Spanish songs in exile
On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the end of the Spanish civil war, this conference recital will offer information on the composition of Spanish songs in exile. The program will feature songs by composers such as Manuel de Falla, Julián Bautista, Josep Valls and Rodolfo Halffter. The art song was developed relatively late in Spain, and it was not until the 1910s that Manuel de Falla and Enrique Granados established the first important milestones in the genre. His cycles and sets of songs became a reference for the next generation of composers who began their careers in the 1920s and 1930s, always under the concern of how to combine modernity with national identity. Many of these composers went into exile during the Spanish Civil War and the beginning of Franco's dictatorship, and this experience also influenced how they got involved with art songs. This recital-conference will present some of the most important art songs, and will also celebrate artists, such as Conxita Badia and Mercé Plantada, who strove to make these songs will be heard in Spain and beyond. Eva Moreda Rodriguez is a Senior Lecturer in Musicology at the University of Glasgow. She is the author of the books Music and exile in Francoist Spain (Ashgate, 2015) and Music criticism and music critics in Francoist Spain (Oxford University Press, 2016), as well as numerous articles and book chapters on the cultural and political history of Spanish music from the late nineteenth century to the late Franco regime. Her current project on the early reception and dissemination of recording technologies in Spain (1877-1905) received a Leadership Fellowship form the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Catalan Soprano Laura Ruhí Vidal (Girona, 1990) graduated from the Opera Course at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where she also studied the BMus (Hons) and was awarded an Artist Fellowship. With a wide range of experience in the UK in venues such as the Cadogan Hall (performances with musician and comedian Rainer Hersch), The Barbican, St Martin in the Fields, Purcell Room, Kings Place, The Sage Gateshead and festivals such as Aldeburgh Festival, Spanish Song and Zarzuela Festival, amongst others, Laura is an accomplished performer. In opera, Laura has performed across the UK with companies West Green House Opera, MidWales Opera, Longborough Opera Festival, Opera Project, Pop-Up Company, Tête à tête Festival, etc. Furthermore she recorded two CD albums: Iberian Colours (Convivium Records) and Danzas, Canciones y Nanas (Guitar Records). Ricardo Gosalbo is a Spanish-French collaborative pianist. He has held fellowships at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he currently works as a Spanish music tutor. A devoted champion of Spanish and Hispano-American music, Ricardo combines his duties as artistic coordinator of the Hispanic Music Series in London with his doctoral research on Spanish Art Song. He has performed extensively with classical singers throughout Europe and has won numerous prizes for it including the ‘Prix de Lied’ at the Concours International de chant-piano Nadia et Lili Boulanger, the Oxford Lieder Young Artist and the Paul Hamburger Prize.