Benidorm begins this Friday the XIII International Organ Festival, which will feature a work composed expressly for the contest

This coming Friday, January 31, the XIII edition of the Benidorm International Organ Festival will kick off, which will once again feature eight concerts and which each year increases its international renown and prestige until it has become a world reference.

The event, which as usual will take place in the parish church of San Jaime, was presented this morning by the Councillor for Culture, Jaime Jesús Pérez, who was accompanied by the directors of the festival, Juan Antonio Espinosa and Benantzi Bilbao, and the parish priest of San Jaime, Juan Antonio González. The main novelty this year will be the performance of a work composed expressly for the event, a work by Mario Quinto, who also attended the presentation.

The councillor has announced that, as in other years, the concerts will be offered on the last Friday of each month, except for the one in December, which will be on Saturday the 13th. “The festival is a world reference point where many musicians want to come because we also have an instrument, the church organ, of excellent quality,” said Jaime Jesús Pérez, before thanking the “predisposition and good collaboration” of the church and its parish priest and “the great work throughout the year” of the directors of the event.
After having invited the entire population of Benidorm to attend the eight events by the Councillor for Culture, co-director Juan Antonio Espinosa has highlighted “the moment of splendour” that the festival is going through “which contributes to having a first-class cultural offer in the city”.

Benantzi Bilbao, for its part, has also emphasised the great quality of the organ “which is tuned every month and used every month”. It has also emphasised the large number of requests received to participate “which come from Japan or the United States”. Bilbao has revealed this year's new piece, a composition by Mario Quinto, written for piano and two 'txistus' (Basque flutes) made 'expressly' for the festival.

The composer explained that when he was offered the project "I came up with a fusion between the Basque Country and the Levant, introducing Basque melodies and other popular ones from the area." "It has been a great honour and an important challenge to be performed on an organ like this with three keyboards and more than 40 registers."

The first concert will be this Friday by Joan Pradell; the next will be on February 28 with Brett Leighton; on March 28 it will be Benantzi Bilbao's turn on the organ, accompanied by the 'txistus' of Josu Sorriketa and Juan María Gondra. In this event, the work 'De Mundaka a Llevant' by Mario Quinto will be premiered. The next event will be on April 25 with the students of the Professional Music Conservatory of Alicante. On May 30th, Jan Vermeire will offer a concert and the event will return on October 31st with Javier Artigas on the organ and Javier Pantoja on the fortepiano. On November 28th, Javier Sáez and the Alicante Chamber Choir will perform, and the cycle will close on December 13th with a Christmas concert by Paco Amaya on the organ and the baritone Christian Costea. All concerts will be at 8 pm in the church of San Jaime.