José R. Pascual-Vilaplana: "We want to show music lovers the potential of the Municipal Band."

BarcelonaThe Barcelona Municipal Band reaches its 140th anniversary in top form, reaping the rewards of work carried out with perseverance, determination, and boldness. Salvador Brotons, initially, and José R. Pascual-Vilaplana (Muro, 1971), who has led the band for the last eight years, have broadened both the repertoire and the audience of an ensemble that will celebrate the anniversary on Sunday, March 1st, with a grand concert at L'Auditori (6 pm), in collaboration with the Montserrat Choir and the mezcal. The program includes Angel of Mercy (2015) by David Maslanka; Sinfonie der lieder (2013) by Johan de Meij; and the world premiere of Chibola Mu Lumba (2025), by Héctor Parra, a work commissioned by L'Auditori for the occasion and based on traditional music from the African region of Katanga.

Have you ever conducted an ensemble with such a long history?

— Professional training is the oldest I've conducted. In Muro, the town in Alicante where I was born, we have evidence that the band there is over 200 years old, but they are amateur groups; it's not the same.

The choice of repertoire for the March 1st concert clearly demonstrates the band's versatility and, at the same time, its power. Do you agree?

— Yes, that's part of the idea. This is my eighth season as principal conductor of the band, and a key objective I've set for myself is to show music lovers the band's potential. Not by abandoning tradition, but by moving away from the stereotypes that tradition often imposes on it within musical culture. I believe it's essential to educate the audience through the programming so that those who truly love music see the band as a cultural tool of the 21st century, and not just something rooted in tradition. The repertoire is chosen according to this concept, but there's also a connection between the three pieces, which are celebratory works from diverse perspectives and with different aesthetics, all aimed at achieving that versatility.

One of these aesthetics involves the collaboration of the Montserrat Choir School.

— Exactly. First we have the premiere of the play. Chibola Mu Lumba (2025), by Maestro Héctor Parra, perhaps today the most internationally renowned Catalan composer, and especially renowned in the field of contemporary music. It is his first work for band, and this opens many doors and says a great deal about our philosophy and also about the maestro himself, who wanted to contribute to this 140th anniversary by accepting this commission. The second work, Angel of MercyThis piece is by David Maslanka, a composer who, over the last forty years, has forged a very personal path, attempting to draw upon all that we have inherited, especially from the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. He is a scholar of Bach's music and the entire humanist philosophy behind it. Maslanka has produced an extraordinary body of work for bands. I met him in the United States in 2015, and I worked with him. And in the last piece of the program, Symphony of Lieds, by Johan de Meij, the Escolanía de Montserrat collaborates, which is a first-rate musical entity of Catalan culture of all time, but which, despite also being an ancient entity, had never sung with the Municipal Band.

I wasn't aware of it.

— This is the first time in history that they will come together. And I wanted them to come together performing music written from the heart by children, mezzo-soprano, and band. We will have the joy of working again with mezzo-soprano Gemma Coma-Alabert, one of the great Catalan voices. Symphony of Lieds The Dutch composer Johan de Meij's work is based on 19th-century German poems, some of which inspired Gustav Mahler to write his famous works. KindertotenliederIt was a commission from the Mahler Festival in Dobbiaco, South Tyrol, at De Meij, where he has also been our composer-in-residence for many seasons. He wanted to take poems from the same tradition as those Mahler used, but giving them a more positive feel, offering a glimmer of hope.

Speaking of Johan de Meij, is there a Dutch school or tradition to his side? You yourself trained with the Dutch master Jan Cober.

— Yes, the Netherlands has a strong band tradition, like other European countries such as Belgium, Slovenia, and Switzerland. What's unique about the Netherlands is that, in the 1980s, a Ministry of Culture was the first to create a national band institution dedicated to collecting, studying, and documenting the entire tradition, and to providing educational institutions with a specialization in band music—something many other countries, including Spain, haven't done. We pride ourselves on our tradition, but nowadays in Spain, someone can earn a doctorate in music without ever learning about the history or repertoire of bands, unless it's from a popular or traditional perspective. In the Netherlands, back in the 1980s, you could complete a diploma in band conducting as part of your orchestral conducting degree and specialize in it. They undertook extensive work to recover material in coordination with other countries, following the groundbreaking work done by the United States in the early 20th century, which included band music in educational and university curricula.

Your contract with the Municipal Band ends in the 2026-2027 season. Do you see yourself staying longer?

— I imagine the collaboration will continue; at least, that's what our conversations have been about. And that's my intention, because it's also true that with all the long-term work we've done, we're now reaping the rewards of the work we've done over the last eight years through the repertoire, with the eclecticism we've brought to the programs. This has also generated a certain sound, a flexibility, building upon all the great work that Maestro Salvador Broton had done before. And in that respect, I hope to have more opportunities to continue collaborating.

One of the great triumphs of the Municipal Band in recent years is having filled the main hall of L'Auditori and having generated a fairly loyal audience.

— Yes. And this has been a challenge. We've done some educating. The band had its traditional audience, and preserving that audience is very important to us. But to retain a traditional audience, you shouldn't always give them what they expect. Strategically, I've designed programs where, in addition to what they might expect when they come to the concert, I suddenly give them something new and explain how I've put the program together, because I talk to the audience at every concert. In fact, if I haven't done so in a particular program, for whatever reason, we've received emails of protest. This communication has led the audience to accept this repertoire, as well as the versatility of wanting to perform repertoires that approach the music from many artistic perspectives, such as jazz, contemporary music, the revival of historical music, and the recovery of Catalan heritage. We've done a lot of things, with a strategy of pacing so that the audience can gradually assimilate them. Drastic revolutions never work, but little by little we've been consolidating this. As I was saying before, it is now that we are reaping the rewards of all this planning work.

In 2018, when you took over the leadership, You explained that the band should be an instrument of 21st-century culture that is not tied to stereotypesBut you also said that there was a commitment that a good part of the repertoire they performed would be original repertoire for band.

— Imagine the situation we're in, still insisting that the majority of our repertoire should be set aside, when this should be the norm. A symphony orchestra wouldn't say, "We strive to make our entire repertoire symphonic." But because of stereotypes, there are still people who think that band repertoire is inferior. And no, the quality of a repertoire depends on the quality of its execution, not on who it's intended for or what ensemble it's designed for. We continue to transcribe symphonic works because it's part of our history, but we do so with a contemporary perspective. It's incredibly important that the public becomes familiar with the great contemporary band repertoire and the works from the past that haven't been performed in concert halls. For example, we did The hour of the soulSofia Gubaidulina's work, from the 1980s, had never been performed here before. Gemma Coma-Alabert actually collaborated on it. To give you a curious example, when I programmed it, Timothy Reynish, perhaps the most knowledgeable person alive about music, director of the Royal Northern College in London, called me. He said, "Only you could have programmed this. Save me a seat; I have to go see it." It's the kind of repertoire that has been performed by bands, but of course, it didn't fit the stereotype of what people think a band should be. I could tell you many anecdotes about the works we've selected precisely to reclaim our heritage as a sonic entity with a distinct identity. This is important.

Now I remembered an article you have on the web about Jessica, a request that Toni Olcina gave youA great music lover from Muro. You talk about all the effort behind a composition, and you don't get any relief until you find a heartbreaking piece in Shostakovich and Bach.

— When I write, I feel a strong commitment to upholding tradition, because my father has been a musician for forty years and my brother has also played, but I also have a responsibility to the future. Maintaining a tradition isn't about repeating the same formulas that have been used before, but about ensuring it has a future. Otherwise, it's like a dog eating its own tail.

With JessicaBesides, you had the responsibility of delivering a good garment to someone who was very important to you, right?

— Yes. Toni gave me a very personal commission, and for me it was very important, much more so than if someone I didn't know had given me a more trivial commission. That's why it was so difficult for me, and it has remained as a score that says much more than something purely artistic. I think it's important artistically, but it also speaks of the bonds that can be forged through music and, above all, of the power that music has as a spiritual unifying element. That's why a composer like David Maslanka is so important.

What's the most fun challenge you've taken on with the band?

— We've done some really fun things. But perhaps one of the most unlikely things, and one that I'd even say transformed us, was last summer's collaboration with the Grec Festival on the show The night of the musicalThe musicians were also integrated into the performance. It was musically very powerful and a beautiful stage experience that has left a lasting impression on us.

And do you remember the most complicated score to conduct?

— The difficulty of a musical score depends a lot on perspective. For example, in the concert two weeks ago, we performed Out of Earth, by Oliver Waespi, which is a work I had the pleasure of premiering on tour in Switzerland in 2015, and which is rarely performed because it is truly complex. But the more difficult a score is, the stronger the musician's commitment becomes. And I think we did a very beautiful job. Gubaidulina's score itself is a complex piece. TheUrban Requiem by Michael Colgrass, because of the diversity of instruments we used. One of the important things is to create a program that, yes, meets the public's expectations, that fulfills the educational element—that is, that educates both the audience and the musician—but that also fulfills the artistic aspect, always setting challenges, opening minds. Stepping outside your comfort zone is normal for evolution.