A total of 1,242 students from twenty-five schools in Lanzarote, La Graciosa, La Palma, El Hierro, Fuerteventura, La Gomera, Gran Canaria and Tenerife participated this Thursday in the School Choir Music Meeting, organized within the activities programmed by the Regional Government to commemorate Canary Islands Day.
Within these meetings, with diverse programs, the Anthem of the Canary Islands has sounded at 12:30 pm sharp, in the Church of Nuestra Señora del Mar in La Graciosa; in the Lanzarote's Teatro de Tías; in the Insular Auditorium of Fuerteventura; in the Auditoriums of the Music Conservatories in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Santa Cruz de Tenerife; in the Teatro Circo de Marte in La Palma; in the Assembly Hall of the Cabildo de La Gomera and in the Asabanos Cultural Center of El Hierro.
The initiative, which is held for the third consecutive year, exceeded 2,000 participants in total, as the choirs had the support of a large audience made up of classmates from their centers and family members. In addition, on stage, they had the company of musicians and award-winning voices from the Canarian conservatories, as well as other groups and music schools.
From the Government of the Canary Islands it is stated that "this activity aims to involve students, through music, in the recognition of the cultural identity of the Islands and make them participate in the commemoration of Canary Islands Day, valuing their heritage and cultural signs". In addition, the interpretation of the Anthem at the same time in all venues, "contributes to students and those who listen to it become aware that the Canary Islands is a single territory, with countless features in common among all its inhabitants, no matter how fragmented it is into eight islands", it is added.
Promotion of the unity of the Autonomous Community
Precisely because of that desire to promote the unity of the Autonomous Community, the Lanzarote Early Childhood and Primary Education Centers (CEIP) Guiguan and Alcalde Rafael Cedrés traveled to La Graciosa, joining the voices of the only educational center on the island, the Ignacio Aldecoa Compulsory Education Center (CEO). In Lanzarote, the CEIP Antonio Zerolo and Virgen de los Volcanes, as well as the CEO Argana, participated.
In Fuerteventura, the anecdote of the day was the participation of the Dionisio Alcalá Galiano Secondary Education Institute (IES), from Córdoba, which was on the island at the invitation of the IES Puerto del Rosario and wanted to join the songs of this center, the IES La Oliva, the CEIP Poeta Domingo Velázquez and San José de Calasanz and the CEO Puerto Cabras.
The CEIP Villa de Firgas, Huertas del Palmar, Barrio Costa and Doctor Juan Espino Sánchez, and the IES Támara starred in the meeting in Gran Canria and, in Tenerife, it was the Agache and Juan Bethencourt Afonso schools, together with the IES Los Cardones. In La Palma, the CEIP Miranda and La Laguna, the Fuencaliente-Mazo Rural Schools Collective, and the CEO Tijarafe were the ones who presented choirs to the meeting; in La Gomera it was the CEIP Ruiz de Padrón, which was accompanied by the San Sebastián de La Gomera Music School; and, finally, in El Hierro the voices of the CEIP Tigaday choir were heard, which had the students of the CEIP Valverde as audience.
They had musicians and singers from the conservatories of the Islands
All these musical formations also had "accompaniments of the highest quality," thanks, among others, to musicians and singers from the conservatories who moved to the different islands. Thus, the women's choir of the Higher Conservatory of Music of the Canary Islands participated; the Llanesis chamber choir (La Palma); the choir of teachers from La Palma and the choir of white voices of the Professional Conservatory of Music of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, which has recently been awarded in the National Choir Competition of Ejea de Los Caballeros as the best choir in the State.
The Minister of Education and Universities of the Government of the Canary Islands, Soledad Monzón, accompanied the day in Gran Canaria, an act in which she highlighted the importance of "continuing to expand the meeting of school choirs year after year, in a celebration that allows students to share through music the signs of identity of the archipelago, create bonds and commemorate Canary Islands Day with a didactic activity that unites all the islands".
In total, 100 students took to the stage in La Graciosa, 225 in Lanzarote, 189 in Fuerteventura, 221 in La Palma, 57 in La Gomera, 88 in Tenerife, 95 in El Hierro and 267 in Gran Canaria.?
