Benidorm announces the XX Festera Music Composition Contest ‘Villa de Benidorm’

Benidorm City Council, through the Department of Culture directed by Jaime Jesús Pérez, and in collaboration with the Association of Moors and Christians, announces the twentieth edition of the Festera Music Composition Contest 'Villa de Benidorm' in the modality of 'marcha mora', (composition used in the Entrance of Moors with a more parsimonious and Eastern melody).
Jaime Jesús Pérez recalled that the contest is "a consolidated activity in the field of composition" from which a "large number of winning and finalist works have emerged that have joined the repertoires of bands from all over the country." Compositions that “have sounded and do sound in concerts and parades throughout the Spanish geography”.
With this call, the Culture area wants to “highlight the transcendence and such important role of music in society” and, at the same time, “boost the creativity” of professional musicians who constantly keep “traditional music alive so deeply rooted in the Valencian Community ”.
The 2021 edition will also be a “heartfelt tribute” to Andrés Tauler, who was a member of Benidorm Musical Unió, teacher and director of Polop Musical Unió and a prominent partygoer of the Tagarine Muslims Filà of Benidorm, “indispensable collaborator and promoter of the Contest since its inception ”, who died in January of this year. “A key figure - Jaime Jesús Pérez has underlined - of the festive music of our city in recent decades, father and brother of musicians whom we all hold in high esteem for having contributed to the growth of our musical societies”.
The works submitted to the contest must be original and unpublished. Nor have they been interpreted previously. The single prize will consist of a trophy and 2,000 euros. The winner will be invited to participate as a member of the jury in the twenty-first edition of the contest next year.
The deadline for admission of works will end on August 15. The jury will especially value originality, harmony, melody and the rest of the characteristics of festive music that allow the compositions to be optimal for festive parades.
All the information about the contest, as well as the bases, will be published on the citizen portal of Benidorm City Council: www.benidorm.org