Next week the 72nd Ljubljana Festival is set to host two evenings with ADDA Simfònica Alicante, the resident orchestra of the Auditorium of the Provincial Council of Alicante, Spain. While the first evening will be dedicated to the compositions of Chick Corea, the second, on Wednesday, 24 July (at 9.00 pm), will consist of a concert at the Križanke Summer Theatre entitled Spanish Nights, once again under the baton of the orchestra’s chief conductor Josep Vicent, a pioneer in exploring new formats and audiences for classical music.
The recent winner of two Premios de la Academia de la Música de España (known as the “Spanish Grammys”), ADDA Simfònica Alicante was also nominated for a Grammy Award and a Latin Grammy Award in 2024. The orchestra’s guiding spirit Josep Vicent says that, for the performer, the score is the starting point of the creative process. “Whether we are performing new music or older music, I always try to make it interesting and exciting for a contemporary audience. I use my respect for the original to shape the performance in such a way that the audience can understand it from a modern perspective, looking back at the past or even looking into the future. In this way the concert becomes an important event that truly inspires people.”
This Wednesday, the Spanish orchestra, a key part of the music scene in the coastal city of Alicante, will present the concert Spanish Nights. We will hear Danzón No. 2 by the Mexican composer Arturo Márquez, followed by The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires by Astor Piazzolla. The concert will continue after the interval with Manuel de Falla’s Andalusian-inspired suite The Three-Cornered Hat and Maurice Ravel’s Boléro. World-class concert performer, composer and arranger Fabio Furia will join the orchestra as bandoneon soloist.
Considered one of the most important bandoneonists in Europe, Furia has performed in many of the world’s most prestigious concert halls. He has appeared as a soloist in Italy, Canada, China, Mexico, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, France, Switzerland, Macedonia, Lithuania, Austria, Spain, Japan, Korea, Greece, Lebanon, the USA and Slovenia. He is a founder member of the Novafonic Quartet, with which he has performed in prestigious concert halls and theatres around the world.
He began learning the piano and the classical accordion at the age of seven, initially on his own and then under the guidance of a Slovene teacher, Eliana Zajec. He later trained with another Slovene, Corrado Rojac, in Trieste. At the age of 16 he entered the conservatorio in Cagliari (Sardinia) to study clarinet with Roberto Gander, graduating with the highest marks after just four years. In parallel with his career as a concert clarinettist, he began studying the bandoneon. He decided to study with the best bandoneon teachers, including Juan José Mosalini, and graduated brilliantly from the conservatoire in Gennevilliers, near Paris, under the guidance of the latter’s son, Juanjo Mosalini.
Fabio Furia is the founder and artistic director of the Anton Stadler Cultural Association and the ContraMilonga Association and the creator of important festivals such as the International Chamber Music Festival, the ARTango & Jazz Festival and the Bandoneon International Masterclass. He is also the founder of the Italian Bandoneon Academy, which organises masterclasses and concerts with some of the most important soloists from around the world. He is the first and only bandoneon teacher at a conservatoire of music in Italy. If you want to hear what this smaller cousin of the accordion sounds like accompanied by a Grammy-nominated orchestra, Spanish Nights is the perfect occasion to visit Križanke!
