"We want to make Valencia an international point of reference and create a brand, attract musical tourism and position ourselves in tourist agendas and maps to be an international cultural claim"
"In this new new narrative of the city we cannot, nor should we, forget what really differentiates the city from any other, all the tangible and intangible heritage that Valencia has. Many people have agreed on the potential of music. Beyond the tradition of the Bands of Music, in the city of Valencia alone we find 32 of these musical formations, in the international scene we find Valencian musicians as references in different musical styles, and all this cultural wealth must reassess yourself"
Valencia, City of Music responds to the strategic objective of developing city synergies and building a strong and sustainable cultural brand City of Valencia Culture Plan, 2017 (1) and proposes a series of initiatives aimed at highlighting the important intangible asset that represents the creation and musical interpretation of our city, supporting productions and musicians, bringing music closer to citizens and positioning Valencia as a City of Music. The main initiatives of this program carried out by the Department of Cultural Heritage and Resources are listed and described below:
The Department of Heritage and Cultural Resources and the Palau de la Música work closely to help position Valencia as a City of Music by designing an excellent and diverse program, open to different audiences and performers and that be enjoyed inside and outside its headquarters. The quality of the season ticket programming, which brings together the great international bands and soloists, as well as the programs of the Valencia Orchestra, the Jazz Festival or the new Rock, Pop, Jazz and Emerging Cycles are a sample of this. On the other hand, an important effort has been made to bring music closer to citizens through musical education, with initiatives such as Casual&Concert, Jazz in the Neighborhoods and Towns of Valencia, the neighborhood concerts within the pre-contest of the “City of Valencia” International Music Band Contest or the performances of the Valencia Orchestra in the Plaza de l’Ajuntament de Valencia and on the Arenes beach, among others.
With the dual purpose of creating content for new audiences and supporting the musical interpretation of different disciplines, different music cycles have been created in the current legislature: Jazz a Poqueta Nit, by Valencian jazz groups and artists; Rock and Pop at the Palau, by different groups and performers of modern music; Emergents at the Palau, in which new groups that are outside the musical circuits have the opportunity to play in the Sala Rodrigo with the consequent economic consideration – through labor recruitment and part of the collection -, in addition to achieving dissemination of the his performance and Palau Electrònic, which accommodates Valencian electronic music performers on the Palau’s terrace, gathering hundreds of young people.
The Department of Cultural Heritage and Resources, through the Palau de la Música, collaborates with the Ministry of Education to support the training and performance of young musicians and in this way achieve that students from conservatories and music schools can train in various areas and have the opportunity to play in the Sala Rodrigo of the Palau de la Música as part of the Young Music Series.
In addition to the support for musical performers from different disciplines, the breadth of musical programming offered by the Palace and the prominence of music in the City Hall’s own cultural programs as Culture in the Neighborhoods, has contributed to dynamizing the sector of musical production with the organization of cycles, concerts and music festivals, throughout the year, and with the collaboration in the organization of other festivals and concerts, such as the Deleste Festival, which this year 2018 and for the first time, it has chosen the Palau de la Música as its main headquarters.
(1) Rivers, Joaquim, Gisbert, Verónica, Martinez, Santi (2017). City of Valencia Culture Plan, 2017. Valencia: University of Valencia