Víctor Medem: "I want L'Auditori to convey pride in its equipment."

BarcelonaVíctor Medem (Barcelona, ​​​​1977), until now artistic director of the Schubertiada and Ciudad de Clásica, makes his debut as director of L'Auditori on July 1st after winning a public competition in which the evaluation committee considered his project to be "ambitious, solid and with personality", and with "a narrative roadmap".

When will your direction be reflected in L'Auditori's programming?

— Just a month ago it was presented the 2025-2026 season, which was worked on by the team of the outgoing director, Robert RufauAnd this programming will last until June 2026. And I'm making it my own, obviously, as director of L'Auditori. It's a very attractive season in many ways. I'll start programming the 2026-2027 season, although there are some things that are already set because planning in the world of classical music is very long-term. However, in modern music, nothing is fixed. In this sense, the 2026-2027 season could already bear more of the stamp of the new team.

And how will this seal be noticed?

— My project consists of taking into account L'Auditori's strengths and compensating for those that I believe still have potential for growth. Each year, 300 L'Auditori projects are part of the Educational Service, which is a project that reaches hundreds of thousands of people, is a pioneer in Spain, and an international benchmark. I find it's a project that is being carried out spectacularly and that is not well communicated.

And the other points are?

— There's one very important one: proximity. We must be very close to the public. Members must feel they're a special audience. Perhaps my background in the private sector, where the client is very important, betrays me, but if you have loyal, returning clients, you must reward them and they must feel they're part of the project. We must also be close to talent. I'm talking about an Auditorium Generation, people who have also passed through the Catalan School of Music (ESMUC). For example, composers like Joan Magrané, Raquel García-Tomás, and Héctor Parra. It's also indisputable what L'Auditori has meant to chamber music. The Casals Quartet and the emergence of quartets have emerged from L'Auditori, and the Casals Quartet itself has created an audience. We must also be close to emerging musicians, ensuring no one falls through the cracks... Discovering young talent is my great passion. The Auditorium has done a lot in this area, but I want to strengthen it.

Also with so-called modern music?

— Yes. A series has been created that I really like, the Sit Back, which is quite young. Artists who move around the modern music scene also demand smaller spaces where they can perform a different kind of concert than the big stages, which are also extremely important. This small format allows you to discover younger artists who are harder for private artists to back because of the greater risk. I want to try to strengthen this aspect, so that it's a series and a stage where people say, "I have to play at L'Auditori." So that it's an objective for musicians.

Closeness to the audience, to the musicians. And to anyone else?

— Yes, in the city and museums, for example, we need to consider how we should interact with them. Not with schools, because the educational project covers everything very well. But we do need to consider how we can actively engage with the city's cultural fabric. Why not tell the world of Picasso and his life in Barcelona through music? Finally, in addition to pride and proximity, the other important point is balanced programming.

To keep different audiences in mind?

— The Auditorium caters to all audiences. More than half a million people pass through each year. Some people are very music lovers, others are casual... We need to make strong commitments to the creative sphere, but without forgetting where music comes from and showing its connection to tradition. I really like the fact that contemporary music dialogues with tradition, that it's not encapsulated in a ghetto. In the symphonic field, not only here but throughout Europe, there's a tendency to program a lot of classical music that we know attracts the public, that is recognizable. And there's also a commitment to contemporary music, but sometimes the music that's in the middle is left out, although it's very interesting to see ourselves reflected in the crises of the early 20th century, because there are quite a few things that resemble it. Music has evolved, but if you don't understand the music of the early 20th century, it's very difficult to connect with contemporary music, because composers do have those references.

What does L'Auditori's public service status entail?

— You can't deny your identity. As a public service, we help people discover repertoire, and this allows us to take more risks. I've been managing concerts for 25 years and I'm a huge music lover: I really enjoy going to concerts and I listen to a lot of music at home. I've built my musical taste and criteria thanks, in large part, to the Barcelona Orchestra, the OBC, because I'd been a member since I was 15, when I discovered Bruckner, Dutilleux, Schoenberg... and then, obviously, the classics. If I had only attended a private program sporadically, I'd certainly have met great conductors, great soloists, and great works, but I wouldn't have delved as deeply into them. Furthermore, we host two ensembles, the band and the orchestra, with significant resources behind them, which provides them with professional stability. And we support talent so it can develop.

It's often said that the early music program is the most established and has the most loyal audience at L'Auditori. Do you share this perception?

— Early music has a very loyal and easily mobilized audience. L'Auditori has launched an extramural festival, Luces de Antiga, which is working very well. The works that Jordi Savall does in Europe are rehearsed and performed here first: in other words, we are the starting point for all of Jordi Savall's work. This fills me with pride because his importance and popularity are impressive.

Given your career in recent years, which has been linked to the Schubertiade, will the lied have a special role at L'Auditori?

— No. We're very fortunate that, outside of the Germanic world and perhaps London, we're the third place in Europe with the most lied, thanks to two private initiatives: the Schubertiade and the Victoria de los Ángeles Foundation, which also does a lot of work in this area. At L'Auditori, we'll perform the lied that's playing, but there won't be any special spotlights.

Among the external programming, there are some very well-established ones, such as Ibercamera, which you know perfectly, and BCN Clàssics. What about the rest of the programming that isn't your own, especially the modern programming? The Palau de la Música had to create an evaluation committee to better monitor what other promoters program. Do you keep this in mind?

— The Auditorium has a very high rental rate, but it was mainly for non-musical activities, there was a university diploma ceremony. standby because I don't know very well how it works and I think there has never been any problem here.

You were talking earlier about the generation of composers at L'Auditori. Have you already identified who the next generation might be?

— There are increasingly more interesting composers from more peripheral countries, and we should be aware of this. Furthermore, right now in Barcelona, a very large portion of the population was no longer born in the city, and I would like this to be reflected in the programming as well. I am very clear that I want to continue making a significant commitment to women composers. We are in a process of rediscovery, and repertoire is being recorded and recovered. In symphonic music, it's very difficult to find works from the 19th century because there were no incentives for women to write symphonic music, but there is a lot of chamber music and a lot of songs: there are really interesting works. I can say that there will be a greater presence of women composers from the past, always connected with contemporary creators, so that there will be a dialogue. It's not just to heal a silence, which is also true, but because this type of music is genuinely worth listening to.

What works would you like the OBC to play, because you particularly like them?

— I won't use this criterion, because the OBC isn't my instrument. We're in the third year of Ludovic Morlot's tenure, his contract runs until 2028, and it's a time when you're already beginning to see the effects of his tenure, which I value very positively. Morlot has influenced the programming of the last two years, and rightly so. I like so many repertoires that there will always be things I like about his proposals. For example, I really like the Danish composer Carl Nielsen, but I won't have Nielsen's complete symphonies performed just to suit a personal taste. We should have the ambition that one year the OBC can propose a corpus of art: for example, to do a complete collection of works by a composer over one or two seasons, contextualizing them. You can make a comprehensive list of Mahler's symphonies and see their relationship with Modernism, contrast it with the music being written on the European periphery at the beginning of the 20th century, explain what Pedrell was doing the same year Mahler wrote that symphony...

What was your connection with Ibercamera before applying to direct L'Auditori?

— None.

This is to be clear, given that Josep Maria Prat, the president of Ibercamera, was on the evaluation committee.

— There were ten people on the selection committee, and one of them was Josep Maria, but I haven't worked at Ibercamera for over ten years and I don't have any relationship. In fact, I've spoken with Josep Maria more recently, because he called me a couple of times after winning the competition, but I've probably spoken to him four times in the last ten years.

What is your best music-related memory?

— A moment I will never forget in life was when L'Auditori opened in 1999. That week I came with my parents to listen to the Novena by Bruckner, conducted by Víctor Pablo Pérez. That sensation of hearing a Bruckner symphony for the first time—the grandiosity of the sound of a clearly large-scale symphonic work, with acoustics like those of L'Auditori—is unforgettable.

And what memory, also related to music, would you like to forget?

— To forget, very few things. They're things that have to do with organizational issues, like frustration when someone canceled or something like that, but I couldn't tell you about any traumatic experiences. Sorry. I've never thought about it before; I always think positively.