Don’t shoot the pianist

The Maria Canals International Music Competition of Barcelona was founded in 1954 by the pianist Maria Canals and her husband, the writer Rossend Llates. This Competition has achieved international prestige since it was accepted by the World Federation of International Music Competitions in 1958.

It is held at the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, being endorsed by the World Federation of Music Competitions for the organization of the branches of piano, violin, singing, cello, chamber music, guitar, percussion and flute. Since 1954, the Competition has held over 110 branches, with over 7.000 participants from 100 countries and 180 jury members from all over the world.

The 56th Barcelona Maria Canals International Music Competition will bring together 91 pianists from 26 countries between 13 and 26 March. At the same time, the Off-Competition will be taking piano music to the public.

Maria Canals Competition wants to take advantage of the presence of so many prestigious pianists in the city to take piano music out to the public. More than fifty pianos will be spread around the city so everyone who wants to can play the piano in some very unusual places.

Green spaces, squares and streets will provide the setting for concerts aimed at everyone, children and adults, professionals and amateurs, with grand pianos installed so the participants in the competition can take their art to every corner of the city. Rambla del Raval, Plaça de Sarrià, Can Brians prison and the Line 2 metro station lobby in Plaça de la Universitat are some of the improvised “concert halls” for these young artists.

The Pope will visit Barcelona and Sagrada Familia

On Sunday November 7th, Pope Benedict XVI will come to Barcelona and consecrate the Temple of Sagrada Familia. This piece of news was announced yesterday by Cardinal Archbishop of Barcelona, Lluis Martinez Sistach.

This visit shows the high esteem of the Pope for the catalan architect Antoni Gaudi, added the spoke-person at the Vatican, Federico Lombardi. NN Hotels invites you to discover all Gaudi’s buildings as well as other Art-Noveau works in Barcelona, such as Park Guell or Palau de la Musica, with the Modernism Route.

The last time a Pope was in Barcelona dates from 1982, when John Paul II visited Montserrat, the construction works at Sagrada Familia and celebrated mass at the Camp Nou stadium.

Tradicionarius: International Folk Festival

The Tradicionàrius International Folk Festival takes place for the 23rd time, featuring nearly 50 artists, seven album presentations and four new shows that will fill the CAT stage with folk songs and rhythms while including other city venues.

Once again Tradicionàrius wants to make local traditional music and culture more accessible to city residents, without abandoning its aim to evolve and expand. So, until 26 March, Barcelona will be moving to the rhythm of folk.

More inf@: Tradicionarius Website

Winners of the Photo Contest

Yesterday, February 1st, finished the voting in facebook and we have 2 winners for our Photo Contest.

 The contest has been a major success, we received more than 140 pictures. Thank you all for joining us and taking part.

Winners are:

• 1st PRIZE: Eva Fortuño, who will enjoy a 2-nights stay at wonderful U232 Hotel in Barcelona. Congratulations !!!
• 2nd PRIZE: Mandreja Marrón, who has a booking for two at Restaurant H1898. Enjoy your meal !!!

All the pictures will remain on exhibit at our facebook profile, on the album Fan Photos.

Stay tuned, as this was our first contest, but will not be the last…

Buff Epic Run: A mad mud race

Next Sunday December, 20th from 10.30 am on, Montjuïc Castle and other surrounding spaces will become the setting for the Buff®  Epic Run®, a 10-km course with several obstacles to get through including mud pools, straw walls, tube mountains, tyre barriers and rope mazes.

This exceptional 10-km course will have over a thousand participants and include a special race for children between the ages of 13 and 16, which will cover several points on Montjuïc mountain, the most notable being the Castell grounds. You can still sign up for it, but places are limited. Enrolments can be made until December, 17th. 

Here you can see the official videoclip of 2008 Edition:

There are lots of prizes for the adult race and these are varied and highly original, and those taking part on the race in fancy dress will have also some extra points. Awards will go for the most capable in overcoming obstacles, in men’s and women’s categories; for the person who has come the furthest to take part; and for the oldest and youngest participants; prizes for the best fancy dresses, as an individual and in a group; the largest fancy-dressed group, the most original fancy-dressed group, etc…

More inf@: Buff Epic Run Ocisport

Jean Bouin Race

The Jean Bouin Race was started in Barcelona in 1920 by a group of journalists and sports promoters who were athletics enthusiasts, namely Josep Anton Trabal, Lluís Meléndez and Rossend Calvet, who named the event after the legendary French athlete, Jean Bouin, who was the runner-up in the Stockholm Olympics of 1912, holder of various world records between 1911 and 1913 and killed in action during the First World War.

Since then, this classic Catalan and Spanish athletics event, has never stopped inspiring local athletes as well as runners from around the world. The only time it was not held was during the Spanish Civil War, between 1937 and 1939, and, owing to specific problems at the time, between 1955 and 1967.

The event is unique in what it offers, as it is the only one to include a great variety of races and which has been adopting further categories year after year

In all, the Jean Bouin is made up of 13 races of various categories and distances - including one for people with disabilities in wheelchairs and another for people who have had organ transplants. The best known is the Open Race, open to anyone, Federation runner or not.

It will be held on 29 November 2009. Online entries can be made until 12 midnight on 25 November, though the period could close before should the maximum number of 5,000 participants set by the organisers be reached.

The Open Race will go through Paral·lel avenue and Gran Via, making our Hotel Barcelona Universal, Hotel Granvia and Hotel Soho Barcelona balconies and windows the perfect places to see runners from.

More inf@: Jean Bouin Race ..::.. Jean Bouin in Wikipedia

Nivell Zero. Places that do not exist (Google Earth 1.0)

Isaki Lacuesta

and Isa Campo claim a reality above and beyond technology in their exhibition being held at the Suñol Foundation entitled Places that do not exist (Google Earth 1.0). Some people believe computers know everything, so if something fails to appear on Google, that means it does not exist.

These include real places located in Columbia, Ecuador, Russia, Australia and Spain that are hidden by Google Earth, either for being protected areas (military facilities, government buildings and nudist beaches) or for having been transformed by property speculation.

During the period between December 2007 to September 2008, Lacuesta and Campo visited each of these “non-existent” locations on the map, to show how things really are over there. The exhibition features the photos and recordings they made for reclaiming the need for continuing a direct and human vision of our world, without false intermediaries.

Exhibition ‘NIVEL ZERO Lugares que no existen (Google Earth 1.0)’ 
From 01/10/2009 to 28/11/2009
Fundació Suñol -> Pg Gràcia, 98 - Eixample

NN Hotels: www.nnhotels.com

Barcelona Snow Show 2009

This year Barcelona will be getting snow before the mountains. And that’s because the Montjuïc Olympic Stadium will be the main location, on the 7 and 8 November, for the first Barcelona Snow Show, a pioneering event in Spain that will feature the world’s best snowboarders and freestyle skiers.

The Barcelona stadium will be turned into a giant ski slope, where a 35-metre-high Big Air will be set up, which will be the highest ramp in Europe for a Snowboard World cup competition.

Thousands of snowboarding and freestyle skiing specialists will stop off in Barcelona to take part in the LG FIS Snowboard World Cup Big Air and the International Freeski Big Air.

The Barcelona Snow Show also aims to become the snow season’s big inauguration festival and the Olympic Stadium will have a large area featuring exhibitions that specialise in the sector with parallel activities open to the public.

The competition is expected to be held on Saturday, 7 November, followed by the parallel activities on Sunday, 8 November. The commercial exhibition, however, will be held over both days.

Barcelona Snow Show  Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys -> Avinguda de l’Estadi 54

NN Hotels: www.nnhotels.com

The Tibidabo Hall of Mirrors wins FAD awards

After its remodelling in July 2008, the Tibidabo Hall of Mirrors was awarded both the jury prize and the public-opinion prize that are presented by the FAD every year.

The jury awarded the attraction their prize, under the category of “momentary interventions”, at the 51st appearance of the prize-giving ceremony.The prize was awarded to “highlight the magic, imagination and mastery of optical illusions enjoyed by the attraction, which was designed to make children laugh and think“, the jury remarked on its decision.

The attraction was designed by Dani Freixes and works using modern technology in conjunction with the park’s classic mirrors.

The Hall of Mirrors takes its visitors on a ten-point journey, featuring periscopes, stereoscopes, wall mirrors, floor mirrors and lasers.

Source: www.bcn.es

In-Edit: Music Documentary Film Festival

Born in 2003 with the intention of showing the most outstanding music documentaries, the In-Edit.Beefeater Festival continues its voyage into this extensive year, 2009.

 The festival, held at Cine Rex, will be reviewing the career of the videoclip and musical documentary pioneer, Peter Whitehead. During the final section of the festival, the first time it has been publicised, there will be various films focusing on the role music plays in cultural and popular celebrations.

The most obvious example is ‘Favela on Blast’, a film that avoids clichés on Brazilian faveles and which focuses on the most festive point of view. This is the work of Wesley Pentz, better known in the music world as Diplo. The film itself is expected to be an all-round festival of rhythm and fun.

What we find in ‘Soul Power’ is a celebration of being black. We journey to the Zaire of 1974 to relive the concert given by James Brown, Miriam Makeba and B.B. King. It will fill you with the playful spirit of Black Power.

The role of music in black civil rights movements is explored in ‘Soundtrack for a Revolution’, another film which regards music as a part of culture.

As for more local culture, ‘Febrero: cuando la vida es carnaval’ (February: when life’s a carnival) will take us to the Cadiz carnival from a whole array of perspectives.

On concert documentaries, we’ll be able to relive the performance by Johnny Cash in Folsom prison. What’s more, we’ll discover a deeper side to the United States in ‘The Folk Singer: A Tale of Men, Music & America’ and the influence of Brazilian music on the West in ‘Beyond Ipanema’.

What: In-Edit.Beefeater Festival
When: October 29th - November 8th
Where: Cine Rex Barcelona
Gran Vía Corts Catalanes, 463
More inf@: In-Edit Website

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