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The resident choral groups at the Teatre Auditori de Granollers inaugurate the 24/25 season, full of emotions and great challenges

• Amics de la Unió returns to the stages of the Gran Teatre del Liceu, the Palau de la Música Catalana and L’Auditori de Barcelona, ​​and to collaborate with the Simfònica del Vallès and Vespres d’Arnadí, among others.
• The season of Voices, the Young Choir and the Chamber Choir includes around fifty concerts, new productions and absolute premieres.
• The Gloria by A. Vivaldi, the Miserere by JA Hasse, the Magnificat by J. Rutter or the Chichester Psalms by L. Bernstein are among the highlights of the season.

Veus will perform Vivaldi’s “Gloria” with the Terrassa 48 Chamber Orchestra, Albert Guinovart’s “El conte de Nadal” with the Gran Teatre del Liceu Orchestra and Hasse’s “Miserere” with Vespres d’Arnadí as the opening act of the Easter Edition of the Peralada Festival. It will also premiere “Ilse”, the newly created musical by Roger Padullés and Jordi Domènech, continue the successful “Songs of Hope” tour and participate in the Avilés Choral Competition. The Cor Jove will recover “Flor de Nit” by Guinovart himself, collaborate with the Liceu –in “El monstre al Laberint”– and with the Simfònica del Vallès, in “Videojocs en concert!” and, together with the Cor de Cambra, they will premiere the production “Jazz al Cor” by Martí Ventura. The latter will lead a participatory “Magnificat” by Rutter, perform Leonard Bernstein’s “Chichester Psalms” and close the tour in tribute to Anselm Clavé.

Veus – Cor Infantil Amics de la Unió will open the season by welcoming the Australian choir Gondwana , which will stop at the Teatre Auditori de Granollers (15/10/24) as part of its European tour. “They are part of a structure that involves the entire country, they have an impressive choral network that extends to different cities,” says Josep Vila Jover . “We are very interested in being in direct contact with this type of entity, from which we can learn both musically and organizationally, and which understand choral singing – in the same way as we do – as a pedagogical, educational and social tool.” This joint concert will include some of the works from the Songs of Hope repertoire, which this year can be enjoyed in full in Alcover (30/11/24), in Olot (27/12/24) and in Vilassar de Dalt (22/03/25). In addition, the Granollerins will also bring some of these songs to the Certamen Coral Avilés (23 and 24/11/24): “We believe that it is necessary that, from time to time, our choirs make room in their agenda for a competition”. It should be remembered that this summer, Veus was awarded the third prize and the prize for best interpretation of the obligatory Japanese song at the Tokyo International Choir Competition. The autumn will continue with a whole challenge: interpreting the well-known Gloria by Antoni Vivaldi – catalogued as RV 589 – “with a modern orchestra, but in the choral version that, supposedly, the composer conducted with his training at the Ospedale della Pietà”. This charitable institution from the 14th century acted as a convent, orphanage and music school; in fact, its boarders reached an interpretative level of such quality that even noble families sent their daughters there to study or work as teachers. “The version that we will perform, therefore, will be for white voices, with soloists from the same choir, which will be an opportunity for them to grow on stage. It is a demanding work due to its length; at the same time, however, it is such well-made music that it is a pleasure to work with.” This collaboration with the Terrassa 48 Chamber Orchestra can be enjoyed at the Teatre Auditori de Granollers (27/10/24) under the baton of Jordi Casas Bayer , “a magnificent conductor who is very clear about what he wants musically and how to achieve it.” One more year, with the arrival of winter, Veus will return to the stage of the Gran Teatre del Liceu . He will do so to perform four performances of El conte de Nadal by Albert Guinovart –two for school children and two for matinees on the weekend (17, 20, 21 and 22/12/24)– in what will be the eighth edition of this successful show. This year, in the same opera house, he will also participate in the La Caixa Foundation Christmas Concert (19/12/24) together with a male choir prepared by Lluís Vilamajó. The stellar collaborations, however, will continue in the spring, with the inauguration of the Easter Edition of the Peralada Festival: Vespres d’Arnadí , directed by Dani Espasa , has invited them to perform the choral part of Miserere in C minor by Johann Adolph Hasse, “a very demanding work, another challenge that we are very excited to take on.”

For Veus, the season will continue with a new production entitled “Cançons d’aquí”, a repertoire tailor-made for the Festival Emergents at L’Auditori de Barcelona (15/02/25) that will consist of a cappella and piano works by contemporary Catalan composers: “There will be works by Josep Vila, Bernat Vivancos, Josep Ollé, Gerard López Boada, Mariona Vila, Anna Capmany… and we will have pianist Paul Perera, who has extensive experience in accompanying choral groups”. This repertoire can be heard in different Catalan municipalities -for now, in Llinars del Vallès (09/02/25) and at the Auditori de Bellavista (09/03/25)- and, at each concert, the local choir will sing the latest songs together with Veus. Finally, they will close the season with the absolute premiere of a newly created musical: Ilse , with a libretto by Roger Padullés and music by Jordi Domènech . “Padullés, in addition to being a great tenor, is also a journalist, and has been studying different aspects of the Second World War and the concentration camps for some time,” Vila Jover pointed out. “With these studies he discovered the figure of a survivor called Ilse. And we will explain the life of this person through songs sung by children.” This production can be enjoyed at the Teatre Auditori in Granollers (11/05/25), in Vilaseca (07/06/25) and in Valls (08/06/25). But this will not be the only musical of the season that can be heard on the Vallés stage: the Cor Jove Amics de la Unió will perform Flor de Nit by Albert Guinovart, with the Orquestra Simfònica de la URV (24/11/24) in a very special version. “Everything will have been decided and put together by young people: starting with the choice of the work, which they chose by vote, and following with the stage direction, costumes, arrangements or, obviously, the performance”. The production will be made up, above all, of under-26s who will have been involved voluntarily, organised in committees: “we have a lot of talent in the choirs. Many have grown up experiencing these shows naturally and have become interested in studying related to the performing or musical arts”.

The mixed voice ensembles resident at the Teatre Auditori de Granollers

Another great production that will host the Sala Gran del Teatre Auditori de Granollers will be John Rutter ‘s Magnificat (12/01/24), which will be led by the Cor de Cambra de Granollers and will feature a whole host of participatory singers. “We want to continue betting on participatory productions: we already did it with Fauré’s Requiem a couple of seasons ago,” said Vila Jover. “We want to make our structure available to people, to give them the possibility of being part of a production of these characteristics.” This “essential of contemporary creation”, made up of “melodies that appeal to the viewer and harmonies that, despite not being easy to interpret, are perfectly understood”, can also be enjoyed in a reduced format and in advance at the Parròquia de Sant Esteve de Granollers (10/11/24) and the Església de Santa Maria del Mar in Barcelona (12/12/24). And after celebrating the holidays with the rest of the organization’s choirs in the traditional Christmas Concert in Granollers (15/12/24), the two mixed voice ensembles will join forces to perform “a project that arises from friendship”: Jazz al Cor (23/02/24) by pianist and composer Martí Ventura recovers, on the one hand, a work entitled Els pecats del cor that was written on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Amics de la Unió Music School, and on the other, premieres “the opposite of sins, which are virtues”. In this way, the seven deadly sins, which will be performed by the Chamber Choir, will be interspersed with the seven virtues – chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, patience, benevolence and humility -, which will be performed by the Young Choir. Impactful music that will be accompanied by a selection of poems and a text by the poet and cultural journalist Esteve Plantada . For spring, the two formations have planned first-rate collaborations with one of the most important orchestras on the Catalan scene. With the Orquestra Simfònica del Vallès , the Cor Jove will recover the project Videojocs en concert! (05/04/24), which last year sold out three weeks before its premiere. And the Cor de Cambra will accompany the Valles orchestra in Leonard Bernstein ‘s Chichester Psalms . “This is one of the works that I had been waiting to do one day,” says Vila Jover; “It’s very well-made music, with a very characteristic language.” Under the baton of Xavier Puig , it will be performed in Terrassa (04/04/25), at the Palau de la Música Catalana (06/04/25), in Lleida (11/04/25), Igualada (12/04/25), Granollers (13/04/25) and Tarragona (15/04/25) on an Easter tour. We can therefore say that the Cor de Cambra season will end with this tour and will have also begun with another tour, that of the Venim de Clavé program.

Premiered last year in collaboration with musicologist Xavier Chavarria , it will stop in Les Franqueses del Vallès (19/10/24), Caldes de Montbui (20/10/24), Igualada (16/11/24) and Argentona (17/11/24). Finally, we can also announce that the Cor Jove will end the season as a stage choir at the Gran Teatre del Liceu to perform “one of its most highly valued pedagogical products”, El monstre al laberint (29 and 30/04/24, 26 and 27/05/25).