Great success for Ensemble II Valenciano at Benidorm Great Recital Series

This evening, Benidorm City Hall Auditorium hosted a new concert in the Great Recitals series, featuring the Ensemble Il Valenciano, formed in 2020 by Benidorm-based oboist Gonzalo Devesa to promote and disseminate the music of lesser-known Spanish composers to the general public. The event featured the Councilor for Culture, Jaime Jesús Pérez, and members of the local government, and the venue was practically packed.

For this occasion, the ensemble was represented by Gonzalo Devesa himself and Graham Jackson, both professors at the Royal Conservatory of Music of Madrid (RCSMM). Through an oboe and piano duo, they performed music by Spanish composers such as Manuel de Falla (1876-1946) with "El amor brujo" (The Witch's Love); or Alicante-based Óscar Navarro with "Legacy"; and Ricardo Llorca with "El combat del somni" (The Combat of Dreams). The latter, based in New York but originally from Benidorm, recently received the Culture Award from the Community of Madrid in classical music.

Gonzalo Devesa began his training at the Unión Musical and the Benidorm Conservatory, where he received the Extraordinary Award. He later graduated from the Conservatorio Superior de Valencia. He holds a PhD Cum Laude in Art and Production from the Polytechnic University of Valencia. He has two Master's degrees in Education and Artistic Teaching.

As a performer, he has been a member of the Netherlands National Youth Orchestra, the European Union Youth Wind Orchestra, and the Young Musicians' World Orchestra (JMWO/TWO). He has also been a member of the Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra in New York, an orchestra he toured throughout the United States.

He directs Final Degree Projects and Doctoral Theses as part of his artistic research. Among his publications, his reconstruction of Vicente Martín y Soler's opera "Una cosa rara" (A Rare Thing) is notable, published by Dos Acordes. He also serves on the editorial committee of the Anuario de Filosofía de la Música (Oviedo, Spain).

Graham Jackson studied at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he won several awards for his performances of works by Beethoven, Mozart, and John Ireland. After graduating, he continued his studies for two years under the direction of Joan Havill, earning a Concert Recital Diploma. He furthered his studies thanks to several scholarships, continuing for three years at the Liszt Ferenc Academy in Budapest with Péter Solmos and Ferenc Rados. Since 1990, he has lived in Madrid, where his professional career is divided between concert and teaching. He has performed in countries such as Poland, Russia, Portugal, Hungary, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Jamaica, and more. In Spain, he has performed at the National Auditorium (Madrid), the Juan March Foundation, the Palau de la Música de València, and the Palau de Les Arts, and has appeared as a soloist with the Madrid Community Orchestra. He has worked at the Reina Sofía School of Music, teaching violin with Zakhar Bron and horn with Radovan Vlatkovic.