Barcelona, June 15. In 2022 the Barcelona Festival of Song commemorates its 18th edition with a program that reflects the journey and values of a space that emerged with the mission of preserving and promoting Latin American and Iberian art song, its creators, and performers.

Inspired by Conxita Badía, a Catalan soprano who played an essential role in the promotion of Catalan, Latin American, and Spanish art songs in the first half of the 20th century, the festival has positioned itself as a place of reference in the study, creation, and interpretation of this repertoire on both sides of the Atlantic.
In 2022, the festival celebrates the relationships forged with artists and researchers from the United States. This alliance has had a great impact on the promotion of the repertoire in that country. For example, on July 8, the inaugural concert performed by the soprano Patricia Caicedo and the pianist Josep Buforn, presents newly created works based on poetry by the Catalan Carles Duarte i Montserrat. The works commissioned by the festival are by the composers Nico Gutiérrez (USA, 1993 ), Brian Field (USA, 1966), Dana Kaufman (USA, 1986), Anna Cazurra (Barcelona, 1966), and Patricia Caicedo (Colombia/Catalunya, 1969).

Demaree Brown, Sangeetha Ekambaram, Amelia Gil-Figueroa, Anya Kosachevich, Abigail Mesel, Aleksandra Nowakowski, Zarah Rotshild, Allison Standford-Jones and Pablo Willey-Bustos, talented US classical singers, perform at the final concerts on July 15 and 16 Iberian and Latin American vocal repertoire.
The vocation of building bridges extends to Brazil, a country that every year presents an art song recital, this time performed by the renowned tenor Lenine Santos who, accompanied by the pianist Nikos Stavlas, presents on July 13 an interesting program with works by composers from the 20th and 21st centuries. On July 14, the Turkish mezzo- soprano Lori Sen performs a program of Sephardic songs by Mediterranean composers, including the premiere of works by the Catalan Manuel García Morante.

To join the celebration of the 125th anniversary of the birth of the soprano Conxita Badía, the festival screens on July 9 the documentary Conxita Badía No Existeix, directed by Eulàlia Domènec. On July 11 the festival streams the concert Nuestros días, poemas de amor hechos canción, with compositions by Patricia Caicedo on poetry by the Argentine Raúl Cristián Aguirre and his parents, the poets Raúl Gustavo Aguirre and Hebe Monges.

During the magical days of the Barcelona Festival of Song, Barcelona becomes more beautiful, more tolerant and harmonious, vibrates at a higher level, and reaffirms its mestizo vocation as a port, a place of exchange from where our beloved songs depart to travel the world.

Organized by Mundoarts, the festival is possible thanks to the collaboration of the Residència d'Investigadors of the CSIC, the Biblioteca de Catalunya, the Institució Cultural del CIC, the Taller de Músics, the Reial Cercle Artístic and the Barcelona City Council. To attend the free concerts you have to book here.