The management of the San Ginés Polyphonic Choir Association, as a final touch to the events programmed on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of its foundation, has celebrated the 'I Choral Encounter'. The president, Andrés Martín, explained that this project arises with the initiative to turn it into a cultural exchange with other choirs from the islands, the peninsula and international ones, and thus have the opportunity to share the choral singing that exists in any corner of the planet.
This 'I Choral Encounter' started at 12 noon this Saturday at 'La Recova Municipal'. Martín stated that they chose this place "even knowing that choral singing, due to the simplicity of its voices, sounds much better in closed places, but it is a totally open stage located in the heart of Arrecife next to the church of San Ginés where, under the direction of Braulio de León, it was created first as a choir and years later as a polyphonic choir, a place with a lot of history for the inhabitants of Lanzarote".
The president, who was very excited about this initiative, asked the public who filled the venue for a favor: "if they remained silent, the set objective would surely be achieved", an objective that was surpassed with a sepulchral silence that was only interrupted by applause at the end of each of the performances by the participating choirs.
For this first edition, they had the 'Coral Sanfran Korue' from Bilbao. An association created in the Bilbao neighborhood of San Francisco, from which they take their name, and where they mainly develop their choral activity. In 2007, it began to function as a federated choir of the Federation of Choirs of Bizkaia. All this under the teaching and direction of Pedro de Diego, since 2017 it has been directed by Professor Miren Zubieta Egia.
The 'Coral Ekidazu Abesbatza' also participated, founded in the Bizkaia town of Lezama in the spring of 2001 by the initiative of several members of the 'Zorrizketan' association, which promotes the Basque language. Currently it is made up of 25 mixed voices directed by Professor Iratxe Ispuza Yarnóz. The choir has two main objectives: on the one hand, to love, care for, promote and sing Basque choral music and folk music from all over the world, and on the other, to promote and publicize the Basque language through music. Despite being a recently created choir, its curriculum is gradually growing, participating in concerts and festivals.
Another was the 'Coral Canticorum Lubilo' which was born as a female choir in the town of Tegueste in Tenerife on May 30, 1996, starting its rehearsals thanks to the support of the La Villa de Tegueste city council. Later, male voices were incorporated into the choir, turning its activity into a mixed choir with four voices. From that moment on, its trajectory begins with its own autonomy. In these twenty-seven years of musical journey, they have participated in different popular and religious events throughout the island territory, choral meetings, festivals, proclamations, etc. It is currently directed by Professor Cristina Farrais.
The meeting reached its climax with the performance of the 'San Ginés Polyphonic Choir', organizer of the event under the direction of Professor Elías Roldán and accompanied on the piano by Professor Javier Díaz. Without a doubt, a very positive experience where the public was able to enjoy a wide and varied musical repertoire where compositions with Basque roots were intertwined with others of well-known genres, works by the greats always present in concerts such as the one experienced today for the first time in La Recova de Arrecife.