Cervera once again puts Catalan classical music in the spotlight with the Easter Festival

CerveraCervera will once again become one of the epicenters of Catalan classical music this Easter. From March 26 to April 4, the capital of the Segarra region will host the 16th edition of the Easter Festival, a unique event within the country's musical landscape because it is the only one dedicated entirely to this repertoire. The program will include 14 concerts held in various venues throughout the city, featuring a combination of symphonic, choral, chamber, and contemporary music. Among the invited ensembles and performers are the Julià Carbonell Symphony Orchestra of Lleida, the Chamber Choir of the Palau de la Música Catalana, Polifemo Consorte, the Cobla Sant Jordi, and the Prysma Quartet, as well as soloists such as Marta Mathéu, Miquel Villalba, and Joel Bardolet.

This year's festival is structured around several important anniversaries in the Catalan musical calendar. The opening concert will serve to close the Josep Cercós Year with a performance of the Symphony No. 3 by the Barcelona-born composer, and the program will also commemorate the 150th anniversary of Pau Casals' birth, the 275th anniversary of the death of Baroque composer Domènec Terradellas, and the centenary of organist Montserrat Torrent.

The festival will open with a performance by the Julià Carbonell Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Xavier Pagès-Corella, with a program dedicated to Catalan symphonic heritage that also includes the premiere of a poem for orchestra by Amadeu Cuscó. The program will be rounded out with vocal recitals, chamber music concerts, and performances that showcase both historical repertoire and contemporary works.

In addition to the concerts, the festival will include parallel activities such as a lecture on the lesser-known aspects of Pau Casals' work as a composer, a roundtable discussion on contemporary choral composition in Catalonia, and an exhibition dedicated to Montserrat Torrent. With this proposal, the Easter Festival consolidates Cervera as a meeting point for the sector and as one of the main platforms for the dissemination of Catalan classical music.