A Soirée of Spanish and Ibero - American Chamber Music

“Música en Compostela” courses were created in 1958, through the initiative of Maestro Andrés Segovia, supported by diplomat José Miguel Ruíz Morales, Director General of Cultural Relations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Since then, they have been held in Santiago every summer up to the present day, as they approach their 63rd anniversary, maintaining the purpose for which they were created: to inform, interpret, and cultivate Spanish music—an ideal transmitted in each edition to hundreds of students from more than twenty nationalities, which is the average enrollment every year. 

“Música en Compostela” originated from the observation of the unforgettable Maestro Segovia, an tireless traveler around the world, regarding the lack of knowledge of Spanish music. To “clean, fix, and give splendor”—to use academic words—to Spanish scores, “Música en Compostela” was created, dedicated ever since to the cultivation and dissemination of music composed by those born in any of our lands. 

Previous teachers who joined the course go from Andrés Segovia himself to the most prestigious names in music, such as Óscar Esplá (its first director), Federico Mompou, Joaquín Rodrigo, Alicia de Larrocha, Xavier Montsalvatge, Victoria de los Ángeles, Montserrat Caballé (a scholarship student in 1962), Conchita Badía, Gaspar Cassadó, Rosa Sabater, and, in more recent times, Carmelo Bernaola and Cristóbal Halter (also former students), Luis de Pablo, Antonio Iglesias, Enrique Santiago, Isabel Penagos, José López Calo, and Antón García Abril. Among the countless alumni, illustrious examples include internationally renowned maestros such as Jesús López Cobos, John Williams, and Christopher Hogwood.