The Basque National Orchestra travelled to Bordeaux, where it gave concerts (12th and 13th January) at the Auditorium in the Aquitaine capital. In a new musical exchange with the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine (ONBA), the Orchestra performed as a guest in the season of the Bordeaux Orchestra.

Under the guidance of conductor Jun Märkl, the Orchestra travelled to Bordeaux accompanied by the pianist Javier Perianes. They performed Piano Concerto No. 2 by Camille Saint-Saëns for the first time, as Javier Perianes has added it to the Orchestra's repertoire this season. Regarding this, the pianist has said the following: "I am very happy with the balance of my work and the way things are progressing. [...] There's a logic to the works that I have chosen to include in my repertoire, which was naturally created from pieces that I have played on countless occasions in the past. For example, it makes sense to perform Saint-Saëns' Concerto No. 2 after the experience I gained from performing his Concerto No. 5."

Before these concerts in Bordeaux, the Basque National Orchestra and Javier Perianes have shared the stage at the Kursaal Auditorium last April, at the gala for the International Classic Music Awards (ICMA), and at the Musical Fortnight 2008.

More Saint-Saëns and two of Debussy's Images complete the programme. The Orchestra playing without the accompaniment of Javier Perianes, presented the audience with two more pieces from the French repertoire, of which Märkl is a great connoisseur. The evening opened with Saint-Saëns' Suite algérienne, and two of Claude Debussy's Images were played in the second part: Rondes de printemps and Ibéria.

The relationship between the Basque National Orchestra and the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine has become a classic and the musical exchange between the two is now a regular occurrence. In line with the Basque National Orchestra's visit to Bordeaux from 17 to 22 June, the ONBA will close our season in the usual four major cities, lead by the conductor Paul Daniel and with the violinist Vadim Gluzman as guest soloist.

The American Robert Treviño will be the new Music Director of the Basque National Orchestra from the 2017/2018 season onwards. The highest artistic leader of the Basque orchestra will assume his leading role for the 2017/2018, 2018/2019 and 2019/2020 seasons. This new appointment, at the proposal of the General Director of the Euskadi Orchestra, Oriol Roch, was approved by the Board of Directors meeting held this morning at the Miramón headquarters and presided over by the Minister for Education, Language Policy and Culture of the Basque Government, Cristina Uriarte. Robert Treviño will take over from Jun Märkl, who will finish his three season contract in June 2017, which he began in autumn 2014.

The new music director has conducted the Orchestra on two occasions. His first collaboration occurred in March in a programme of the Season Concerts where he was conductor for Bruckner's Symphony No. 7. His second collaboration took place in September, in Azkuna Zentroa in Bilbao during the celebration of the BBK Museo Hiria/Museum City project. Robert Treviño responds to a new conductor profile that will continue to contribute to the projection and consolidation of this musical group as a fundamental Euskadi project.

With regard to his career, Robert Treviño assumes the role of principal conductor of the Basque National Orchestra as part of his progressive and ascending international career. What was considered an unprecedented success in the difficult and legendary Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow in December 2013 became for Treviño the start of a growing career as guest conductor in Europe and Asia. He has debuted with orchestras of the calibre of the Munich and London Philharmonic Orchestras, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre National de France and Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra. And in the US he continues his career at the head of Detroit, San Francisco, Cleveland and Cincinnati.

Mosaic of Sounds works on the integration of people with intellectual disability in workshops on sound creation carried out simultaneously by 14 orchestras. 140 musicians from 14 symphony ensembles work with 228 people with intellectual disability or on development of the programme promoted by the AEOS (Spanish Symphony Orchestra Association), the Fundación BBVA and Plena Inclusión. The participants work on The biggest flower in the world, a musical piece by Emilio Aragón based on a tale by José Saramago, creating micro-compositions for addition to the original piece. The resulting works will be performed in each orchestra's subscribers' season in the first 3 months of 2017. Note should be taken that this project launched by 14 Spanish orchestras has as its starting point the previous experience of the Basque National Orchestra with FEVAS dating back several years and based on feeling music as an instrument of personal development and social integration. It is an activity developed from the MUSIC ROOM coordinated by Mikel Cañada. The Basque Orchestra will present the result of its Mosaic of Sounds in January 2017.

On April 1st San Sebastian and, by extension, the Basque Country, turned into the European Capital of Classical Music. The ICMA Awards 2016, brought to us by the Basque National Orchestra and San Sebastian 2016, gathered at the Kursaal a selection of international artists representing the today and tomorrow of classical music. The event began with the awards ceremony, continuing afterwards, and above all, on stage with the Basque Orchestra.

The awards. As reported the following day by one of the media referring to the awards and the concert starring the award-winners alongside the Orchestra, "The ICMAs are the ratification of uncontrived classical music". The President of the International Classical Music Awards, Remy Franck stressed that these awards are "committed to backing those who truly deserve it". Thus, enveloped in the emotion, the appreciation and the excitement at the subsequent concert, their awards were collected by the soprano Dame Felicity Lott, the trombonist Christian Lindberg, the cellist Pablo Ferrández and the extremely young flautist Nikolai Song, in addition to Jordi Savall and Javier Perianes, who represented Alia Vox and Harmonia Mundi, respectively.

The concert. The awards ceremony was followed by the highlight of the evening: the concert given by the award-winners and the Basque National Orchestra, conducted by Jun Märkl. Added to the relevance of the awards themselves, was the importance of the musical happening. Playing to an audience delighted at having the opportunity to enjoy what would undoubtedly go on to become a unique occurrence, the sound of the Basque Orchestra merged with the voice of Dame Felicity Lott, with the singular Stradivarius of Pablo Ferrández, the uncommon talent of a 12 year old flautist by the name of Nikolai Song and the piano of David Violi and Javier Perianes.

The ICMA Awards 2016, a musical event placing the Basque Orchestra at the vanguard of European music, have now gone down in the annals of the institution.

The Jury of the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) announced today the Awards for 2016. Soprano Dame Felicity Lott is honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Composer, trombonist and conductor Christian Lindberg is Artist of the Year, cellist Pablo Ferrandez Young Artist of the Year. For the first time the new Discovery Award for musicians from 12 to 18 is awarded to flutist Nikolai Song, born in 2002, of Korean-Russian parentage.

Harmonia Mundi is Label of the Year. Special Awards are going to Palazetto Bru Zane and to the label Genuin for the Dinorah Varsi Edition. In the Audio and Video categories, 15 productions from 15 different labels are awarded a prize.

Among the artists performing on the winning audio and video releases are Ensemble Leones, Michala Petri and Mahan Esfahani, Ann Hallenberg, Joyce DiDonato, Philippe Herreweghe, Dmitrij Kitajenko, Andras Schiff, Isabelle Faust, Yevgeny Sudbin, Sir Simon Rattle, Krysztof Penderecki, Jordi Savall and Riccardo Chailly.

ICMA President Remy Franck says: "Only an international jury like ours can get, at the end, such an impressive international result with productions from 15 labels and nine different countries. According to our criteria only really outstanding recordings are allowed to win a prize, and to get there, we will certainly never be misled by any chart rankings or the whatsoever popularity of artists. At ICMA, also less known musicians and smaller independent labels have a chance. It's all about musical quality and integrity!"

The Award Ceremony and Gala Concert will take place on April 1, at the Kursaal in San Sebastian, hosted by the Orquesta de Euskadi (Basque National Orchestra) and San Sebastian European Capital of Culture 2016.

The Basque National Symphony Orchestra presents the CD containing a live recording of the re-release in concert version of José María Usandizaga's opera, "La Llama". This double CD, published by Deutsche Grammophon, brings an end to the Basque National Orchestra's contribution to the Usandizaga Year, commemorating the hundred years since the death of this composer from San Sebastián.

This recording represents the result of an ambitious project, including a great deal of work to edit the score and subsequently re-release the opera in concert version. Conducted by Juan José Ocón, an important number of people and institutions were involved in the endeavour: recovery of the score was carried out by Juan José Ocón himself, with the collaboration of Ana Huarte, and the libretto was revised by the musical critic Manuel Cabrera; Eresbil, the Basque Music Archive also helped with the process. The re-release had a cast including Sabina Puértolas (soprano), Mikeldi Atxalandabaso (tenor), Damián del Castillo (baritone), Miren Urbieta Vega (narrator), Elena Barbé (soprano), Fernando Latorre (bass-baritone), Maite Maruri (mezzosoprano) and Xabier Anduaga (tenor); the choir parts were provided by the Coral Andra Mari.

One indispensable part of the complete endeavour was collaboration of the San Sebastián City Council and the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa.

Re-release of the opera "La Llama", ran from 16-24 March 2015, in four cycles making up the Basque National Symphony Orchestra's Subscribers' Season (Bilbao, San Sebastián, Vitoria and Pamplona). This CD contains the recording of the concerts on March 20th and 21st at San Sebastian's Kursaal Auditorium The CD comes with a finely composed libretto of 60 pages in Basque and Spanish with texts by Juan José Ocón and Manuel Cabrera, synopses, texts in song, etc. It also contains historical photographs of the re-release.

The double CD is now on sale and can be purchased from branches of El Corte Inglés, Fnac and Elkar, from Parsifal (San Sebastián), and from Amazon; the digital edition is available on iTunes and Google Play; and it can also be listened to in streaming mode on Spotify and Deezer. Price: €21 (approx.).

This latest record production promoted by the Basque Orchestra once again confirms the Orchestra's interest and work to make Basque creation known and guarantee its survival. One clear example of this determination is to be found in the Basque Composers Collection, not to be missed, also including in its second issue brought out in 1998 the symphony work of José María Usandizaga.

Last night's arrival of "Beauty and the Beast" to the Royal Opera of Versailles, with the Basque National Symphony Orchestra and the Malandain Ballet Biarritz, with the support of San Sebastian, European Capital of Culture 2016, had caused great expectation. The public waited for the doors to open in a queue running parallel to the Opera entrance.

Among those attending the event were Ana Oregi, Basque Government Minister for the Environment and Regional Policy, and Joxean Muñoz, Deputy Minister of Culture, both representatives of the Basque Government who travelled to Versailles to support the Basque Orchestra on its return to the Opera Royal.

The excellent acoustics and high pit led to the show developing in a completely different fashion to the performances in Biarritz. The musicians, conducted by maestro Ainars Rubikis, felt it immediately the first notes were drawn from their instruments. The clock read 20:05. The show was on. Among the many impressive moments of the performance, the movements of the Beast, marked, fast-moving and with a spectacular ending, where the entire ballet corps is covered by an enormous golden cloak, from which the dancers exit one at a time. Perfect finishing touch when the beast removes the mask in a faint light, as if he doesn't want to reveal his identity, even with his face uncovered.

As happened at the end of "Cinderella" the performance presented by the Basque National Orchestra and the Malandain Ballet Biarritz two years ago, long and heartfelt applause brought a perfect first performance to a close. On stage, Thierry Malandain, Ainars Rubikis and the entire Ballet corps, with the Orchestra from the pit, bowed time and again to an absolutely delighted audience with its clapping and cries of ‘bravo'. In addition to this warm reception, the importance of the musical event was endorsed by the numerous members of the press present, largely French, but also international. Also worthy of note is the attendance of the performance by three North American programmers who came to Versailles for a live experience of this new expression of "Beauty and the Beast", created by Thierry Malandain around fragments of several works by Piotr Ilich Tchaikovsky.