Artists
London’s Philharmonia Orchestra
Marin Alsop, conductor
Orfeó Català
Chamber Choir of the Palau de la Música Catalana
Youth Choir of the Orfeó Català
Young Women’s Choir of the Orfeó Català
Program
Pärt: Da pacem domine (strings and choir)
Pärt: Tabula Rasa (solo violins, prepared piano, and chamber orchestra)
Pérez-Collellmir: Seven Dreams of Gaudí (orchestra and choir, world première)
Alsop is Chief Conductor of the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Artistic Director & Chief Conductor of the Polish National Radio Symphony, Principal Guest Conductor of London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and Chief Conductor of the Ravinia Festival, where she leads the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s annual residencies. She is the first Music Director of the University of Maryland’s National Orchestral Institute + Festival, Conductor of Honour of Brazil’s São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, and Music Director Laureate and OrchKids Founder at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, after an outstanding 14-year tenure as its Music Director.
Alsop has made history as the first female conductor of the BBC’s Last Night of the Proms, and in the 24-25 season became the first U.S.-born woman to conduct the Berlin Philharmonic.
To promote and nurture female conductors’ careers, in 2002 she founded the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship. The only conductor to receive a MacArthur Fellowship, she has also been honored with the World Economic Forum’s Crystal Award. The Conductor, a documentary about her life, was nominated for an Emmy and recognized with a Naples International Film Festival award.
Born in Barcelona, Olivia Pérez-Collellmir is a Catalan composer and pianist whose work is rooted in classical tradition and cultural memory, while embracing a bold, contemporary voice. Her music reflects both European and American influences, blending emotional depth with rhythmic vitality into a distinctive compositional language—what composer Osvaldo Golijov has called “a striking and gorgeous distillation of profound lyricism and rhythms that are ferocious and elegant at the same time. It stays in my mind long after hearing it.”
She began studying piano at the age of four and was accepted into the Conservatori Superior de Música de Barcelona at just eight years old, where she completed her formal training and graduated as a classical pianist. Her mentors include Núria Bonells, a principal disciple of Alicia de Larrocha and part of a pianistic lineage tracing back to Granados and Albéniz. She also studied with Antoni Besses (a disciple of Mompou and Messiaen, and a collaborator of Copland and Ginastera) and with Josep Maria Colom at the Hindemith Foundation in Switzerland. Alongside her musical training…
Anna Gual (born 1986 in Vilafranca del Penedès, Catalonia) is a prominent Catalan poet, translator, and cultural communicator. She studied Audiovisual Communication at Pompeu Fabra University and holds a Master’s in Cultural Management from the University of Barcelona. Discovered through her blog No caic, em tiro, which won the Best Catalan Blog award in 2012, she published her first collection Implosions at age 22. Since then, she has released eight collections-including the acclaimed trilogy Arrel Trinitat (Molsa, El tubercle, Altres semideus) and Les ocultacions (2022), which earned her the 2022 Miquel de Palol Poetry Prize.
Gual’s poetry is celebrated for its introspective exploration of language, the body, nature, and mysticism. Critics describe her work as a “territory of continuous exceptionalities” and a space of “wild rebirths”. Her bilingual anthology Innombrable (2020) and forthcoming English translation Unnamable showcase her expanding international presence. She regularly appears at literary festivals and poetry-translation seminars across Europe, including engagements in London, Sardinia, Croatia, and Russia. Her work’s emotional and intellectual depth places her firmly among the most innovative voices in contemporary Catalan literature.
Founded in 1945, the Philharmonia Orchestra is one of the world’s great orchestras. Finnish conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali took up the baton as Principal Conductor in 2021, and Marin Alsop joined him as Principal Guest Conductor in 2023. They follow in illustrious footsteps: Herbert von Karajan, Otto Klemperer, Ricardo Muti, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Christoph von Dohnányi, Vladimir Ashkenazy and Esa-Pekka Salonen are some of the key figures who have honed the renowned Philharmonia sound over eight decades.
The Orchestra is made up of 80 outstanding musicians. It has premiered works by Richard Strauss, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Errollyn Wallen, Laufey and many others, and performs with many of the world’s most admired soloists.
Resident at the Southbank Centre in the heart of London, the Philharmonia also holds residencies in Basingstoke, Bedford, Canterbury and Leicester, at Garsington Opera and at the Three Choirs Festival. In each of these residencies, the Orchestra is deeply embedded in the community, empowering people to engage with and participate in orchestral music. The Orchestra has a global audience – it tours extensively throughout Europe and has performed in China…
The chamber choir at the Palau de la Música Catalana, the Cor de Cambra, is one of the most prestigious professional choirs in Spain. The choir was founded by the Orfeó Català in 1990 in order to promote universal choral music, give new energy to Catalan musical heritage, and encourage new compositions. Xavier Puig is the current choir director, while Pau Casan is the choir pianist. The Cor de Cambra has also been conducted by great maestros, such as R. Jacobs, M. Minkowski, K. Nagano, S. Rattle, D. Barenboim, C. Rousset, V. Jurowski, D. Gatti, S. Carrington, F. Biondi, and G. Dudamel.
The Cor de Cambra has performed throughout Spain and further afield, including at the BBC Proms in London and the MÜPA Festival in Budapest. Notably, the choir performed in Los Angeles (USA) at the start of the choir’s international tour, giving a rendition of Beethoven’s opera Fidelio with the LA Phil, under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel (2024).
Founded in 2000 by Lluís Vilamajó, the choir is made up of forty-two young women between sixteen and twenty-five years old, most of whom started in the Orfeó Català children’s choirs. Montserrat Meneses is the choir director while Maria Mauri is the pianist.
In the 2016-17 season, the choir took part in the Heimat Project alongside Mädchenchor Hannover, under the baton of Simon Halsey. In July 2018 the choir made its début at the Festival Grec performing the opera The Monster in the Maze by J. Dove. In 2019 the Cor de Noies made its début at the Berlin Philharmonie, as part of an invitation to participate in the Berliner Philharmoniker’s Vocal Heroes choral project, directed by Simon Halsey. The choir was also a finalist in the Let the Peoples Sing amateur choir competition. Highlights from 2023 include opening the Festival Grec with the show The Pulse, alongside the Australian contemporary circus company Gravity and Other Myths.
The Cor Jove is made up of sixty singers aged between sixteen and twenty-five. Founded in 1986, Pablo Larraz is the current choir director while Pau Casan is the choir pianist. The choir has sung alongside the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya, Orquestra Simfònica del Vallès, London Symphony Orchestra, Gulbenkian Orchestra de Lisboa, Ensemble Pygmalion, Orquesta Nacional Clásica de Andorra, Orquestra de Cambra Terrassa 48 and The Tallis Scholars, among other ensembles. The choir has also worked with conductors H. Christophers, R. Pichon, G. Noseda, S. Rattle, S. Halsey, P. Phillips and M. Gardolińska.
The Cor Jove has performed in Barcelona, Girona, Tarragona, Cervera, Sabadell, Valencia, Seville, Granada, and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, as well as in Poland, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The vocal ensemble has recorded a number of albums, including Aigües de primavera (2010), Requiems (2013) by Mozart and Fauré, for Columna Música, and Musicals! (2017, Palau Records) by A. Guinovart.
In June of 2026, Barcelona will celebrate the completion of the Tower of Jesus Christ, the tallest and boldest of the eighteen spires rising from the iconic Basilica Sagrada Familia, and will commemorate the centennial of the passing of its visionary creator, Antoni Gaudí. Gaudí’s magnus opus is at once uniquely Catalan and boldly universal. His divinely inspired blend of architecture with nature has become an enduring hallmark of Catalan art and culture and attracts nearly five million annual visitors from around the world.
On Gaudí’s centennial, Maestro Marin Alsop will conduct The Philharmonia Orchestra of London and three choirs from Barcelona’s renowned Orfeó Català, who will perform the world premiere by Barcelona native and composer Olivia Perez-Collellmir, with words by Catalan poet Anna Gual.
Seven Dreams of Gaudí fulfills a dream that Gaudí was unable to achieve during his lifetime. He designed the towers of Sagrada Familia to be filled with bells for all who came to worship within its walls. A century later, Gaudí’s bells are being cast, and will be performed in the finale of Seven Dreams of Gaudí, bringing Gaudí’s acoustic vision to life.
Galdric Santana is an architect, musician, musical instrument builder, and co-curator of the Year of Gaudi 2026 centennial celebrations. He holds a Ph.D. in Architecture, and wrote his thesis on Gaudí’s Sagrada Família organ bells. Santana is the Director of the Real Cátedra Gaudí at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) and a professor at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya (ESMUC). He has researched and restored historical musical instruments and worked on documentation and conservation projects for the Sagrada Família.
Osvaldo Golijov is an Argentine composer, born in 1960, celebrated for his eclectic blend of musical styles, including classical, Jewish liturgical, klezmer, and nuevo tango. His compositions, which often feature unconventional instrumentation, have garnered widespread acclaim and numerous awards, including a MacArthur Fellowship and multiple Grammy Awards. Golijov’s works have been performed by renowned artists and ensembles worldwide, such as the Kronos Quartet, St. Lawrence String Quartet, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, soprano Dawn Upshaw, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the Silkroad Ensemble. He has also composed scores for films by Francis Ford Coppola.
Marti Epstein, born in 1959, is an American composer known for her avant-garde post-classical concert music. She approaches composition by prioritizing sound as organizing musical materials over traditional melody or harmony, often creating works that are deliberate in pace and rich in texture. Epstein’s works have been performed globally by distinguished ensembles including the San Francisco Symphony, The Radio Symphony Orchestra of Frankfurt, Ensemble Modern, and members of the Boston Symphony. She has received numerous commissions and awards, notably a Guggenheim Fellowship and multiple MacDowell Fellowships.
Arturo Rodríguez, born in Mexico in 1976, is a composer, conductor, and pianist. His first symphonic work was premiered by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra; Noche de Posadas was commissioned and premiered by the Boston Pops. He has collaborated with the San Francisco Symphony for their Día de los Muertos concerts and made orchestral arrangements for the LA Philharmonic. Rodriguez is an accomplished film composer, orchestrator, and conductor for film and TV, including orchestrating and conducting the soundtrack for Francis Ford Coppola’s film Megalopolis, and conducting the original soundtracks for Furious7, and Twisters. Rodríguez was the youngest recipient of Mexico’s Mozart Medal.
Jennifer Ritvo Hughes is an arts administrator, consultant and educator. Prior to founding her arts consultancy firm specializing in creative growth strategies and financial resiliency, Hughes spent 12 years in leadership positions in the performing arts, including serving as the CEO of the American Friends of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Executive Director of six-time GRAMMY-nominee Boston Baroque, and Executive Director of Cantata Singers. Hughes is a lecturer at Boston University’s Graduate Program in Arts Administration, where she teaches Performing Arts Management.
Almudena Campos is an arts administrator specializing in the performing arts. She earned a Bachelor’s in Visual Arts and Dance from Rey Juan Carlos University and an M.S. in Arts Administration as a Fulbright Scholar at Boston University. Her experience includes organizing professional dance courses for Russian Masters Ballet in Spain and Russia, hosting galas featuring principal European dancers, and serving as Production Manager for flamenco contests.She has served as Operations and General Coordinator of La Rioja Festival. She is currently in charge of audience development and individual giving at the Albéniz Foundation.
EAC Productions is an independent production company founded by Renee Chan and Pat Mitchell that develops and promotes musical and artistic projects in the US and Spain. EAC is inspired by community, history and the preservation of local culture, and has supported live music productions, street art projects in Barcelona’s El Born neighborhood and a musical podcast exploring the history of New Orleans rhythm and blues music.
Renée Chan is an active supporter of the Boston and Barcelona communities, where she has founded Everyday Deeds, a non-profit organization connecting volunteers with underserved communities, and serves on the Board of Directors of More Than Words, a social enterprise teaching business and life skills to young adults.
Pat Mitchell is a partner at the international law firm Goodwin Procter LLP, where he advises growth-stage companies and investors in technology industries ranging from software, hardware, artificial intelligence, healthcare technology and ecommerce. Goodwin Procter is the leading global law firm serving the technology and life sceinces sectors, with officers in New York, Boston, Silicon Valley, London, Europe and Asia. Pat is active in many community efforts in Boston, including serving on the Board of Directors of Embrace Boston, a racial justice organization promoting arts and culture, community and policy, that designed and erected a memorial to Martin Luther King and Corretta Scott King on the Boston Common, the oldest public park in America.
