Víctor Medem, new director of L'Auditori

BarcelonaVíctor Medem will be the new director of L'Auditori de Barcelona starting in July, when the current director, Robert Brufau, takes over as programming director of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. "I take on the challenge of directing L'Auditori with enthusiasm, energy, and a desire to work as a team. I want to contribute to consolidating and strengthening its assets, as well as reinforcing its loyalty and expanding its audiences, making them even more diverse and diverse. The Auditorium should be the home of all of us who love music."

Medem, born in Barcelona in 1977, has extensive musical experience, including serving as artistic director of the Vilabertran Schubertiada since 2016 and the Barcelona City of Classical Music Festival. He has also had a close relationship with the promoter Ibercamera and has been responsible for programming for the Heidelberger Frühling International Festival and the Philharmonic Orchestra Heidelberg. He is also well-versed in the European musical context, particularly in Germany: he has worked in Baden-Baden, Berlin, Munich, Heidelberg, and Cologne.

The governing board of L'Auditori has appointed Víctor Medem as director of L'Auditori at the proposal of the competition's evaluation committee. It praises his professional career of "more than 25 years in the music sector, with extensive experience in the fields of artistic direction, contracting, music production, and cultural management, aspects that support his suitability to assume the direction of this facility." The committee considers that Medem has presented "an ambitious, solid, and distinctive project, a roadmap that incorporates a narrative thread centered on Europe as a response to the current political and social context, and that supports the continuity of the institution's internationalization process, while maintaining an active presence in the country."

The evaluation committee was made up of three representatives from Barcelona City Council (Elisenda Rius, manager of the Department of Culture, Education, Sports and Life Cycles; Oriol Martí, manager of the Institute of Culture; and Isabel Balliu, manager of L'Auditori), two representatives from the Department of Culture, and Xavier Fina, general director of Cultural Promotion and Libraries) and a group of advisors including Louwrens Langevoort (president of ECHO and director of the Kölner Philharmonie), Ewa Bogusz-Moore (director of NOSPR, Kaowice), Joan Oller (general director of the Palau de Ibercamera) and Ludovic Morlot (principal conductor of the OBC).