- The Tenerife International Film Music Festival will present a genuine concert program that will tribute stellar film composers Ennio Morricone and Antón García Abril.
The Tenerife International Film Music Festival presents the festival program that will unfold from September 17 to 26, under the slogan “Once Upon a Time in FIMUCITÉ: 15 years of the best film music”, with the support of the Cabildo de Tenerife, the Government of the Canary Islands, and the municipalities of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and San Cristóbal de La Laguna, among other entities. The Italian composer Ennio Morricone and the Spanish composer Antón García Abril, great masters of film music who died recently, will center the repertoire. In addition to these Maestros, the festival’s proposal will include a theme concert devoted to video games scores, a new pop rock show performed by the Pop Culture Band and two recitals by the Choir of White Voices of the Professional Conservatory of Music of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and the Polyphonic Choir of the University of La Laguna, respectively.
Renowned composer and conductor Diego Navarro, artistic director of FIMUCITÉ, will conduct the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra in two performances of the concert “Once upon a time Ennio Morricone: A tribute to his film music”, which will take place on Friday 24 and on Saturday September 25 at the Auditorio de Tenerife. Five times Oscar nominee, Morricone received it for the original music of 'The hateful eight' (2016), by Quentin Tarantino. Ennio Morricone wrote more than five hundred soundtracks and FIMUCITÉ, in co-production with the European Film Philharmonic Institute, is preparing an extraordinary musical production with the highlights of his career. These concerts will offer the audience an exciting journey through Morricone’s great legacy: 'Once upon a time in the West, 'Cinema Paradiso', 'The untouchables of Elliot Ness', 'The Mission' or 'Novecento'.
On the other hand, on Thursday, September 23, the Santo Domingo de La Laguna Convent will host the concert tribute to Antón García Abril, one of the great composers of 20th century Spanish music, always linked to the history of FIMUCITÉ. The honorary award granted by the Festival to international key figures of film music is named after him. García Abril received it himself in 2014 as a composer of emblematic titles in Spanish filmography such as 'Sor Citroen' or 'El crimen de Cuenca', as well as for TV series such as 'Fortunata y Jacinta', 'Ramón y Cajal', 'Anillos de oro' or 'El Hombre y la Tierra', by Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente. It will be a unique concert, which will include the world première of an extraordinary selection of his most iconic scores arranged by orchestrator Jorge Magaz and performed by the Coro Polifónico of the University of La Laguna.
Coro de Voces Blancas of the Professional Conservatory of Music of Tenerife, under the baton of Juan Ramón Vinagre, will perform a varied selection of soundtracks with exclusive choral arrangements made for this concert. Titles such as 'Life is beautiful', 'Casablanca', 'Frozen', 'The sound of music’, 'La La Land' or '' Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban '' will delight the audience Sunday, September 19, also at the Santo Domingo de La Laguna Convent.
On Friday, September 17, the Teatro Leal de La Laguna will host the opening concert of FIMUCITÉ 15. Dedicated to music for video games, it will be directed by the award-winning Irish composer Eímear Noone, who surprised the audience at the 2017 edition of the Festival as guest conductor of the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra for the concert "Sword and Sorcery: Symphonic Chronicles of a Legendary Era". She was the first woman to conduct the orchestra at the Oscars ceremony. Famous for her music for video games such as 'World of Warcraft', this time she will lead a chamber orchestra, with a Pop - rock ensemble, performing 'Electric Arcade - A VGM History'. Essential titles such as 'Castlevania', 'Zelda', 'Halo', 'Assassin's Creed', 'Fortnite' or the classic 'Tetris', will be specially arranged for this concert by Craig Stuart Garfinkle, Emmy nominee and prolific music producer and composer, whose works range from fiction feature films and documentaries to multimedia content, video games, commercials and live shows.
The Pop Culture Band returns on Saturday September 18 to The Guimerá Theater in Santa Cruz presenting ‘Route 66’, a tribute to one of the most important and long-lived genres of cinema: “road movies”, with plots that take place along a road trip. 'Route 66', led by Gonzalo de Araoz, will include songs that were part of films such as 'Easy Rider', 'Thelma & Louise', 'Wild heart', 'True romance' or 'Motorcycle diaries'.
The program of parallel activities of the fifteenth edition of FIMUCITÉ will include screenings of feature films and short films, within its competitive section: FIMUCINEMA, together with a new cycle of Filmoteca Canaria, which will be devoted to the great composers of Spaghetti westerns. Besides, the FIMUCITÉ Film Scoring Academy (FIMUCITÉ Academy for audiovisual composers), will offer again specific master classes. Musimagen, the Association of Composers of Music for Audiovisual, in collaboration with the festival, will host the IV Music Awards for Spanish Audiovisual, another special highlight for FIMUCITÉ 15.
The closing ceremony will take place on Sunday, September 26, at La Granja Cultural Space with the FIMUCINEMA awards ceremony which grants the Alex North Award winning film.
FIMUCITÉ has the support of the Cabildo de Tenerife, the Canary Islands Government, the Santa Cruz de Tenerife City Council, the San Cristóbal de La Laguna City Council, the Tenerife Auditorium and the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra, as well as Fundación Caixa, Fundación Disa and Domingo Alonso Group.