· The first edition will take place at the Centre Cultural la Beneficència from 22 to 27 September, featuring prestigious performers and ensembles such as Javier Perianes, Cuarteto Quiroga, Gustavo Díaz, Marta Zabaleta, and Josu de Solaun with violinist Franziska Pietsch and the Quartetto Indaco

· Glòria Tello, councillor for the Iturbi Prize, said today, Friday 11 September 2020, that “the 1st Iturbi Festival aims to consolidate itself in this new model, in which we have organised other parallel activities in collaboration with the Palau de la Música, the Mostra de València and Valencia City Council”

· The Iturbi Project works along three strategic lines: to give young pianists from all over the world a chance to showcase their talent through the competition; to programme great performers for the festival; and to highlight the figure and legacy of Iturbi

The Iturbi Prize, organised by the Provincial Council of Valencia, has presented the first edition of a festival that will host various concerts and parallel activities in commemoration of the 125th anniversary of the birth of Valencia’s most universal pianist. These events are in addition to the Valencia International Piano Competition, which is still accepting applications from performers until 31 October and will take place between 23 June and 2 July 2021.

The 1st Iturbi Festival will feature prestigious pianists and ensembles that will perform at the Centre Cultural la Beneficència from 22 to 27 September. This new initiative, like the competition, aims to promote music, especially piano music, establishing itself as a platform for new talents in performance, while keeping alive the memory of José Iturbi (Valencia 1895 – Los Angeles 1980) by recovering little-known or overlooked aspects of his artistic career. It will be structured around some of the lesser-known milestones in Iturbi’s career as a pianist, without neglecting the memory of another great Valencian pianist, his sister Amparo (Valencia 1898 – Beverly Hills 1969).

The presentation, held in Valencia on Friday 11 September 2020, was given by Glòria Tello, councillor responsible for the Iturbi Prize, Councillor for Culture at Valencia City Council and President of the Palau de la Música; Òscar Oliver, Coordinator of the Iturbi Festival; and Carles Marín, Artistic Advisor.

Tello stated that “since I took on this responsibility, I have wanted to change the model of the Iturbi Prize, which has a magnificent artistic advisory team, headed up by the great Joaquin

Achúcarro and complemented by pianists Óscar Oliver, Carles Marín, Josu de Solaun and Emma Jiménez”.

The councillor indicated that “this is a festival that aspires to consolidate itself in this new format, so that it will continue in the years when this biennial competition is not held”. She also explained that “as part of the anniversary, we have organised other parallel activities in collaboration with the Palau de la Música, the Mostra de València and Valencia City Council”.

In this way, the Iturbi Project works along three strategic lines: to give young pianists from all over the world a chance to showcase their talent and boost their artistic career through the international competition; to programme great performers and leading figures for the public at the festival; and to highlight the figure, prestige and musical legacy of Iturbi.

Oliver emphasised that “the Iturbi Festival aims to bring a way of understanding culture and art closer to the public by focusing on music” and explained the reasons for this celebration: “between the 1920s and 1950s, Iturbi was the most international Spanish pianist and, together with Pau Casals and Andrés Segovia, he represented our music all over the world”. The coordinator pointed out that the performer “was a popular idol before arriving in Hollywood, where he appeared in some of the highest-grossing films of the 1940s, bringing classical music to the people”.

Pianos in the street

For this first edition, the organisers have invited performers, students and enthusiasts to a preliminary information day, ¿Tocas el piano?, [Do you play the piano?] to share their music on instruments located in Plaza de la Virgen, Plaça dels Furs, Plaza Redonda, Puerta de la Lonja de la Seda and the esplanade of the Plaza de Toros, with the collaboration of Clemente Pianos on its 30th anniversary, on Sunday 20 September in morning and afternoon sessions.

The first day of the festival will begin on Tuesday 22 September at 7 pm with an opening concert featuring ten pianos in Plaza de la Virgen, where works by Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn, Falla and Bernstein will be performed by ten young Valencian pianists.

This will be followed by a presentation by music critic Justo Romero, entitled Iturbi, más allá del pipa y la sonrisa “[Iturbi, beyond the pipe and the smile], at 8:30 pm, the time at which all the concerts will take place, followed by a concert by Javier Perianes. The same Andalusian pianist, winner of the 2012 National Music Prize from the Spanish Ministry of Culture and named Artist of the Year at the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) in 2019, will give a concert with the Cuarteto Quiroga on 23 September.

The Canarian pianist and composer Gustavo Díaz Jerez will perform on 24 September, and the documentary A propósito de Iturbi [About Iturbi] will be screened on 25 September, with a presentation by its director, Manuel Gil. Pianist Marta Zabaleta, from Gipuzkoa, will play on 26 September and on the last day, Valencian Josu de Solaun, the only Spaniard to win the Valencia International Piano Competition, will perform with violinist Franziska Pietsch and the Quartetto Indaco to close the festival.

Achúcarro at the Teatro Principal

The Palau de la Música, in collaboration with the Provincial Council of Valencia, will offer a recital by Achúcarro at the Teatro Principal on the same day (28 November) that Iturbi was born. The concert is very special because “it will be given by one of the greatest Spanish pianists alive” and because the Basque artistic director and Chairman of the Iturbi Prize Jury “was closely linked to José Iturbi in his early days, participating with him in the tour they made through Valencia to raise funds for the victims of the 1957 floods”, said Tello.

The Mostra de València will also join in the celebrations with the José Iturbi Cycle, in which five of the films starring the pianist in Hollywood will be screened from 26 to 30 October at the Sala SGAE Centre Cultural València, where he made his leap to the big screen alongside famous actors and actresses of the time.

The Iturbi Prize, the Valencia International Piano Competition, is part of the World Federation of International Music Competitions, an association based in Geneva that brings together competitions from countries on all five continents, including the most prestigious international music competitions in the world. The Iturbi Competition is also a member of the Alink-Argerich Foundation, which brings together most of the international piano competitions around the world.