cartelconciertosemperadorThe European Academy of Yuste Foundation, in partnership with National Heritage, has organized a concert for next Friday 22 April, at 7.30 pm, at the Royal Monastery of Yuste, exactly four hundred years after the death of Miguel de Cervantes. The concert, which forms part of the “Emperor’s Concerts” cycle, will include a performance by the Amadeus choir from Puebla de la Calzada (Badajoz), conducted by Alonso Gómez Gallego. It forms part of the program of activities to mark the fourth centenary of the death of Cervantes organized by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport.

Remembering Miguel. The story of Cervantes according to Gutierre de Cetina is the title chosen for a program which will contain texts and music from the 16th and 17th centuries, a period regarded as a golden age for our arts. With this in mind, the aim is to establish a parallel and also remember the polyphony and letters of Juan Vázquez, another great figure of the Spanish musical renaissance, a musician from the city of Badajoz and the choirmaster of the city.

With the organization of this concert, the Foundation aims to give prominence to the best known and most read Spanish writer of all time and the concert will therefore be open to the general public with a program which will include text and music providing a biographical review of the life of Miguel de Cervantes.

The unique nature of this concert is indisputable. It will be held in the church of the Royal Monastery of Yuste, the last residence of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, a contemporary of the writer born in 1547. With this concert, the Foundation also seeks to promote and publicize European culture and all that this means, highlighting and recognizing the figure of one of the greatest and most renowned writers of European literature and undoubtedly the greatest exponent of Spanish and commemorating the death of a writer who, with his work and creativity, changed the course of the cultural and literary history of Europe and the world.

In 1997 the European Academy of Yuste Foundation initiated a series of concerts with the aim of “establishing a musical cycle related to the period of Charles V in Extremadura”, thereby proclaiming cultural heritage and history as the main driving force of the process of European culture and integration.

Throughout these years more than forty concerts have been held, most of them in the church of the Royal Monastery of Yuste, with others in Cáceres, Plasencia, Jarandilla de la Vera, Badajoz and Trujillo. Outside Spain there have been concerts in Lisbon, Brussels, Ghent, Ranst, Beveren and Mechelen, all of which have proven successful with the audiences.