The Salamanca Plazas and Patios program of the City Council of Salamanca reaches its fourteenth edition this year with a total of fifty cultural events during the months of June, July, and August. The main focus this year will be on Carmen Martín Gaite in celebration of the centenary of her birth.
Six absolute premieres by companies from Salamanca have been scheduled in the scenic section, dedicated to her literary career and her connection to our city. The programming will take place in heritage spaces of the city, such as the Plaza Mayor, Patio Chico, Torre de los Anaya, Úrsulas, the surroundings of the Tormes River, and the Jardines de Santo Domingo; as well as in parks and squares in different neighborhoods, such as Plaza Barcelona, Picasso Park, Elio Antonio de Nebrija Park, Museum of Commerce, or Alamedilla Park, with the aim of bringing culture closer to the people of Salamanca.
Patio Chico will host four premieres: ‘Bandos/Calle 42’ by Intrussión Teatro; ‘Carmen Martín Gaite (Calila): writer and actress’ by Komo Teatro; ‘Encuentro en el Balneario. Between monotony and awakening’ by the La Troyana company, and ‘Caleidoscopio’ by Ohdiosas! Teatro.
And Úrsulas will host the other two premieres: ‘Retahílas con Unamuno’ by CulturArts, and ‘@Misslunatic1886’ by Edulogic Productions. Admission to all these activities will be free until full capacity is reached and will have a sign language interpreter, as stated by the City Council of Salamanca in a press release collected by Europa Press.
The scenic program is complemented by four shows aimed at families, scheduled in different squares and parks of the city on Sunday mornings. The first will be ‘Magic, humor and whatever comes!’, by the Miguel De Lucas company, scheduled for June 22 in La Alamedilla Park. This will be followed by ‘El Aventulibro del Profesor Ludus’ by Kamaru Teatro, on June 29 in Plaza Barcelona.
On Sunday, July 6, it will be the turn of the La Risa de la Tortuga company, with the show ‘Wherever you go. Stories and Music’, in Picasso Park. And this program will end with the absolute premiere of the show ‘Little Red Riding Hood: from Manhattan to Salamanca’, by the Saldaña and Carioca company, which will take place on Sunday, July 13 in Carmelitas Park. Music will be another major attraction of the summer cultural programming prepared by the City Council, with a total of 22 concerts scheduled in eight different spaces: Plaza Mayor, Patio Chico, Jardines de Santo Domingo, New Cathedral, Elio Antonio de Nebrija Park, Alamedilla Park, Museum of Commerce, and Plaza Barcelona.
With the arrival of good weather, the Salamanca Municipal Band moves its concert activities to the neighborhoods of the city, where attendees can enjoy the most popular and traditional musical genres, such as zarzuela, pasodoble, Spanish copla, and Salamanca folk music. This series of concerts by the Municipal Band will end on July 11 in Plaza Mayor, where they will perform a varied repertoire.
A day later, on Saturday, July 12, the Castilla y León Symphony Orchestra will perform at the same venue, with a repertoire including works by Sibelius, Mendelssohn, Manuel de Falla, and Granados.
INTERNATIONAL JAZZ FESTIVAL
Patio Chico will host the VIII International Jazz Festival organized by the City Council with five concerts scheduled between July 15 and 19. This edition of the festival will feature performances by: Sullivan Fortner Trio & Peter Bernstein, Mozes Rosenberg Trio & Sandro Roy, Brandon Goldberg Trio & Shenel Johns, Francesca Tandoi Trio & Emanuele Cisi, and Enric Peidro Swingtet.
The Tormes River will host the show ‘Pedalpiano a Fleur d’eau. The floating piano’, a concert on the water by singer Louise Perret and pianist Cédric Granelle, on July 25 and 26. This duo offers a blend of contemporary jazz and French chanson.
The Jardines de Santo Domingo will be the stage for six concerts featuring a variety of musical styles such as swing, jazz, folk, zarzuela, and soul. Luismi Segurado Trío will kick off this concert series on Saturday, July 5. Along with Jorge Rossy on drums and Masa Kamaguchi on bass, they will present their new album titled ‘Edward’.
On July 26, the Salamanca group Entavía will perform as part of their tour ‘Vertiginosa Baranda’. A week later, the Salamancans ‘La original Cartoon Band’ will pay tribute to composer Raymond Scott in a concert.
On Saturday, August 9, the Swing Machine Orchestra will perform their show ‘Forbidden Melodies’. This group is made up of musicians and dancers from various backgrounds such as Cuba, Honduras, Italy, Argentina, and Spain. A week later, the trombone and piano duo formed by Muñoz Cañivano and Aránega Rivas will present a repertoire titled ‘Those zarzuelas’, in which they will perform works by the main Spanish composers of the genre, such as Federico Chueca, Federico Moreno Torroba, Jacinto Guerrero, José Serrano, Pablo Luna, Amadeo Vives, or Pablo Sorozábal.
The concert series at the Jardines de Santo Domingo will conclude with singer Janine Johnson on Saturday, August 23. In her show ‘Confessions of a Soul Diva’, the artist invites the audience to immerse themselves in an intimate atmosphere with her renditions of soul and jazz hits, from Whitney Houston to Alicia Keys.
The New Cathedral will host the ninth organ cycle with four concerts scheduled between July 17 and August 7. The first will be by Italian musician Francesco Di Lernia, winner of various awards in competitions. He will be followed by Basque organist Esteban Landart, currently a professor of Organ at the C.R.R of Bayonne and at the Higher Music Center of the Basque Country (MUSIKENE).
German musician Heinrich Walther will give a concert on July 31. And the ninth organ cycle will conclude with Víctor Baena, technical director of the festival and the biennial organ competition in the city of Alkmaar.
THE WORD, PROTAGONIST
The word will also be a protagonist in the Salamanca Plazas and Patios program, with five events scheduled at the Torre de los Anaya and the Jardines de Santo Domingo, in collaboration with the Homero poetic-musical association and the Association of students from the Superior Conservatory of Music of Castilla y León.
On July 23, the poets and musician of the Homero Association will pay tribute to Carmen Martín Gaite in the Jardines de Santo Domingo, on the 25th anniversary of her death. For this event, poets Mónica Velasco, Mar García, and Soledad Sánchez will participate.
In the courtyard of the Torre de los Anaya every Monday, between July 7 and 28, there will be an encounter with poetry and music in the candlelight. Poets Adela Villoria, Benito González, Concepción Guinaldo, Francisco Antonio Martín, Leonor Martín, Manuel Velasco, José Ángel Piñero, Raúl Vacas, Carmen Luis Manzano, Aurora Zarco Blanco, Xenaro Ovín, Mónica Velasco, Juan Carlos López Pinto, María José Gómez, and singer-songwriter Manuel Méndez will participate in these activities.
The musicians who will close each night are: Miguel Domínguez, Lucía Aguado, Álvaro Moreno, Judit Ospina, Alba Claver, Cristina Bueno, Alejandro Estébanez, Gabriel Salgado, Noelia Fernández González, and Raquel Romero Toro.