A reference space for music and culture
25 years ago, on March 22, 1999, the Auditorium opened its doors with a concert by the Barcelona and National Symphony Orchestra of Catalonia, under the baton of Lawrence Foster and with the participation of the pianist Alicia de Larrocha as a soloist Since then, Barcelona’s cultural facilities have hosted almost 14,000 concerts and received nearly eleven million visitors. On the occasion of its anniversary, L’Auditori presents a retrospective exhibition that aims to reflect the “cultural transformation of a neighborhood in development” that its construction entailed and a month of March full of musical activities, among which four premieres stand out works by Catalan composers: Utopia (Oriol Saladrigues), Las constelaciones que más brillan (Raquel García-Tomás), Songs for Júlia (Josep Maria Guix) and Symphony Gaudí (Albert Guinovart).
An acoustic upgrade and a festival of new music
The celebration of the 25th anniversary of L’Auditori coincides with the realization of an acoustic improvement in room 1 Pau Casals, which aims to increase the quality of hearing of the musicians on stage, especially when it comes to large symphony orchestras. Likewise, L’Auditori is launching a new contemporary music festival called Subsonic, which aims to publicize the most innovative and experimental proposals on the current musical scene.
An educational and sustainable model
In the presentation of the commemorative events, Xavier Marcé, Councilor for Culture and Creative Industries of the Barcelona City Council, praised the Auditorium as a “European model in the creation of educational projects” and Robert Brufau, its current director, highlight the investment that, in the last three years, has been made in sustainability measures, such as the installation of 1,197 solar panels for self-consumption on the roof of the building.
