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CORO CERVANTES is a unique professional chamber choir. Through its performances and recordings it aims to bring the music of Iberia and Latin America to audiences everywhere. Founded by its director Carlos Fernández Aransay, under the auspices of the Instituto Cervantes in London, CORO CERVANTES made its first public appearance at the Spanish Embassy in 1996. It has since performed at London venues including St. James!s Spanish Place, the Colegio Español, the Foreign Office, St John!s Smith Square, the Queen Elizabeth Hall and gave its sold-out 10th anniversary concert at the Wigmore Hall. As a result of historically informed programming, CORO CERVANTES has taken part in festivals and celebrations in the UK at such diverse venues as Shakespeare!s Globe Theatre, the Venezuelan Embassy, the Hackney Empire and collaborating with the National Gallery's El Greco exhibition. Further concerts in Winchester, Manchester, Leeds, Peterborough and Oxford have presented music for Philip II of Spain, Federico García Lorca, Santiago de Compostela, Catherine of Aragon, The Habsburgs and El Greco. Concert engagements outside the UK have taken Coro Cervantes to Mexico, Spain, and to the Festival of Latin American culture in Moscow. Its repertoire includes works sung in Spanish (Castilian), Quechua (the Inca language), Nahuatl (the Aztec language), Mediaeval Galician, Catalan, Basque, and more.
CORO CERVANTES has a concert repertoire spanning a wide variety of sacred and secular music, from the Middle Ages and Renaissance to the 19th and 20th Centuries. On CD it has recorded to critical acclaim. The first album, O Crux, a survey of 19th Century Spanish church music by Isaac Albéniz, Enrique Granados, Manuel de Falla and others includes 12 world premiere recordings. It was chosen by the Gramophone Magazine's critics as one of the discs of the year. Their next disc, Oratio, 20th Century music from Spain and Latin America, was awarded 5-stars by BBC Music Magazine. It includes Ginastera's Lamentations and 10 world premiere recordings. In 2008, to celebrate the 75th birthday of one of Spain´s most distinguished contemporary composers, Antón García Abril, CORO CERVANTES was chosen to record his choral music in a 12 disc boxed-set dedicated to all his music. They were joined by the London Symphony Orchestra Strings, soprano María Orán, cellist Asier Polo and organist Charles Matthews. 2009 sees the release of their first recording for Signum Records, called Yanomami, a disc of 20th Century music for choir and guitar, with Brazilian guitarist Fabio Zanon. It coincides with the 70th birthday of Brazilian composer Marlos Nobre, whose piece gives the album its title. Their next disc is Espana!, a showcase of music from Spain.
Carlos Fernandez Aransay
Carlos F. Aransay studied conducting and composition at the Royal Conservatoire of Music in Madrid, the Royal College of Music in London, and privately with Jacques Delacôte in Vienna. His work as conductor, teacher, writer and expert interpreter of Iberian and Latin American music keeps him in great demand. In 1995 he founded the chamber choir Coro Cervantes, under the auspices of the Instituto Cervantes. He said at the time: "At Coro Cervantes we have made it our task to bring the music of Iberia and of Latin America to British audiences, and we have explored the historical connections of Great Britain with those countries." Now also working with the choir outside the UK his enthusiasm is un-dimmed: "Throughout my trips in Latin America I have been very lucky to experience first-hand the endless vividness of their popular music and the spontaneous enthusiasm of their choirs."
Away from Coro Cervantes, Carlos has conducted in many countries. In the Czech Republic he directed the Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic and Marienbad Symphonic Orchestras and recorded the Pilsen Radio Orchestra in a programme called "Spain in the Romantic Germanic Opera!. In December 2004 Carlos debuted with the National Choir of Spain. A year later he was with the Cuban National Symphony Orchestra in Havana and with the Falcon Simphony Orchestra in Coro, Venezuela - the same year he conducted an opera gala concert with the SODRE Symphony Orchestra in Montevideo, Uruguay. In Peru he has worked with the Peruvian National Symphony Orchestra, and the Orchestra of the National Conservatoire. He has conducted the Ópera de Cámara de Costa Rica, a country he visits in 2009 again, to make his debut as conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra at the Teatro Nacional with a gala of zarzuela.
As a writer, Carlos has had several articles published. He translates for EMI Classics and Naxos and has worked as a specialist interpreter # and consultant to Harry Christophers. In 1998 he became Assistant Secretary of the Iberian and Latin American Music Society, ILAMS. He regularly teaches choral and orchestral conducting at conservatoires and universities in Mexico # and Peru. He is a member of the distinguished panel of choral trainers of the Lacock International Courses. He is Music Director and a member of the jury of the Trujillo International Singing Competition, Peru, and was Music Director and Member of the Jury of the Rosario International Singing Competition, Argentina.
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