Second night of Serenates in the Senate of the historic building of the Universitat de València. A night so hot as crowded to receive with expectation each year the jazz session that the Orquesta del Conservatorio Superior de Música Joaquín Rodrigo de València (CSMV) offers in one of the most emblematic summer festivals of the city. The spectacular ‘Concierto sacro’ (‘Sacred concert’) by Duke Ellington momentarily takes over the space and the senses.
With the artistic direction of Jesús Santandreu, the CSMV does not present themselves alone in the music proposal on 25 June, but comes along with three choral formations: the Coro de Cámara del mismo Conservatorio, the Cor Jove de la Comunitat Valenciana and the Cor de la Unió Musical Santa Cecília de Onda, the three of them under the command of Nadia Stoyanova and Josep Vicent Balaguer.
Four young groups that come together in one to interpret the famous Concierto sacro of Duke Ellington in the arrangement that Høybye and Pedersen did in 1993 for soloist soprano –in La Nau with the mesmerising voice of Sara Dowling–, mixt choir and big band. A show that completes with mastery the claque dancer Juan Pablo Camacho, circling this magical musical experience with his performance in David Danced before the Lord and Praise God and Dance.
To comprehend this jazz “fusion” we must remember the history preceding it: at the age of 66 years old, Duke Ellington composed many sacred concerts that he would release in churches of the USA –all of it, regardless of his reticent character to express through music his faith–. Actually, these compositions came from the death of his close collaborator Billy Strayhorn. They were three concerts that, between 1966 and 1974, Ellington turned making a combination with revised old works, new creations and local soloists.
In each of the performances, the programmes changed, there was never a fixed or definitive programme, no order, no finished score... This obligated the improvisation of arrangements before appearing on the stage. An interesting, original and attractive flexibility that, nevertheless, has made it difficult to reproduce later.
As a result, different conductors have been creating their own versions, in 1993, John Høybye, along with Peder Pedersen, unified the three concerts in one: this singular, expressive and warm Concierto sacro where the protagonists, choir and orchestra, achieve a perfect balance that commits the soloist voice and, in Serenates, a classic American dance.
The concert begins with the choral voices and the big band that interpret the sound prayer Praise God to link with Heaven, a piece to which the voice of Dowling adds up, sincerely clapped by the public, who do not content their emotion before the sounds of a masterful Freedom suite –and the essential message that it gives us in these convulsive times–, just like the dominant trumpet in The Shepherd.
The same public moved and shelters each intervention of the singer: in The Majesty of God –which catches the attention from beginning to end–, Come Sunday, T.G.T.T. or Praise God and Dance, the last one, responsible for a tremendous closure under the charge of all interpreters and conductors –a total of 105 artists– that have taken a historic space to offer a lesson of virtuosity and youth.
Jazz, women and solidarity
Inside their bet for music in female key, Serenates has presented on Thursday 26 a new and fresh dose of jazz under the charge of Eva Romero Quartet, member of Sedajazz, Valencian group greatly affected by the DANA on 29 October, a catastrophe that reached a great number of musicians and groups and to which the 2025 festival is dedicated, destining all the funding of the selling of tickets to the Programmes of Help and Recovery Post-Dana of the Universitat de València.
With the title Estàndard d’elles, Eva Romero has reclaimed the figure of the woman in music and, especially, in the jazz, a world in which many obstacles had to be overcome such as the dominant sexism in the society of the first part of the 20th century, in which it was considered a “meddling” that women participated in music along men in night clubs.
However, in the period of swing (the 30s and Second World War) female orchestras begin to proliferate, among them, the Ina Ray Hutton and Her Melodears Orchestra, and following it, comes the conquest of the woman in jazz. An example, the pianist Mary Lou Williams, who arranged compositions and played with figures such as Duke Ellington, composer and pianist remembered in this 38th edition of Serenates.
What Eva Romero has done in this third night of Serenates is a historical recovery interpreting a repertoire of themes composed by the women who had to open the path to those who later would come and that now, from educative and cultural institutions, “tenemos el deber de restituir”.
The festival, night after night
After the opening of the festival on 24, by the Grup de Dansa UV, conducted by Toni Aparisi, and the Orquestra Filharmònica de la Universitat, conducted by Hilari Garcia Gázquez, on Friday 27, the Orquestra de València, conducted this time by Andrés Valero Castells, will interpret a concert for the International Tuba Euphonium Conference ITEC, a call which in its 2025 edition, it takes place in Valencia and with this special concert the Orchestra, with the collaboration of the Philharmonic Orchestra UV, wants to put to value the expressivity and versatility of the tube and the euphonium.
With the intention of recovering the music damaged by the floods of October, Serenates 2025 will count with the participation of groups that were directly affected, such as the Unión Artística Musical de Montroy and the Banda Sinfónica SM la Artesana de Catarroja, who will perform, on Saturday 28, the concerts Música i escena, conducted by Jerónimo Castelló Mañes, and Resiliència, with the trumpet of Raúl Junquera and conducted by Ximo Arias Botías.
On Sunday 29, the University Choral Society of Valencia and the Tortosa Chamber Orchestra, with the musical conduction of Francesc Valldecabres and scenic direction of Mireia Andreu, will perform the show POLS Bach Connections (4). This proposal lays within the commemoration of the 250 death anniversary of Johann Sebastian Bach in an annual series organised by the University Choral Society of Valencia.
Serenates has been a traditionally eclectic summer festival with a programme that addresses different music styles, from the Renaissance all the way to the most contemporary music. In this section we highlight the performance of the singer Clara Montes, who, on Monday 30, will give her repertoire to Miguel de Molina, coinciding with an exhibition at La Nau Cultural Centre dedicated to the figure of the couplet singer.
Another characteristic of Serenates is the participation of young artist, with a 65% of them having less than 26 years of age. An example is the show of 1 July by the Komos Theatre Company and the Cantata Group of the Juan Bautista Comes Choir, who will interpret the tragedy Oedipus Rex of Sophocles with original music by José Ignacio Payá.
The festival, as usual on its trajectory, provides a space for diversity and solidarity that, in 2025, will have the rhythms and the colours of Africa from the hand of the Percussion Group Amores, with the participation of Asso Mbaye (La Luna de África) and the dance of Elisabeth Mendy, who will perform Ubuntu on Wednesday 2.
On Thursday 3 we will have renowned Valencian pianist Rubén Talón, who will present a diverse programme with some of the most iconic pieces ever written for this instrument by Chopin, Liszt, Ravel and Satie.
On Friday 4, the Serenates stage will have, once again this year, the performance of the Choir of the Valencian Community which, with its main conductor, Jordi Blanch Tordera, will interpret the a capella programme titled Aqua, terra, aer, ignis: ELEMENTS.
On Saturday 5, the festival will go outside the senate of the historical building of the Universitat to be held at the Patriarca Square, where the Els Tornejants y la Nova Muixeranga d’Algemesí con la música de la Colla de Dolçaines i Percussió UV will perform their show. As an exception to the rest of the concerts, this will be of free entre and will begin at 8pm.
The climax of the festival, on Sunday 6, will be done by the historical dance ground Armonía Danza, who will be presenting the show El poeta soldado, a recreation of the historical dances from the music of the Marquis de Santillana, with musical conduction by Emilio Villalba y artistic direction by Sofía Grande and Marco Bendoni.
Serenates is a festival that, co-produced by the Universitat de València and the Cultural Institute of Valencia, achieves in 2025 its 38th edition with 13 nights of concerts between 24 June and 6 July 2025, at the Senate of the UV La Nau Cultural Centre.
All the concerts will begin at 10pm and the tickets can be bought, at a 5€ price point, either online through the www.latenda.es/entrades website, or physically at the La Tenda UV establishments while they are still available.
Serenates 2025 also has the support and collaboration of the Department of Culture of the Valencian Provincial Council, the Valencia City Council, the Palau de la Música de València (Valencian Palace of Music), the Conservatorio Superior de Música Joaquín Rodrigo de València, and the College of Art and Design of Valencia (EASD), with this years poster design presented by student Alejandro Gran Rodríguez, honouring music and flowers as symbols of this land. Serenates adds to its work, additionally, a line of synergy and clustering with other festivals maintaining the seas as a member of the European Festival Association, which allows it to share the programme with all Europe.
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