Vocalia Taldea began its journey in 2000. Created at the initiative of its current director Basilio Astulez, Vocalia Taldea is a project in which the searches and concerns of a group of female music professionals from the Basque Country crystallize. Their commitment is focused on the firm intention of being a stable vocal group that accesses a repertoire that, due to musical and vocal demands, is not usually performed regularly.

Vocalia Taldea currently has 36 singers from Álava, Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa, Navarra and La Rioja and with extensive experience in the choral world. Its risky programming and careful staging make the group a benchmark in the current choral scene.

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Vocalia Taldea performs a wide range of repertoire for women's choir, from classical periods to contemporary music, both Basque and international. Likewise, it carries out intense research work on the repertoire of the 20th and 21st centuries, which allows innovation and expansion of the group's expressive potential.

Vocalia Taldea has recorded three albums, Neskatxena, María Mater and Haizeak Dakar, the latter dedicated entirely to the music of composer Xabier Sarasola.

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Since its inception, the Vocalia Taldea choir has been invited to a large number of choral cycles and festivals in Spain and Europe (Italy, France, Ireland, Belgium...). His concerts, endorsed by critics, are proof of a career marked by quality, originality and innovation. The group frequently collaborates with various orchestras, soloists and cultural entities and has received more than twenty awards in international competitions such as those in Tours, Arezzo, Tolosa, Maasmechelen or Cork.

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In November 2019, under the direction of maestro Juanjo Mena, he went on a concert tour with the Euskadi Symphony Orchestra as part of its subscription program performing music by Gustav Holst.

Between September and December 2020, Vocalia Taldea presented the baroque program Le Muse Veneziane, with music by Antonio Vivaldi, Nicola Porpora and Baldasare Galuppi, in the early music cycles of Zumarraga, Zenarruza and Ordizia together with Conductus Ensemble and under the baton of Andoni Mountain range.

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Throughout 2021 he offered concerts in Madrid, Azkoitia, Zornotza, Dax (France) and Vitoria Gasteiz.

Their program There Is No Rose, with music by Benjamin Britten, Johannes Brahms and Xabier Sarasola, was presented in Vitoria Gasteiz, Beasain and Bilbao (Teatro Arriaga and Sociedad Filarmónica). At these concerts, Vocalia Taldea premiered the Urtats Elur suite, written for the group by composer Xabier Sarasola and created as a mirror of Britten's Christmas music suite A Ceremony of Carols.

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In 2022 she develops a new project that under the title Arima Sakra includes a selection of religious repertoire for female choir and organ with works by Felix Mendelssohn, Francis Poulenc and Kim André Arnesen. This program was presented in the Hondarribia Religious Music Series, in Burgos and, in 2023, in the Matinées de Miramon series of the Euskadi Symphony Orchestra. For this program he has had the collaboration of the organist Oscar Rodríguez and the soprano Nerea González.

In August 2022, together with maestro Alain Antinoglu and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Vocalia Taldea participated in the Santander International Festival and the Donostiarra Musical Fortnight performing Sirènes by Claude Debussy with great success from critics and the public.

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In April 2023, Vocalia Taldea was the winning choir of the 50th edition of the prestigious Ejea de los Caballeros Choral Competition. On this occasion the contest had a special significance since the participants were winning choirs from previous editions. The award is therefore an important recognition of the quality of the work developed by Vocalia Taldea and its director Basilio Astulez. In this competition the choir has premiered the suite of Basque melodies Andere, created by Josu Elberdin based on a commission from Vocalia Taldea.

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Basilio Astúlez, Director

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He is a professor of Choral Singing at the Leioa Municipal Conservatory and founder of the Leioa Kantika Korala children's choir in 2001, the La Kantoria female youth choir in 2005 and the mixed SJB choir in 2007. This young choral school includes more than 150 singers from 7 and 35 years old and has already received numerous awards in Spanish and European competitions.

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In 2000 she founded the female chamber group Vocalia Taldea, holder of more than 20 awards in the main choral competitions on the international circuit.

Leading these groups, he has made 10 recordings and a large number of international tours in Europe and America and collaborated with important soloists, orchestras, directors and groups.

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In 2008 he received the special award for best direction at the 47th C. A. Seguizzi International Competition in Gorizia, Italy, for his work directing Leioa Kantika Korala.

In 2009 he also received the special award for best direction at the 38th Florilège Vocal de Tours in France, for his work leading Vocalia Taldea.

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He is currently a professor of Choral Conducting for educational entities, universities and various choral federations in the country and is frequently requested as a jury in competitions and to offer choral singing courses and seminars in Europe, America and Asia. Since 2018 he has also been a professor of choral conducting at the Musikene Higher Conservatory of the Basque Country.

 

Josu Okiñena, piano

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Josu Okiñena dedicates his professional activity to research and interpretation, basing it as a scientific activity from a transdisciplinary approach. Dr from the University of Valladolid, after obtaining the first prize for piano and chamber music from the Conservatorio Superior de San Sebastián, he studied with Félix Lavilla and won the end-of-career honor prize at the Royal Conservatory of Music of Madrid and the Andrés Segovia prize. José Miguel Ruiz Morais performing Spanish music, in Santiago de Compostela.

Later, he traveled to New York to study at the prestigious Julliard School of Music, with Oxana Yabloskaya, and continued his studies in London, where he received master classes from performers such as Krystian Zimmerman, Bruno Leonardo Gelber, and Ivo Pogorelich, for five years, respectively. continued, he studied with Maria Curcio, a student of legendary pianist Arthur Schnabel.

Once these influences have been assimilated, which will result in a very personal style that is admired in concert halls around the world, Josu Okiñena returns to Donostia, to support with his pedagogical work the creation of the Higher Music Center of the Basque Country, Musikene. , in 2001.

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He also taught postgraduate courses at different Universities in Spain, Argentina, Cuba and Bolivia and participated in seminars dedicated to musical research at the Orpheus Institute of Ghent, the University of Florida, the University of Warsaw and the CUNY (City University of New York).

Josu Okiñena performed in some of the most prestigious halls in the world and participated in prestigious International Festivals and collaborated with renowned orchestras. In 2006 and due to his commitment to current music and in particular the composers of his land, he performed together with the Euskadi Symphony Orchestra or 'Concerto para piano e orchestra' by Ignacio Tellería.

Among his recordings, the complete work for voice and piano by Félix Lavilla, together with Cecilia Lavilla Berganza, and the complete work for voice and piano by Pai Donostia, together with Almudena Ortega, stand out.

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In March 2011, Josu Okiñena received the research award from the University of the Basque Country and the Donostiarra Orfeón for his work on Pai Donostia entitled 'A autopoietic communication, foundation for musical interpretation: his study in the work for voice and piano by J. A. Donostia '.

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In 2013 he recorded a CD for Sony Classical of Aita Donostia's piano compositions, being described by specialized critics as the year's breakthrough pianist and placing him among the ten best albums of 2013. Among his latest performances, the tour carried out in 2014 through the United States stands out, performing in New York, Reno, Chicago and Miami. Two years ago he also recorded a selection of piano works by Erik Satie for Sony Classical. At the beginning of 2018 he published his book 'Musical Interpretation. Scientific foundations for its development', a pioneering publication in Spain and one of the first in Europe.

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He currently combines his work as a teacher at Musikene with acting, while he is immersed in different cultural projects, such as the multidisciplinary project called 'Xuxurlak', among which is his album with the same name that Sony Classical has released. published in 2018 and with which it aims to recover the Basque musical heritage. Likewise, previously, at the end of 2017, Okiñena already began to present this initiative around the world with an international tour through America, Asia and Europe.

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The Basque musician is also currently immersed in other musical projects, such as an initiative to recover classical music in the Basque diaspora as well as an album about Franz Liszt

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