Welcome

The Orchestra City of Alcala is a cultural, educational, and social project that since 1996 unites the efforts and wills of people from all over the musical world, and helps to frame a World Heritage city.

The “Orchestra City of Alcalá Foundation”, counts on more than 200 sponsors and members who through the board of trustees help to manage the organization, logistics, and relationships of the following institutions:

– The Symphonic Orchestra, which consists of 70 members

– The Chamber Orchestra, a group of between seventeen and thirty musicians

– The Youth and Children’s Section, with over 70 kids whose ages range between eight and eighteen

– The Color and Cardboard Orchestra, with twelve children whose ages range between four and seven.

History

The Symphonic Orchestra starts in Alcalá de Henares 1996, whereby request of The Administration of Alcalá de Henares City Hall, it receives the name Orchestra of the City of Alcalá. Since then, the increased motivation and commitment of its young musicians, together with the efforts of its conductor and founder, Vicente Ariño Pellicer, who has guided its growth and consolidation with the support of the Foundation for the Orchestra of the City of Alcalá, have permitted the enrollment of seventy musicians and have given more than three hundred concerts in Alcalá, Spain, and abroad. Internationally, the Symphonic Orchestra has played in Mannheim (Germany, 1998), Talence (France, 2000), Varna (Bulgaria, 2003), New York (the USA, 2004), Paris (France, 2005), Oporto (Portugal, 2007), Mannheim y Heidelberg (Germany, 2007), Bordeaux (France, 2009), Saint Petersburg (Russia, 2012), Poland and Turkey (2014), Lithuania (2015), and Rome (Italy, 2017). It receives a standing ovation in all of its performances both from the critics and the public.

During the fall of 2004, it makes an exchange with the Youth Orchestra of New York (ISONY)

In November 2012 it participates, representing Spain, in Saint Petersburg’s 12th International Festival of the State Music Conservatory, Rimsky Korsakov, to celebrate its 150th anniversary along with orchestras from some of the most important music conservatories in the world.

On December 30th, 2005, it participates in one of the commemorative acts of the 4th Centennial of the release of El Quijote in the National Auditorium located in Madrid. It appears again in the same event in 2011.

In addition, it works with a Chamber Orchestra that develops annually a program of didactic concerts in collaboration with other institutions oriented to students. It also performs in diverse festivals and other cycles.

Since October 2004, it includes a Youth and Children’s Section with Iñaki Urbina as its conductor. Some of its members joined the Symphonic Orchestra during its 10th anniversary in the symphonic room of the National Auditorium, which united more than 600 musicians and singers on stage.

The orchestra offers the following program of fixed performances in Alcalá de Henares:

The Festival AlCine concert, in November.

Christmas Concert, at the end of December.

Spring Concert, during the commemorative acts of April 23rd, Cervantes’ day.

The Festival Clásicos en Alcalá concert, at the end of June.

The Three Wise Men Concert, on January 6th, in the Corral de Comedias.

Our History

Foundation 

The Foundation for the Orchestra of the City of Alcalá, responsible for the management, counts on the support of the city councilor of Alcalá de Henares City Hall, who shows this support through multiple commitments and agreements.

It has as fundamental objectives:

· Contacting professionals in order to expand the formation of its members.

· Promoting coexistence and participation around the musical phenomena.

· Exchanging experiences with musicians from other locations.

· Favoring the diffusion and consolidation of classical music in the city and its area of influence.

· Offering Alcalá de Henares, university and World Heritage City, and its institutions, the emergent and living reality of a symphonic orchestra with lineage in the cultural, social, and educational scopes with international acclaim.

The Foundation for the Orchestra of the City of Alcalá gives its website, and the purposes that promote and motivate its objectives, to any music lover, person (physical or legal figure), or public entity to approach the impulsive reality of a cultural dynamic that is eminently musical in the Corredor del Henares in the Madrid Community, with an epicenter in a World Heritage City such as Alcalá de Henares. This project has been consolidated for over 23 years by the people in the city that count on the support of its public institutions and local businesses.