The Basque National Orchestra, the SGAE Foundation and the San Sebastian Festival present the concert of film music performed by the Basque Orchestra in the framework of the Festival. Also this year, on the first Saturday of the Festival, the Velodrome will open at midday to music lovers, movie buffs and the general public in an event combining a symphony performance with soundtracks and a selection of scenes from the films in which they can be heard. Ninety minutes of “audiovisual pleasure”, on Saturday September 23 at 12 midday. Admission free.

The concert will include the adaptations of music composed for the films El laberinto del fauno(Pan’s Labyrinth,by Guillermo del Toro), Bienvenido Mr. Marshall(Welcome Mr. Marshall!, by Luis García Berlanga), O Apóstolo(The Apostle, by Fernando Cortizo), Nur eta herensugearen tenplua(Nur and the Temple of the Dragon, by the recently-deceased, Juanba Berasategi, to whom a tribute will be paid) and Los Borgia(by Antonio Hernández).The scores are the work of Javier Navarrete, Jesús García Leoz, Xavi Font, Joserra Senperena and Angel Illarramendi; some of the composers will attend the concert and take to the stage to present their work. Under the baton of José Miguel Pérez-Sierra, the Basque Symphony Orchestra will be accompanied by the solo voices of Nora Goyalde (mezzo) and Sergio Falque (bass), and the Orfeón Donostiarra choir. The amalgam of images screened simultaneously on the 400m2 screen has been created specifically for this concert by Morgan Crea.

The Basque National Orchestra at the San Sebastian Festival. As well as promoting the initiative together with the SGAE Foundation and the Festival, the presence of the Basque National Orchestra at the event in recent years also extends to its Official Selection. Always brought to us by Fernando Velázquez, the Orchestra was given the task of recording the soundtrack for “A Monster Calls”, directed by J.A. Bayona, which had its European premiere at the 2016 edition; thanks to this composition, Velázquez won the Goya for Best Original Score. And in March of this year they recorded the music written by the composer from Getxo for “Submergence” Wim Wender’s feature film, which will open this year’s Festival. Wenders himself was at Miramon to attend the recording. In 2012, the prolific collaboration between the Orchestra and Fernando Velázquez included the absolute premiere of the soundtrack for “The Impossible” (J.A. Bayona), coinciding with its presentation in the Festival’s Official Selection. That concert marked the Orchestra’s return to the San Sebastian Festival programme, where it has stayed for six consecutive years.

The orchestra conductor José Miguel Pérez-Sierra (Madrid, 1981) leapt to international fame after becoming the youngest conductor to take to the podium of the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro (Italy), when he directed Il viaggio a Reims in 2006. This was the beginning of a vertiginous career which has led the Spanish musician to conduct in some of the most important theatres and auditoriums in Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Portugal, Uruguay and Chile, encompassing an extensive lyrical and symphony repertoire ranging from Baroque to contemporary music. He has conducted the orchestra on numerous occasions, including concerts in its Subscribers’ Season, at the ABAO and in recordings.

Admission is free, although an invitation must be collected from September 16-22 from the San Sebastian Festival information points in the Kursaal Centre and the Plaza Okendo, from 9 am to 8 pm, or from the Donostia Turismo office, from Monday to Saturday, 9 am to 8 pm and on Sunday, from 10 am to 7 pm.

Javier Navarrete: El laberinto del fauno (Pan’s Labyrinth, Guillermo del Toro)
Jesús García Leoz / A.J. Nieto, B. Lauret: Bienvenido Mr. Marshall (Welcome Mr. Marshall”, Luis García Berlanga)
Xavi Font / A. Vaquero, A. Peña, J. Rodríguez, M. Mato: O Apóstolo (The Apostle, Fernando Cortizo)
Joserra Senperena: Nur eta herensugearen tenplua (Nur and the Temple of the Dragon, Juanba Berasategi)
Angel Illarramendi: Los Borgia (Antonio Hernández)

José Miguel Pérez-Sierra, conductor
Nora Goyalde, mezzo-soprano
Sergio Falque, bass
Orfeón Donostiarra Choir (José Antonio Sainz Alfaro, dir.)
Basque National Orchestra

Javier Navarrete (Teruel, 1956) is the author of more than twenty soundtracks. Winner of an Audience Award in 2012 for the telefilm Hemingway & Gellhorn, his most important work is the soundtrack of El laberinto del Fauno (Guillermo del Toro, 2006), for which he landed Goya and Academy Award nominations and the Ariel Award for Best Soundtrack in 2007. He began his career in the field of electronic music and took his first steps in cinema with Agustí Villaronga in Tras el cristal (1987). Outstanding since then is his work in Yo, puta (2004), El punto sobre la i (2003) and a number of international productions such as Mirrors (2008), Cracks (2009) and Byzantium (2012).

Jesús García Leoz (Navarra, 1904 - Madrid, 1953). Started his music studies in Pamplona and in 1921 immigrated to Argentina, where he earned a diploma in piano from the Buenos Aires Conservatory. In 1925 he returned to Madrid and studied composition at the Madrid Royal Conservatory. Trained as a choirmaster and concertmaster in different theatres and as a performer in a number of coffee shops, he found success with his music for films. Botón de ancla (Ramón Torrado, 1948), Un hombre va por el camino (Manuel Mur Oti, 1949), Balarrasa (José Antonio Nieves Conde, 1951) and Bienvenido Mr. Marshall (Luis García Berlanga, 1953)are some of the audiovisual productions associated to his music.

Xavi Font (Lleida, 1972) is a specialist in composing music for films, television and advertising. Nominated at the XXIV Goya Awards for Agallas (Samuel Martín Mateos and Andrés Luque Pérez, 2009), he received the Mestre Mateo Award 2013 for Best Original Score for O Apóstolo (Fernando Cortizo, 2012), on which he collaborated with Philip Glass. Some of his most outstanding works for cinema are: Tiempo sin aire by Samuel Martín and Andrés Luque, Relatos by Mario Iglesias, El diario de Carlota by José Manuel Carrasco and Abrígate by Ramón Costafreda.

Joserra Senperena (San Sebastian, 1975) is a pianist and composer. He has developed his career as a composer for cinema, theatre, literature and pop-rock music. Under his name, he has released eight of his own records and has played with emblematic artists on the Basque scene, such as Mikel Erentxun, Amaia Montero and Fito & Los Fitipaldis. He also penned the soundtracks of the feature films Nur eta herensugearen tenplua (Juanba Berasategi, 2017); Sipo Phantasma (Koldo Almandoz, 2016), Gure Sor Lekua and Gure Sor Lekuaren bila, directed by Josu Martinez in 2014 and 2015, respectively; Toda la vida del mundo (Nuria Ruiz Cabestany, 2010) and Simplemente (Jon Andueza, 2009), not to mention different plays and short films.

Ángel Illarramendi (Gipuzkoa, 1959) has more than thirty soundtracks to his name. In 1981 he began writing music for several stage plays, as well as his first soundtracks and concert pieces while teaching harmony classes. It was in 1990 that he left teaching to dedicate himself exclusively to composing. In cinema, he has worked with different directors and producers, particularly collaborating with the producer Elías Querejeta. Goya-nominated in 2005 for Héctor (Gracia Querejeta) some of his most outstanding works are: Cuernos de espuma (Shampoo Horns, Manuel Toledano, 1996), Cuando vuelvas a mi lado (By My Side Again,Gracia Querejeta, 1998) and Los Borgia (Antonio Hernández, 2006). Furthermore, his suite Una historia reciente was performed by the Basque National Orchestra at the 2013 edition of Concert & Screening.