Alicante’s ADDa Auditorium hosts the premiere of a refreshed edition of the Alicante Contemporary Festival, running from September 16 to 25. This year’s program centers on eight dynamic concerts, presented in collaboration with the ADDA-Simfònica orchestra, the auditorium, and the Palau de les Arts. The festival continues a long-standing tradition, drawing from one of Spain’s oldest and most respected music festivals since 2018, and aims to offer a compelling panorama of contemporary repertoire.
Julia Parra, the Vice President for Culture, emphasizes the festival’s role in honoring contemporary music professionals. He notes that the event showcases premieres by composers and soloists, many of whom hail from Alicante, highlighting their quality and talent. The festival emphasizes fresh voices and rigorous performance standards that resonate with audiences across the region and beyond (Alicante Contemporary Festival).
Under the program title Metastasis, the opening performances unfold on September 16 in Alicante and September 18 in Valencia, where the ADDA-Simfònica ensemble will participate in the Ensems festival. The Alicante orchestra will perform these two days under the baton of the artistic director, supported by a brass quintet recognized for national acclaim, percussionist excellence, and a guest Puerto Rican contemporary baton. The concert features new premieres by Oscar Navarro, David Moliner, and Jose Javier Peña Aguayo, alongside the established work Metastasis by the renowned composer Iannis Xenakis, creating a dialogue between origin and experimentation (Alicante Contemporary Festival).
Continuing at ADDA, the schedule presents a vibrant lineup on Saturday, September 17 with the ensemble Lumina performing Blue Scale. On Sunday, September 18, ADDA will host Loops & Grooves & Techno, a performance by Ricardo Barefoot that blends looping, rhythmic exploration, and electronic textures to expand the concert experience (Alicante Contemporary Festival).
Contemporary music heard again in Alicante
Next week, the festival keeps the momentum with a midweek performance blending self and intangible concepts, featuring a piano trio with video and live imagery that marks the twentieth anniversary of the Brouwer Trio. ADDA will present a collaboration with local conservatories and universities—the José Tomás de Alicante Conservatory, Mariano Pérez Sánchez de Requena, and the Utiel Conservatory—uniting these institutions with the José Espadero Professional Dance Conservatory and the Valencian Conservatory of Music for a joint concert titled Exempt, which highlights composition and dance as integrated forms of expression (Alicante Contemporary Festival).
Alicante Contemporary Festival closes its program with a recital by the Alicante Municipal Symphony Band, conducted by Jose Vicente Diaz Alcaina. The concert schedule includes a performance of 10 Sonnets with performances featuring Asun Noales and Sebastián Rowinsky on Sunday, September 25, wrapping up a week of adventurous contemporary programming in the city (Alicante Contemporary Festival).