offers a monographic concert dedicated to the work of Spanish audiovisual composers.
On Thursday September 28th, the FIMUCITÉ Youth Orchestra, formed by students from the Higher Conservatory of Music and the Professional Conservatory of Music, under the direction of José Antonio Cubas, will be performing the concert ‘Warriors from the Silver Screen’, which offers the best from Hollywood’s epic films. The soundtracks of ‘Ben-Hur’, ‘El Cid’, ‘Quo Vadis’, ‘Gladiator’ and ‘Braveheart’ will be performed thanks to the collaboration of the prestigious record label, Tadlow Music.
Opening the concert ‘Warriors from the Big Screen’ (Guerreros de la Gran Pantalla) will be the Spanish premiere of the world-renowned soundtrack of the cult videogame ‘The Witcher 3’. Its exceptional music was composed by Polish composers Marcin Przybylowicz, Mikolaj Stroinski and Piotr Musial. FIMUCITÉ is able to bring you this event thanks to the collaboration of Polish video game developer & publisher CD Projekt RED and the Krakow Film Music Festival (FMF). The close ties shared between these have led to a fruitful exchange of ideas that strive to foster musical talent in the audiovisual sector.
Both concerts to be held at Teatro Guimerá will also offer a morning performance for schools and an evening performance at 20:00 for the general public.
To round off this musical programme and put the cherry on the cake, two magnificent symphonic-choral concerts will be performed in the stunning setting of the Auditorio de Tenerife “Adán Martín”, offering audiences a total of 25 world premieres.
In addition, on Friday September 29th, there will be a performance of the concert ‘Sword and Sorcery: Symphonic Chronicles of a Legendary Era’ at 20:00. The Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife, under the baton of guest conductor Eímear Noone, together with the Tenerife Film Choir under Choir Master Javier Jonás Díaz, have prepared a moving programme on iconic music from this fantasy subgenre. Many of the scores are celebrating their 35th anniversary, such as ‘Conan the Barbarian, ‘The Beastmaster, ‘The Sword and the Scorcerer’ or ‘The Dark Crystal’ with music by Basil Poledouris, Lee Holdridge, David Whitaker and Trevor Jones, respectively. Our guest of honour for this festival, Trevor Jones, will also be conducting the Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife for pieces from his repertoire, including: ‘Merlin’ and ‘Excalibur’. Other big names joining us in this year’s festival are Daniel Pemberton, composer of the music for the new release ‘King Arthur: Legend of the Sword’, and Atli Örvarsson, composer of the soundtrack for ‘Season of the Witch’. Both pieces will be performed as part of the recital programme.
This event, as is tradition, will commence with the award ceremony XIII Spanish Film Music Critics Award for the categories Best National Composer and Best National Score of 2016, which this year has been bestowed to the French composer based in Spain for over 20 years, Pascal Gaigne, for his excellent work in the feature ‘El Faro de las Orcas’. The Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife will perform the suits from Gaigne’s scores for the film by Gerardo Olivares and ‘El Olivo’ (3-time Goya Award nominee), conducted by Ramón García i Soler.
As our finishing touch, the XI FIMUCITÉ festival will be presenting audiences with the Closing Gala on Saturday 30th September at 19:30. The evening’s concert ‘Stephen King’s Night Gallery’ will be under the baton of well-known local composer and festival director, Diego Navarro. The conductor will be taking the audience on a fascinating journey through the most well-known soundtracks based on the works of one of the world’s most prolific writers, Stephen King. These works include: ‘Carrie’ (Pino Donaggio), ‘The Dead Zone’ (Michael Kamen), ‘The Green Mile’ and ‘Shawshank Redemption’ (Thomas Newman), and the latest box office smash ‘IT’, which was originally written in 1986. The Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife and the Children’s Choir of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, with Juan Ramón Vinagre as Choir Master, will perform these works. In total 16 pieces will be premiered in the concert ‘Stephen King’s Night Gallery’ performed for the Closing Gala of FIMUCITÉ XI.
The festival will be presenting the honorary FIMUCITÉ – Antón García Abril Award, posthumously, to the film, television and videogame composer Daniel Licht, who recently passed away this August, aged sixty. This tribute has been made possible thanks to the cooperation of Daniel Licht’s family, in particular his wife Hilary, the composer and orchestrator Pete Anthony, and the dedicated professionals who have been responsible for managing Daniel Licht’s professional career, his agent Seth Kaplan and his publicist Jana Davidoff. In his career, as well as being known as the composer of the soundtrack for the famous TV series ‘Dexter’, Licht is also known for frequently scoring horror films. His professional life began in 1991 with the film 'Children of the Night', and also includes several adaptations of works by Stephen King: 'Thinner', ‘Children of the Corn 2: The Final Sacrifice’ and 'Children of the Corn 3: Urban Sacrifice’. These soundtracks will be performed at the festival’s closing gala, which is dedicated to the best-selling author from Maine in honour of his 70th birthday.
PARALLEL ACTIVITIES
The XI Tenerife International Film Music Festival (FIMUCITÉ) is offering a wide selection of parallel activities to complement its concert programme.
The second edition of the FIMUCITÉ Film Scoring Academy (Fimucité Academy for Audiovisual Composers) will be held from September 28th – 30th in the Auditorio Antonio Lecuona of the Professional Conservatory of Music of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The event is aimed at music students and professional musicians who are interested in receiving specialised training. This year, this free event will focus not only on composition for film, but also on composition for the videogame industry. In recent years, musical productions for the gaming industry have gained such prominence that they are now being sold separately, as we also see happening in the case of film soundtracks.
The FIMUCITÉ Film Scoring Academy will be working in collaboration with the Higher Conservatory of Music of the Canary Islands, which will be responsible for endorsing the certificates awarded to course participants, as well as with the support of INtech Tenerife.
For the fifth consecutive year, the Tenerife International Film Music Festival (FIMUCITÉ) will be running in parallel to the festival the official FIMUCINEMA competition. Audiences will be able to see screenings of films and documentaries competing for the Alex North Award for Best Score, which may be from feature films, documentaries, or short films. So far 1,261 entries have been received (908 short films, 214 documentaries, and 140 feature films). FIMUCINEMA kicks of with a screening of ‘Oltre la Linea Gialla’ on Saturday 23rd at the venue Multicines Tenerife, as well as an animation special that includes several short films and the Iranian film ‘Release from Heaven’. The remaining films will be screened at TEA - Tenerife Espacio de las Artes from September 25th to 28th at 17:00. Free entry.