The Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana teaches young people how a symphony orchestra works
27.05.2025
Arts is Education
- Jordi Francés conducts the Les Arts resident orchestra in Britten's 'Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra', with Sofía Martínez Villar as narrator
- The activity, included in Les Arts és Educació, dedicates a session for the family audience on June 6 with tickets priced at 12 euros
Valencia (May 27, 2025). The Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía explains the workings of a symphony orchestra and its instruments in a new educational proposal with the work 'Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra', by British composer Benjamin Britten.
Jordi Francés will conduct the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana (OCV) on June 6th in this educational concert, with narration by the renowned popularizer Sofía Martínez Villar, which closes the program with another piece by Britten: 'Soirées musicales'.
The 'Orchestra Guide for Young People' is considered one of the fundamental scores in musical education which, thanks to the excellence of the OCV, will allow the public to learn about the different colors and timbres of the orchestra, as well as the different sections that make it up, while enjoying the excellent sound that has made it one of the leading orchestras in Europe.
The activity, which 'Les Arts és Educació' has programmed for students in the last years of Primary and the first years of Secondary school, also includes a session open to the family public on Friday, June 6 at 7:30 p.m., in the Auditori, with tickets at a single price of 12 euros.
With 'Orchestra Guide for Young People', Les Arts delves deeper into its purpose of enhancing the role of the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana and its teachers as promoters and generators of new audiences for classical music.
'Orchestra guide for young people'
'Young People's Guide to the Orchestra (Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Purcell, Op. 34)' is part of the catalogue of works that Benjamin Britten dedicated to children and young people.
To explain how the orchestra works, the British composer uses a musical theme borrowed from Henry Purcell, another prominent figure in English music. Specifically, it is a rondo from the incidental music Purcell wrote for Aphra Behn's play, 'Abdelazar, or the Moor's Revenge'.
After an initial performance of the "musical theme" by the entire ensemble, Britten brings in each of its sections to showcase, in addition to its structure, the particularities of each one.
Subsequently, he introduces variations to illustrate the instrumental possibilities of the orchestra through the theme: flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, violins, cellos, double basses, harp, horns, trumpets, trombones and tuba to conclude with the percussion, uniting the entire orchestra again in a fugue.
The proposal from Les Arts
Jordi Francés will take over as musical director for this event. This marks the third time the Alicante native has conducted the OCV, following his work on Leonard Bernstein's 'Trouble in Tahiti' and Jesús Torres' 'Tránsito'.
Les Arts presents 'Young People's Guide to the Orchestra' alongside 'Musical Soirées,' a five-movement suite that Britten based on themes by Rossini and which, due to its engaging nature, serves as a perfect complement. Sofía Martínez Villar, one of the most renowned and popular figures in the dissemination of classical music, will narrate the concert in a program specially created for Les Arts.
