The Basque National Orchestra Headquarters in Miramón is the setting in which a singular project is materializing: Ken Zazpi for the first time in symphonic version. The most recognized repertoire and unedited works by the group led by Eñaut Elorrieta performed alongside the Basque Orchestra. On the music stands are the arrangements created by composer Fernando Velázquez, who directs the project. A new initiative by the Orchestra to bring its work closer to society, now the youngest audience, at the hand of one of the most renowned groups within the current Basque pop-rock scene.

After the first phase of the project, focused on the selection and adaptation of the symphonic language to the music of Ken Zazpi, the songs in which the Orchestra and the group from Guernica will work on together from August 21st to 28th will be recorded on a CD which, edited by the Elkar recording company, will be released on November 8th. They will later offer five concerts in December within the KlasikAT cycle. The Kursaal Auditorium in San Sebastián (December 3rd), the Baluarte Auditorium in Pamplona (December 4th), the Euskalduna Palace in Bilbao (December 5th), the Principal Theatre in Vitoria (December 12th) and the Jai-Alai in San Juan de Luz (December 13th). These are some of the stages in which audiences will be able to enjoy the Orchestra's new incursion into repertoires that differ from classical music. Information on the sale of tickets for the concerts will be provided later on.

In addition to its work of disseminating and supporting creation in the field of classic and contemporary music, the Basque Orchestra firmly supports musical production in all its dimensions. Mike Oldfield, Jorge Drexler, Michel Camilo, Joan Manuel Serrat, Emilio Aragón, Mikel Laboa, Benito Lertxundi, Kepa Junkera and Fernando Velázquez himself are some of the artists which the orchestra has collaborated with along this line. Over the last few years the efforts have concentrated on the start-up and consolidation of KlasikAT, a crossover cycle by the Basque Orchestra which now reaches its fourth edition.

Fernando Velázquez directs the project. The composer from Getxo, Fernando Velázquez, author of soundtracks from cinematographic successes like The Orphanage and The Impossible, is in charge of the arrangements for symphonic orchestra and is also responsible for the musical direction of the symphonic pop-rock proposal. Previously, Fernando Velázquez directed the Basque Orchestra in the recording of the soundtrack for the film For the Good of Others (2009) and the song Madera de deriva (Driftwood) by Jorge Drexler, within the n project by the Uruguayan singer-songwriter (2012). In addition, he directed an opening concert for the past edition of Zinemaldia focused on its soundtracks and, in the past month of June, he performed the opening concert for the International Meeting for Autism Research (IMFAR) 2013 held at the Kursaal Auditorium in San Sebastián.

On April 11th and 12th, the Basque National Orchestra will give two concerts at the Bordeaux Auditorium as part of the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine season concert programme and in the context of a new exchange. The BNO is the first foreign orchestra to perform on the stage of the city's newly opened concert hall. Under the direction of conductor Carlo Rizzi, in Bordeaux the Orchestra will perform for the first time with the pianist Luis Fernando Pérez. The programme taken to Bordeaux by the Orchestra will include works by Guridi, Bizet and Falla. The last of the three will be recorded live by the Mirare label. Beforehand, the Orchestra will perform the same pieces on April 9th in Vitoria and 10th in Bilbao as part of its 11th regular Season Concert Programme, also conducted by the Italian Carlo Rizzi and featuring Luis Fernando Pérez as guest soloist.

Policy of exchanges, exchanges of culture. In its endeavour to spread the Basque culture to all corners of the world, added to the invitation to participate in prestigious festivals and concert seasons such as the Schleswig-Holstein and Brazil's Mozarteum, exchanges with other orchestras have played an essential part in the trajectory of the Basque Orchestra. This two-directional policy has doubly extended the Orchestra's artistic horizons. Not only has it opened the doors to far-off venues and audiences, it has also attracted the music of other symphony orchestras to the stages of its Season Concert Programme. Internationally, this exchange policy stemmed from our connection with the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine; in a subsequent development it has taken the Orchestra to tour Italy for an exchange with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi (2009) and on a visit to Germany with the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker (2011).

The Basque Orchestra is heading to Bordeaux for the sixth time. From Bordeaux to the world. In 1984, Bordeaux became the first international stop for the Basque National Orchestra, an ensemble strongly committed since its creation to acting as the ambassador for Basque culture worldwide. Later, in addition to several visits to the capital of Aquitaine, over its 31 years of history the Orchestra has made 14 international tours: halls in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, the UK and Italy in Europe and Argentina, Chile and Brazil in America have all hosted concerts by the Basque Orchestra. Among them are the Vienna Kontzerthaus, the Munich Herkulesaal, the Berlin Kontzerthaus, the Zurich Tonhalle, Sao Paulo Hall, Milan Auditorium and the Colón Theatre in Buenos Aires. Somewhere around a hundred concerts and thousands of kilometres covered with the aim of spreading word of the Orchestra's music and the production of Basque creators down through the years. Our efforts have earned us a place not only in the European musical circuit, but also in Latin America, thus boosting ties with the Basque community overseas.

On Thursday evening, the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine inaugurated the new auditorium in Bordeaux. Under the direction of conductor Kwamé Ryan, the programme chosen for the official opening of the orchestra's new venue included Peter Eötvös' work The Gliding of the Eagle in the Skies, commissioned by the Basque National Orchestra as part of the Tesela project. The programme notes explained that "the piece was commissioned by our friends and neighbours at the Basque National Orchestra on the occasion of the symphony orchestra's 30th jubilee."

Over the years the two orchestras have developed a close relationship. Since 1983 the Basque National Orchestra has performed for audiences in Bordeaux, and the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine has performed in San Sebastian, Bilbao, Vitoria and Pamplona as part of the BNO's regular season concert programme.

11 and 12 April, the Basque National Orchestra's will headline the stage at the Bordeaux auditorium. The Basque National Orchestra will perform for the first time at the recently opened Bordeaux auditorium on April 11th and 12th. The concert will be conducted by Carlo Rizza and feature piano soloist Luis Fernando Pérez.

Lejano azul, lejana Finlandia (Distant Blue, Distant Finland) is the title of the Basque National Orchestra's 7th concert programme to be held in Vitoria, San Sebastián, Pamplona and Bilbao from 25 to 31 January. Finnish conductor Ari Rasilainen will lead the Orchestra in this series of concerts featuring Swedish guest soloist, clarinettist Martin Fröst. Another highlight of this programme is the world premiere of Mauricio Sotelo's Urrutiko urdin, one of the pieces included in the musical mosaic, Tesela, a project celebrating the Orchestra's 30th anniversary.

This is not the first time Martin Fröst joins the BNO's Season Concert programme. Orchestra audiences had the opportunity to hear the talented Swedish clarinettist in May 2009, when he won critical and audience acclaim debuting with the BNO in Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra by C. Nielsen. The following was written about the artist at the time: "a soloist of extraordinary musical talent", "a highly nuanced version, transparent despite its complexity", "robust sound [...], incredible runs of notes, with masterly ease" and "superb clarinet; a soloist of incredibly beautiful tone". On this occasion he will join the BNO in a rendition of Mozart's Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra, In addition to his BNO Season Concert performance, on 26 January Martin Fröst will offer a recital as part of the Miramón Matinées series together with pianist Javier Pérez de Azpeitia; The concert will be held at the BNO Miramón headquarters. On the 28th Fröst will give a master class to students of Musikene as part of the "Aula Jordá" cooperation agreement between Musikene and the BNO

Urrutiko urdin by Mauricio Sotelo, a new "tessera" in the mosaic of contemporary compositions commissioned by the Basque National Orchestra. After the previous debut of Ravel à son âme by French composer Gerard Pesson, the BNO Orquesta is now proud to present Urrutiko urdin by Spanish composer Mauricio Sotelo. The peformance is part of Tesela, a project supported with funding by Fundación BBVA. Sotelo is a disciple of Luigi Nono and winner of the Spanish National Music Prize in 2001. His work is rooted in the intense forms of cante hondo, a style that has brought him in collaboration with Enrique Morente, Carmen Linares, Marina Heredia, Pitingo, Arcángel and Miguel Poveda. In Urrutiko urdin, however, the composer takes his inspiration from his boyhood summers in Euskadi, invoking the the sky and the sea.

Ari Rasilainen debuts in the BNO Concert Season. Finnish conductor Ari Rasilainen to debut this season as guest with the Basque National Orchestra. But this isn't the first time Rasilainen takes up the baton with the BNO: In September 2010, as part of the San Sebastián Classical Music Festival, he conducted a concert featuring the music of Rachmaninov. In addition to Urrutiko urdin and Mozart's Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra, the programme will feature Symphony No. 2 by Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. Rasilainen has conducted on numerous occasions for orchestras including the Suisse Romande, Tonkünstler Orchester Niederösterreich, and the radio orchestras of Frankfurt, Leipzig, Stuttgart and Berlin, and has worked with soloists such as Montserrat Caballé, Julia Fischer, Shlomo Mintz, Daniel Müller-Schott, Gregory Sokolov and Nikolaj Znaider.

This Saturday, November 17th, the Matinées de Miramón season welcomes the saxophone quartet Sigma Project to its stage at the Basque Orchestra headquarters. The concert, bearing the title of Utopías, is presented as a coming-together of tradition and modernity: in this experience, the saxophone becomes a translator of sonorities, a vehicle for the expression of ancient senses with new languages.

Understanding the transcription as "musical renaissance", SIGMA PROJECT will perform several transcriptions for saxophone quartet of pieces from the 14th, 16th and 17th centuries by the contemporary Italian composer Salvatore Sciarrino from his cycle Pagine (2001) and Canzionere da Scarlatti (2002). One particularly outstanding feature of these transcriptions is the almost educational slant with respect to the original.

Completing the programme are works by Félix Ibarrondo and Ramon Lazkano dedicated to SIGMA PROJECT. Aikan, composed by Félix Ibarrondo in 2009, and Jalkin by Ramon Lazkano, performed for the first time that same year, complete "Utopías". According to Ibarrondo, Aikan (a completely made-up word) naturally fits into the mosaic of his work; these are "internal impulses that express themselves and overflow in sound and find reality in the very particular timbre of the saxophone". Ramon Lazkano defines his Jalkin, a commission from the Fundación BBVA for Sigma Project, as "an attempt to capture the sediment of a sound that links us to our memory and inscribes us in time". This Saturday both composers will take to the stage at the BNO headquarters to present their works to the audience.

With the name of SIGMA PROJECT, in 2007 the saxophone soloists Andrés Gomis, Josetxo Silguero, Ángel Soria and Miguel Romero, firmly committed to present-day musical creation, set themselves the task of causing a revolution in the Spanish chamber music scene. Their quest to update both the repertoire for saxophone and the space and mise-en-scène of the concerts has attracted the interest of composers who, in close collaboration, have proceeded to give highly unusual performances. Always open to new projects, collaborations and interrelation with other disciplines, SIGMA PROJECT continues to stand out for its reflection, study and investigation of sound, in a constant search for and application of new technologies. Soon to be performed are the concerts IZARBIL by Félix Ibarrondo with the ORCAM and Concert per a quatre, by Josep Maria Mestres Quadreny with the OBC, both composed for saxophone quartet and symphony orchestra, and dedicated to SIGMA PROJECT.

The Basque National Orchestra, in collaboration with Telecinco Cinema and Apaches Entertainment, presents the original soundtrack from the motion picture "The Impossible" in a unique concept to be held on 22nd to September within the framework of the San Sebastian International film Festival.

The Basque National Orchestra will perform music from the soundtrack of "The Impossible". The concert will be conducted by Fernando Velázquez, composer of the original score. The programme will also feature two other works composed by Velázquez for J.A. Bayona films, "The Orphanage" and the short film "El hombre esponja".

The concert of the soundtrack from "The Impossible" will accompany the the film's premiere at the San Sebastián Film Festival, where it will be screened as part of the Official Selection. The star of the film, Ewan McGregor, will be present to accept the Donostia Award for lifetime achievement.

This is not the first time the Basque National Orchestra has flirted cinema. As part of the Film Festival, the Orchestra has recorded the musical score for two silent films: "The Crowd" (King Vidor), composed by Carmelo Bernaola, and "Wings" (Zamecnik). The Orchestra has also performed a number of concerts of motion picture music under the baton of Argentinian composer Lalo Schifrin, author of the score of "Mission Impossible". The Basque National Orchestra recorded the theme music for the Film Festival in both 1991 and 1992, and recorded the soundtrack for the film "El mal ajeno", also composed by Fernando Velázquez, author of the score for "The Impossible".

The concert will take place on 22 September at 12 noon at the Orchestra headquarters in San San Sebastián, at Paseo Miramon, number 124. Admission is free but guests will be required to secure an invitation at the "info-shop" information tent set up specifically for the Film Festival in San Sebastián's Plaza Okendo from 15th to 21st September, open from 10am to 8pm. Seats will be available until they run out. One invitation per person.

"The Impossible" will be released in Spain on 11 October 2012 by Warner Bros Pictures International. Spain.