Program BAM Festival 2011

Despite having a new artistic director, the BAM festival retains its essential spirit: every style of music and a fair share of local representatives.

From 22 to 24 September, one of the big attractions of the coming BAM will be Herman Dune. The French folk group has become a summer phenomenon thanks to the inclusion of the 2006 hit “I wish that I could see you soon” in a beer commercial.

This is not the first time the festival programme has included the creators of soundtracks for such ads. It did in 2009 with Billie Vision and The Dancers.

BAM has always been a platform for new groups. That means you’ll be able to see the new British Jazz sensation, Portico Quartet, and the young Canadian singer-songwriter Little Scream, in the style of Arcade Fire and The National.

As regards electronic music, it has been announced that Zomby will be taking part, bringing BAM a touch of British dubstep. And from the Dominican Republic, Rita Indiana y Los Misterios will be bringing a taste of electro-merengue beat.

The festival is clearly opting once more for home-grown music. Guillamino and Bedroom, two very different musicians, head the list of Barcelona talent.

::: BAM Festival 2011 :::

Barcelona Fashion Showcase

The city’s main fashion events coincide once again. The Brandery fashion show, which takes place from 13 to 15 July, features an area open to the general public among its new features. The 080 Barcelona Fashion catwalk, from 12 to 15 July, is being held at historical site of the Barcelona University, while the ModaFad parade and market will be on from 14 to 15 July.

While The Brandery, an urban fashion fair designed to show off the latest trends from the big brands, is organising a competition for new talent, the 080 Barcelona Fashion catwalk, an indie fashion platform, is letting in big names.

The Brandery is the new hotspot of urban fashion, a hub of trends, design, music, creativity and business. Exhibitions, catwalk shows, live music… all under the same roof which, for the first time this year, will have a new sector open to the general public: The Brandtown Fashion Xperience, which will coexist with the traditional The Brandery trade show.Such apparent contradictions share the same spirit, that of putting Barcelona on the fashion map, publicising successful businesses and introducing up-and-coming designers.

Creativity and innovation are the concepts that inspire 080 Barcelona Fashion, an initiative driven by the Catalan Government, as an open, plural multidisciplinary, international fashion platform.

This July at least sees these two events coinciding with the ModaFad events and activities once again to provide a highly unique fashion week. And B-Hotel features Fitting Room, an event where design, fashion and arts come together.

The ModaFAD activity consists of the international showing of emerging fashion designers to boost the interdisciplinary, drive the concept of the designer and promoted, and encourage the relationship between the design schools, the young designers, the specialized modes of communication, and the industry.

Detailed information can be found on each event website:

• The Brandery
• 080 Barcelona Fashion
• ModaFAD
• Fitting Room at B-Hotel

Montjuïc at Night: Open Music Festival

On 2 July, Barcelona will once again pay tribute to its own home-brewed live music, with a new white night on Montjuïc mountain, Montjuïc at Night, where the best bands from the city’s main music festivals will be meeting up at the same site.

Sonar, Barnasants, De Cajón! Festival Flamenco, Cruïlla BCN, Mas i Mas, BAM. Up to twenty festivals with a highly varied programme that includes some forty performances in every style to suit every taste, from pop to jazz, hip-hop and electronica.

The white night will also offer a taste of the Beefeater In-Edit, the Barcelona International Music Documentary Film Festival, with a screening of two music documentaries.

As usual, the music evening of this fourth edition of Montjuïc at Night will be accompanied by an open night at various museums and mountain venues, such as the CaixaForum, the Fundació Joan Miró, MNAC, the Poble Espanyol and the Teatre Grec gardens.

The festival will kick off at 8 pm and go on until 4 am. For access to some of the mountain stages, the public will have extra public transport and a free bus service until 5 am, connecting Montjuïc Castle to Plaça d’Espanya and Avinguda de la Reina Maria Cristina with the funicular.

SonarKids: Creative Music & Experiences for children

After the success of the last two events, the 3rd SonarKids on Sunday 19 June isthe ideal finishing touch to Sónar 2011 to enjoy with all the family. SonarKids has a great deal of activities and creative experiences designed for parents and children to have fun and learn about different artistic disciplines by playing in a new and original way.

SonarKids presents a musical line-up fulll of top drawer shows, with performances by the Portuguese group Buraka Som Sistema, the renowned British dj and BBC Radio 1 presenter Gilles Peterson, the kiddie pop group Papa Topo, the indie pop group Polock, the stories sung by Barbara i Els Morenos, DJ Amarelo and the wizardry on the decks of the Pioneer Dj Kids.

The fun characters of Pintatelotu are the stars of the new SonarKids image. Pintatelotu offers children the opportunity to have fun and learn while they are playing and colouring in their gallery of characters. Are they monsters? aliens? animals?

More inf@: SonarKids website

MCB, International Music Competition Maria Canals Barcelona

This year’s Maria Canals International Music Competition takes place at the Palau de la Música Catalana, from 18 March to 1 April, and at several iconic sites, streets and squares in the city.

During this period, some hundred pianists from 27 different countries will be taking part in the competition and offering concerts throughout the city as part of the Maria Canals OFF-Competition.

One of this year’s notable novelties is the piano to be played by the finalists for the 57th Competition. It is a new CFX model, a 2.75 metre-long grand piano, which Yamaha has been working on for the last 19 years and which audiences will be able to hear for the first time in Spain during the Maria Canals Competition.

This year marks the first Maria Canals Competition not to be attended by its creator, Maria Canals i Cendrós, who died last July at the ripe old age of 96. This year’s competition is therefore aiming to pay a special tribute to its creator through an exhibition entitled A life in Music and a tribute event at the Palau de la Música.

This programme will kick off at Plaza Reial, where on Friday 18 March, OFF Maria Canals has organised a twelve-hour marathon in collaboration with the La Reial ens mou association.

Emergencia! 2011 – 3rd Independent Music Festival of Barcelona

From 6 pm in the afternoon until 12 at midnight for the two scenarios will center a selection of the most outstanding artists in the emergent music scene both national & international with proposals from the pop and rock as the experimental sounds.

For the third year running, Emergencia! becomes a showcase for upcoming sounds in independent music, going out on a limb for a series of new names. Fiera!, Ornamento y Delito, Caballo, Dotore, Me and the Bees, and Patrick Bower or Stranded Horse are all coming to the forefront, and Emergència! has chosen them to present to the public on the two stages at the CCCB.

19 February 2011 – Limited capacity
Admission fee: 7 €
Concessions for students, senior citizens and the unwaged: 5 €.
Free admission for Friends of the CCCB

Barcelona Liceu: The Tragedy of Anne Boleyn

The first opera chosen for the Gran Teatre del Liceu in the mid nineteenth century, Anna Bolena, is back with this story of the English queen unjustly condemned to death along with her supposed lover, for hiding her infidelity from her husband, the king.

The Liceu version, also based on Felice Romani’s libretto, – with its subtle characterization, logically linked situations and great dramatic efficacy – permitted Gaetano Donizetti to develop a new, more evolved dramatic idiom whose great force of expression relegated the Rossinian tradition to the past. The plots tells how the cruel Henry VIII had Anne Boleyn beheaded in order to marry Jane Seymour. The famous final scene, in which Anne, about to be executed, oscillates between lucidity and delirium («Al dolce guidami»), prefigures the madness scene in Lucia di Lammermoor.

Approximate running time -> Act I 90 min | Pause 30 min | Act II 95 min.
TOTAL 3h 35 min

Gran Teatre del Liceu (From 20/01/2011 to 05/03/2011) -> C/la Rambla, 51 | Ciutat Vella

SpongeBob, the musical in Barcelona

Have you every dreamt of seeing SpongeBob, alongside his friends Patrick Star, Sandy Cheeks, Eugene Krabs and Squidward Tentacles, close-up? Well, now your dream’s come true, because they’re all coming over to the Palau Sant Jordi in a musical that will delight children.

SpongeBob SquarePants is an extremely energetic and optimistic sea sponge (although his appearance more closely resembles a kitchen sponge) who lives in a pineapple under the sea with his pet snail Gary, who meows like a cat. Although Gary only actually speaks in a few episodes, (mainly in “Sleepy Time” in Spongebob’s dream world, where Gary is portrayed as a librarian with an English accent) the characters have shown an ability to understand him. Living two houses down from SpongeBob is his best friend Patrick Star, a dim-witted yet friendly pink seastar who lives under a rock. Living between the two is Squidward Tentacles, an arrogant and egotistical octopus[2] who lives in an Easter Island moai and dislikes his neighbors (especially SpongeBob) for their child-like behavior. He enjoys playing the clarinet and painting self-portraits.

A creative team headed by Flipy were commissioned to bring this show, where children can interact with their favourite characters, to Barcelona. The show is based on a television episode called The Lost Episode: The Sponge Who Could Fly.

Place:  Palau Sant Jordi -> Pg Olímpic, 5
Date:  02/01/2011 & 03/01/2011

De Cajón! Flamenco Festival in Barcelona

The “De Cajón!” festival hits Barcelona again, with a line-up to warm you to the rhythm of clapping palms. Offering a line-up that features not just household names from the Flamenco scene but also promising new talents, the Barcelona Flamenco Festival gets ready for its sixth year having consolidated its status as a regular feature with a distinctive personality.

Niña Pastori will officially open the festival with a special Christmas concert at the Palau de la Música, where you can treat yourself to a repertory of Flamenco Christmas carols specially adapted for the occasion and where the Cadiz-born cantaora or Flamenco singer will be accompanied by eight musicians and a dancer.

The Palau will also reverberate to Rosario Flores’s rumba power, Kiko Veneno’s Flamenco rock and, as a grand finale, the might of Estrella Morente.

The Auditori will be the setting for a truly special evening featuring Duquende, Parrita, Montse Cortés and various Chambao musicians to pay homage to José Ortega Heredia, aka Manzanita. Under the title of Con piel de manzana, the world of Flamenco will be paying tribute to one of most innovative figures in its history.

This year’s De cajón! is going in for local talent, with a line-up full of promising new talents from the Barcelona scene. Such is the case with Marujita, who will be presenting her second album, produced by Ricky Falkner, and the guitarist Juan Ramón Caro and the dancer Ana Morales, who will be performing at Luz de Gas.

Edwyn Collins at Primavera Club Festival Barcelona

Primavera Club will have the privilege of offering us a live performance from this living legend, as part of the festival running from the 24th to the 28th of November in seven different venues across Barcelona.

Edwyn Collins led one of the freshest bands of the 1980s, Orange Juice. He launched a promising solo career. And he achieved mainstream success with hits like A girl like you, But a stroke stopped Edwyn Collins’s career in its tracks.

After a long and arduous rehabilitation process, the Scottish musician has recorded his new material on Losing Sleep, in which he collaborated with artists such as Franz Ferdinand, Drums and Magic Numbers. Back on stage.

The Apolo and its little sister, La [2], will once again take centre stage at a festival which continues to opt for long-established and up-and-coming groups alike. Sala Bikini, the Casino de l’Aliança in Poblenou, Moog, Cabaret Berlin and Sala Monasterio complete the line-up of the festival’s venues.

And Edwyn Collins won’t be the only one to stir up emotions: Primavera Club will also feature an exclusive concert from one of the legendary Barcelona groups of the 1990s (ok, so everyone sang in English back then): Cornflakes.

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