Students from the Benidorm conservatory premiere 'l'Aventura del Dr. Balmis' at the end of the course

The students of 'José Pérez Barceló' Municipal Music Conservatory have celebrated their traditional end-of-year festival in an event that took place tonight in the auditorium of Benidorm Cultural Center.

More than 300 people attended the festival in which 17 of its students graduated at the end of their studies. The event was attended by the Councilor for Education, Maite Moreno, and members of the corporation.

The doctor and researcher, Eusebi Chiner, presented the event in which he also participated as a narrator in the premiere of the first of the works performed by the conservatory orchestra, 'L'Aventura del Dr Balmis', under the baton of its director, Miguel Ángel Mollá.

In his speech, Chiner recalled that Benidorm enjoys “one of the best facilities in the Valencian Community” and " magnificent professional musicians” who studied at  'José Pérez Barceló'. Regarding the concert, the researcher has specified that 'l'Aventura del Dr Balmis' is the work by Josep Cano, musician and director of the S.M. l'Illa de Benidorm.

With this musical piece, Cano pays tribute to the 'Dr Balmis Expedition' commanded by the doctor Francisco Javier de Balmis from Alicante who left La Coruña, in 1796, to take, on a three-year journey, the smallpox vaccine to America, inoculated in twenty children who provided the genetic material necessary to defeat a disease that, in the 18th century, had claimed the lives of more than 60 million Europeans.

The concert continued with the performance of 'Obertura Alvamar' op. 45, by James Barnes, a musical piece in which wind instruments had a special role.