The Canary Islands International Music Festival (FIMC) will bring one of the most powerful artistic proposals of its 42nd edition to Lanzarote this year. The Jameos del Agua Auditorium will host the concert by the prestigious Mahler Chamber Orchestra on January 19, 2026, accompanied by Yuja Wang, one of the best and most influential pianists in the world. It will be one of the nine concerts that will take place in Lanzarote and La Graciosa between January 10 and February 6, for which tickets and season tickets are already on sale.
The Minister of Universities, Science, Innovation and Culture of the Government of the Canary Islands, Migdalia Machín, the president of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Oswaldo Betancort, and the island minister of Culture, Jesús Machín, presented this Friday the concerts programmed on these islands within the framework of “a festival that places the Canary Islands on the world map of musical excellence,” Machín highlighted. In reference to Lanzarote and La Graciosa, “it does so with a magnificent program that makes evident the Canary Islands we are, an archipelago that bets on excellence, that cares for its identity, and that opens itself to the world”.
The autonomous government, organizer of the festival through its Culture department and in collaboration with the island councils, is repeating the season ticket formula on the less populated islands, which bundles several concerts. “A historic initiative that Lanzarote welcomed with enormous enthusiasm last edition, filling every single concert,” recalled the head of Culture, who encouraged the people of Lanzarote “to enjoy this program, to attend the concerts, and to continue demonstrating that classical music and culture know no bounds”.
The presence on the island of figures like Yuja Wang, "confirms Lanzarote's position as a top-tier cultural hub," emphasized the island's president, highlighting the value for the island of hosting a program of this magnitude. In this way, "Lanzarote consolidates itself as a territory capable of attracting excellent cultural proposals that enrich the island's offerings and generate direct benefits for the population," stated Betancort.
The details about the ensembles and repertoires to be performed were provided by the FIMC's music promoter, Ricardo Ducatenzeiler, who was also present at the press conference. In addition to Wang and MCO, other prominent ensembles will also be on the island, such as the Gran Canaria Philharmonic Orchestra (OFGC), the ensemble Il giardino d’amore, soprano Raquel Lojendio with pianist Chiky Martín, the string octet Ensemble Nexus, and the young pianist Gabriel Ducatenzeiler. Added to this are two attractive proposals from the En Paralelo section, which include the latest show by the company Pieles, titled ‘Arahal’, and the concert by Guiguan Project with trumpeter Markus Stockhausen.
The aforementioned Lanzarote pass includes the concerts to be held at Auditorio Jameos del Agua: Mahler Chamber Orchestra, OFGC, and Pieles' 'Arahal.' Purchases can be made through the website www.festivaldecanarias.com. In addition to this venue, there will also be concerts at the Convento de Santo Domingo in Teguise, at the Municipal Theater of Tías, and at the capital's Teatro Víctor Fernández Gopar El Salinero.
Yuja Wang and Mahler Chamber Orchestra
Yuja Wang will be in the Canary Islands fifteen years after her previous visit to Tenerife and Gran Canaria, when the FIMC invited her as a young piano prodigy. Virtuosity, insight, presence, or revolution are some of the terms that define the musical universe of the celebrated pianist, the most acclaimed of our time.
He will begin 2025 with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, performing Ligeti's Piano Concerto under the direction of Fabien Gabel; and Chopin's Concerto No. 1, in which he will act as soloist and without the maestro's direction. As overtures for both parts of the program, the orchestra will perform works by Stravinsky and Mozart
Programming Kick-off
The programming for the 42nd FIMC will kick off a few days earlier with Ensemble Nexus, who will perform in La Graciosa on Saturday, February 10, at the Inocencia Páez Cultural Center at 8:00 PM; and on Sunday, February 11, at 7:00 PM, at the Tías Municipal Theater. The octet of island instrumentalists will premiere the commissioned work for the festival by Canarian composer Cecilia Díaz Pestano, titled ‘Ángel de arena’ (Sand Angel), which is inspired by a child's sensation upon discovering the sea. The program also includes works by Mozart and Mendelssohn.
The next performance will be with Guiguan Project ft. Markus Stocknausen on Tuesday the 13th at Teatro El Salinero, at 8:00 PM. The group is made up of three musicians who share a deep desire to develop a unique style, rooted in their island heritage: Javier Infante (guitar), Alexis Lemes (timple), and Javier Colina (double bass). On this occasion, they will perform with the renowned German trumpeter and composer Markus Stockhausen, one of the great innovators and improvisers on the European jazz scene. Their collaboration promises to take this musical experience to new heights, creating an enriching dialogue between their artistic visions
After Mahler and Yuha Wang, who perform on the 19th, it's the turn of another of the edition's major concerts: the Gran Canaria Philharmonic Orchestra. Under the direction of Karel Mark Chichon, they will be the protagonists of the next concert in Lanzarote, on Thursday the 15th, at 8:00 PM, at the Jameos del Agua Auditorium. They will present a Mozart monographic: the overture to ‘La finta giardiniera’, the Sinfonia Concertante, and Symphony No. 29. These are works from the 1770s, from the period when the genius had to balance his work as a salaried musician at the Salzburg Court with his inexhaustible creativity and output. For the Sinfonia Concertante, they will feature soloists from the orchestra: Sergio Marrero (violin) and Adriana Ilieva (viola).
Pieles will present its new show on Tuesday, January 20, also at Jameos del Agua, at 8:00 PM. 'Arahal. A place to rest' is the title of this interdisciplinary proposal that inhabits tradition. Percussion, voice, stone, seed… and silences that merge into an ancestral song connecting the Canary Islands, North Africa, and the Sephardic legacy, and with which Pieles opens a threshold towards the intimate, the sacred, and the collective.
The young pianist Gabriel Ducatenzeiler will perform on Friday, January 23, at the old Convent of Santo Domingo, in Teguise, at 8:00 PM. It will be an opportunity to discover the versatility and virtuosity of one of the most promising pianists on the islands, trained in Gran Canaria and Germany, who at just 23 years old has already won several awards and has an active career as a concert performer. In this concert, he will perform works ranging from the Baroque (Bach) to the present day (Laura Vega), including the great piano masters (Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninoff).
Il giardino d’Amore will make a stop in Lanzarote as part of the tour they will undertake through various islands in the 42nd FIMC. It is a Polish ensemble formed by a group of friends who decided to unite their talents to share music, comparable to a secret garden, guided by the love of art. Under the direction of violinist Stefan Plewniak, they will perform on Friday the 30th at the Teatro El Salinero, at 8:00 PM, with a program that covers German, Italian, and French baroque: Vivaldi, Leclair, Rebel Westhoff, Bach, Tartini, Locke, and Purcell.
The closing concert in Lanzarote will be on Friday, February 6, with the Canarian soprano Raquel Lojendio, accompanied by the Madrid-based pianist Chiky Martín, at the Teatro El Salinero, at 8:00 PM. With a program titled ‘Songs of Two Worlds,’ they invite the public on a delightful journey across two Atlantic shores. Both performers, who collaborate regularly, will travel through Spain, Argentina, and Brazil via the works of their most distinguished composers: from Lorca to Villa-Lobos, including Falla, Halffter, Guastavino, Ginastera, Lorenzo Fernández, and Ovalle.
