Tenerife Symphony Orchestra

The history of the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra (OST - from its initials in Spanish) starts in 1935, with the creation of the Canary Islands Chamber Orchestra, which later changed its name to the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra.

For more than half a century, the different directors (like maestros S. Sabina and A. Alfonso) and OST instrumentalists, have being doing an important job in disseminating music throughout the Canary Islands. It is one of the few stable orchestras that has survived intact in Spain since the 30's.

All this work was culminated in the late 80's, when the OST won international recognition from critics, public and the soloists that have played with the orchestra.

Under the direction of Victor Pablo Pérez, the orchestra has achieved an outstanding sound and a perfect cohesion between the different sections of instruments that has been praised by figures like Polish pianist Krystian Zimerman, who has said of the orchestra and its director: "..... there are directors who do not have a career in top gear, and they are part of the group that I have a special respect for. Victor Pablo Pérez is in this section. I would put him in the same group as Esa Pekka Salonen and Simon Rattle, people who are entirely devoted to music that do not live off vain illusions and whose egos are not inflated. For me, this is an experience that I want to preserve ..... and the orchestra played stupendously well, by the way, as they always do".

Korean violinist Kyung Wha Chung, after a concert with the OST, said: ".... the members of the Symphony Orchestra have a contagious quality and enthusiasm". Similar comments have been made in the media by soloists such as Mischa Maisky, Schlomo Mintz, Vladimir Spivakov and Dimitri Bashkirov, who have taken part in different programmes with the orchestra.

The critics have not spared their praise of the OST either, on their tours of Madrid, Zaragoza, Catalonia, Seville (Ezpo '92), or when they have taken part in international festivals like those of the Canary Islands, Santander, Cuenca, Granada, Alicante, Castell de Peralada or the San Sebastian Musical Fortnight.

A sample of the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra's work has been recorded on a series of twenty one compact discs, which have won international acclaim.

They have won the "Premio Ondas 1992" prize for the best classical music recording (works of Gerhard) and the "Diapason D´" (May 94) for their recording of Vives' operetta "Doña Francisca" and, once again "Diapason D´Or" (June 95) for their recording of Barbieri's "El Barberillo de Lavapiés".

They have also been awarded the C.D. Compact Prize for the best Spanish production of 1995, for R. Gerhard's "1st and 3rd Symphonies" a recording that won the CANNES CLASSICAL AWARDS prize at the MIDEM, in January of 1996.

The OST's official season consists of some eighty concerts, with 32 different programmes, plus a Season of Chamber Music. They also give a Young Interpreters Season, with the participation of a group of promising young Canary Island musicians, whose careers and talents bode an inspiring future. They also participate in the opera season organised by the Tenerife Opera Association, and several lyrical recitals.

Soloists that have played with the OST, apart from those already mentioned, include: Roberta Alexander, Plácido Domingo, Alfredo Kraus, María Orán, Edith Mathis, Silvia Marcovici, Arleene Auger, Tom Krause, Lluis Claret, Phillippe Entremont, Myung Wha Chung, Cecile Ousset, Joaquín Achúcarro, Andrei Gavrilow, Elena Obraztsova, Simon Estes, Ivo Pogorelich, Ernesto Bitetti, Patrick Gallois, Emanuel Ax, Federica Von Stade, Grigorij Sokolov, Midori, Brigitte Fassbaender, Gil Shaham, etc.