And here the report I have written for StreamingSoundtracks for Fimucite last September.
For the tenth time a film music festival was held on the Spanish Island Tenerife. It started as a dream of conductor, composer and SST friend Diego Navarro. Now after ten times it grown into a very nice international film music festival. The main two main concerts are held in the beautiful Auditorium de Tenerife. But this year the festival started one week earlier. Visitors could enjoy a concert with Lola Shiffrin music played by a big band, a concert with Shirley Walker music played by a concert band and a That 70s Show spectacle. There were also Master classed during the day for people who are interested in film music.
A prelude of Super heroes
The collaboration between Tenerife and Krakow is very visible in the Thursday evening concert. It is the first concert that I attended and was played by local music students. During this concert music was played of the Warner Brother animation movies composed by Michael McCuistion, Kristopher Karter and Lolita Ritmanis. The concert was a bit different that the concert in Krakow. The songs during this concert were a bit more romantic from nature. It is also very nice to see that film music is inspiring young musicians. Also for the three composers it was a very fun evening.
“Héroes animados de la Warner”. Teatro Guimerá © Aarón S. Ramos/Fimucité
Space opera
The first big concert of this festival was a Sci Fi one. The main director of the evening was Christian Schumann. But before the main program could start Spanish awards needed to be given out. Oscar Navarro won the best score. And Federico Jusid won the best composer award. Music from both the composers was played and sounded very nice.
After the awards the main program started. In the first half pieces of Dune, Lost in Space, Battlestar Galactica (80s version), The Last Starfighter, Space:1999, Battle Beyond the Stars and Thunderbirds were played. The highlights of this halve were the pieces with a singer. The first highlight was Inama Nushif from Children of Dune beautifully sang and acted by a famous Spanish singer Cristina Ramos. The second was Lucia di Lammenoor that crossed over into the famous Diva Dance from The 5th Element. This piece is original not possible to sing by a real human. Luckily our SST friend Matthijs Kieboom rearranged the piece for the fantastic singer in such a way that see deserved the ovation from the audience when the piece was done.
In the second half we started with Space: Above and Beyond with Lolita Ritmanis at the helm. Together with Michael and Kristopher she accepted an award for the late Shirley Walker. The rest of the night it was a very varied program with music from Interstellar, Star Wars: The Force Awakens that were conducted by the festival director Diego Navarro himself. Afterwards Schumann returned with Cristina Ramos for a spectacular Flash Gordon. Then it was time for the Doctor Who. This suite was also arranged by Matthijs. It is great to see the tight bond between Diego and Matthijs. The suite started with the theme on a real Theremin played by Lydia Kavina. She is family with of the creator of the theremin and you could hear it in the sound. The suite ended with the almighty I Am The Doctor. Next on the program was Gravity and a medley from a lot of Star Trek movies. As the encore we went back to Star Wars with Yoda’s theme and the finale. During this last piece Darth Vader, Kylo Ren came to say hi with their Storm Troopers.
FImucité – Space Opera. Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife dirigidos por Lolita Ritmanis, Christian Schumann y Diego Navarro © Aarón S. Ramos/Fimucité
The Music of Howard Shore
Special guest of this festival was Howard Shore. The evening was entirely dedicated to his music. Before the intermission a suite from the Hobbit was played an European premiere. After the intermission other music of Howard was played like The Fly, Big, Silence of the Lambs, Se7en, Gangs of New York, Hugo and The Aviator. Also Ed wood was performed with the theremin solo done by Lydia. Howard also conducted to of his pieces namely Dead Ringers and Naked Lunch. Of course music Lord of the Rings could not be left out of this concert. Music from all the three movies was played. I was a bit disappointed that Lighting of the Beacons was not on the program, but luckily we still had the encore! And like in the cinema tears were flowing. At the end of the concert Howard was willing for signing and photos. The queue was more than an hour long but he signed them all.
La Música de Howard Shore. Auditorio de Tenerife © Pepe Torres/Fimucité
Conclusion
This festival is and stays fantastic. Better yet it is getting better each year. If you want to combine a nice sun and beach holiday with film music go to this festival!
