2011/2012 SEASON

The Basque National Orchestra's Subscribers' Season remains pivotal in its overall activity as its most expressive musical space, the one to which it dedicates a large part of its energy, occupying 50% of its agenda each Season. That's why the Subscribers' Season has to be programmed with great care, logic and coherence. Here, the lines established by Andrés Orozco-Estrada, in his third season as Music Director, are essential for continuing coherent progress in his decided commitment to elevating the Orchestra to a superior level of quality, dynamism and flexibility. Three great virtues for an Orchestra similarly forging a path for itself on the international scene and which, together with its presence on some of the best-known stages (return to the Konzerthaus in Vienna), enjoys little examples of consolidation such as its progressive exchanges (previously, with Bordeaux and Milan, and now, in June, with Düsseldorf). Added to this is the new line of international commissions for works.

This said, in spheres other than the Suscribers' Season and its strategic international approach, the Basque National Orchestra also addresses a wide range of activities completing the fabric of its personality. Here we refer to the Orchestra of the Miramón Matinées, the Orchestra with a Music Room reaching children and families (live or on TV with Sinfokids) and creating activities for 2,500 schoolchildren; the Orchestra of opportunities for young students thanks to its "Music Laboratory", the Orchestra unafraid to leave the beaten track for more profane paths with KLASIKAT; the socially-focussed Orchestra that seeks to integrate disadvantaged groups through its music (including examples like the workshops with FEVAS - the Basque Federation of Associations Supporting the Intellectually Impaired - and the concerts given in the Arrasate and Zamudio psychiatric hospitals), and the Orchestra that records and passes on the legacy of Basque symphony creation. That's the Basque National Orchestra, the Orchestra closest to our society, the Orchestra that spreads its music like a concentric wave propagating its musical activity and finding its way onto enormously varying stages. That's the personality of the Basque Orchestra that will celebrate its 30th year in 2012.

In this context we announce that the Music Director Andrés Orozco-Estrada will extend his stay with us until the 2013/2014 Season, thereby confirming the successes achieved and our shared desire to continue working in the same direction.