TM The King and Queen, accompanied by TRH The Princess of Asturias and the Infanta Sofía of Spain, are to preside over the 32nd Princess of Asturias Awards Concert

Their Majesties The King and Queen, accompanied by Their Royal Highnesses The Princess of Asturias and the Infanta Sofía of Spain, are to preside over the 32nd Princess of Asturias Awards Concert, entitled “Soundscapes of the Americas”, organized by the Princess of Asturias Foundation in collaboration with the Cajastur Foundation. The concert will take place at 7:30pm on Thursday 24th October at the Prince Felipe Auditorium in Oviedo.

The Princess of Asturias Foundation Choir will perform Three Dance Episodes, from the musical On the Town, by Leonard Bernstein (USA), Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin (USA), Chôros No. 10 “Rasga o Coração” by Heitor Villa-Lobos (Brazil) and Maracatu de Chico-Rei by Francisco Mignone (Brazil), alongside the OSPA and conducted by Alondra de la Parra and with the participation of Thomas Enhco (soloist).

The final rehearsal, which will be open to the public, will take place at 8:30pm on Wednesday 23rd October. The Foundation has made 1000 free tickets available for the rehearsal.

Alondra de la Parra

Principal and Artistic Director of the Orchestra and Choir of the Community of Madrid since September 2024, Alondra de la Parra was Music Director of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra from 2016 to 2019 and Principal Guest Conductor of the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano in April 2022.

Throughout her career, de la Parra has conducted some of the world’s most renowned orchestras, including the Orchestre de Paris, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, WDR Symphony Orchestra, Le Verbier Festival Orchestra (VFO), BBC Philharmonic, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin and L’Orchestra–Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. In recent seasons, she has likewise conducted the Münchner Symphoniker, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, DR Symfoni orkestret and the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo (OSESP). Worthy of note in Spain is her work conducting the National Orchestra and Choir of Spain, Turandot with the Liceu Symphony Orchestra, and the European premiere of the Impossible Symphony, the first symphony by composer Arturo Márquez, with the Galicia Symphony Orchestra.

Alondra de la Parra is the founder and director of the PAAX GNP Festival, held annually in the Mexican Caribbean, where she brings together some of the world’s leading soloists in the Orquesta Imposible, commissioning pieces from renowned contemporary composers. She has also conducted the new ballet Like Water for Chocolate, presented in London and New York with great success, which was co-produced by the Royal Ballet and the American Ballet Theatre, under the choreography of the renowned Christopher Wheeldon. She is also the leading force behind the Armonía Social project, which offers free musical education to children and young people in her native Mexico. She is a regular guest of the Royal Opera House in London.

Thomas Enhco (solist)

Thomas Enhco is a pianist and jazz and classical music composer. He received formal training at the Centre des Musiques Didier Lockwood (CMDL) and the National Conservatory of Paris. He has subsequently gained international recognition, with recordings for the Verve, Deutsche Grammophon and Sony Music labels.

He mainly plays jazz in trio (with double bass and drums) and in various duets, as well as giving solo concerts. His latest album, A Modern Songbook, spans 125 years of songs, from Carole King to Sting, Gabriel Fauré to James Blake, Serge Gainsbourg to London Grammar and Nick Drake to Silvio Rodríguez. As a classical pianist, he regularly performs concertos by Mozart (K. 491 and K. 467), Ravel (Piano Concerto in G major) and Gershwin (Concerto in F, Rhapsody in Blue), as well as his own concertos (Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, Double Concerto for Marimba, Piano and Orchestra, and Le Murmure des Oiseaux: Rhapsody for Violin, Piano and Chamber Orchestra). As a soloist, he has recently released the albums A Modern Songbook, Thirty, Concerto for Piano, Bach Mirror, Funambules, Feathers and Fireflies. He has composed three symphonic works and various works for piano, choir, string quartet and wind and brass quintets. His two latest film scores are for the films Elle & Lui et le reste du monde, by French director Emmanuelle Belohradsky (2024), and Un Mondo in Più by Italian director Luigi Pane (2021).

Enhco has performed with the Kyoto Symphony Orchestra, Sapporo Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa, Tonhalle Orchestra Zürich, Tenerife Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de Bordeaux, Orchestre National de France and the Insula Orchestra, as well as with conductors Junichi Hirokami, Jean-Claude Casadesus, Fayçal Karoui, Alondra de la Parra, Julien Masmondet, Mathieu Herzog, Benjamin Lévy and Johanna Malangré, among others. The venues that have invited him to perform include the Tokyo, Montreal, Vienne (France), Montreux (Switzerland), Istanbul, New York and Paris Olympia Hall jazz festivals, as well as classical venues such as the Philharmonie de Paris, Bordeaux Opéra, Brussels Flagey, La Roque d’Anthéron Piano Festival, Shanghai Grand Theatre, Salzburg Mozarteum, Théâtre du Châtelet, Kyoto Concert Hall and Sapporo Kitara Hall, among others. His most notable collaborations with jazz, classical music, pop, theatre, dance, literature and visual artists are those with Jack DeJohnette, John Patitucci, Didier Lockwood, David Enhco, Emiliano Gonzalez-Toro, Sarah Nemtanu, Alexis Cardenas, Renaud Capuçon, Natalie Dessay, Michel Dalberto, Laurent Naouri, Anne-Sofie Von Otter, Beatrice Rana and Thibaut Garcia; the string quartets Quatour Ébène, Arod Hanson, Modigliani, Radio France Choir and Coro Spirito; David Lescot, Nicolas Mathieu, Aurélia Aurita, Marie-Claude Pietragalla, Tim Dup, Jane Birkin, MC Solaar and Clara Ysé, among others.

Thomas Enhco has received various prizes and awards, such as the 2020 SACEM Jazz Grand Prix, 2013 Victoires du Jazz, 2nd Grand Prize at the 2017 Osaka International Chamber Music Competition, 2012 FIPA d’Or for Best Film Score (Les Cinq Parties du Monde by French director Gérard Mordillat), 2010 Django d’Or “New Talent” Award and 3rd Grand Prize at the 2010 Martial Solal International Jazz Piano Competition. From 2013 to 2021, Thomas Enhco was supported in his projects by the BNP Paribas Foundation.

Princess of Asturias Foundation Choir

In keeping with the traditional love of Asturians for choral music, the Princess of Asturias Foundation established a polyphonic ensemble in 1983 with the aim of elevating its performance to the highest of levels. Conducted by José Esteban García Miranda since 1989, the Princess of Asturias Foundation Choir is considered an outstanding amateur group that enjoys recognized prestige on the international scene. In December 2007, the European Parliament distinguished the Choir via an extraordinary acknowledgement “for its outstanding services to the European Union”. Throughout its history, it has also been conducted by Luis Gutiérrez Arias, Sabas Calvillo, Víctor Pablo Pérez and Luis Vila. Jesús López Cobos, 1981 Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts, was joint honorary conductor of the Choir until his death in 2018, along with Krzysztof Penderecki, who died in 2020 and who received the same award in 2001.

The Choir has toured Europe, America and the Middle East. In Europe, it has performed in France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Poland, Russia, the UK, Greece and Portugal. It has also performed in Jerusalem, Tampa (Florida), Washington, New York –in St Patrick’s Cathedral and at the Lincoln Center– on the occasion of Columbus Day, in São Paulo, Mexico City and Bogotá. Furthermore, in 2004 it was invited to participate at the marriage of Their Majesties King Felipe and Queen Letizia, performing during the traditional offering of the bride’s bouquet to the Virgin in the Royal Basilica of Our Lady of Atocha. It has also performed Cherubini’s Requiem in C minor alongside the Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Riccardo Muti, 2011 Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts; alongside the orchestra and soloist of the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, conducted by the institution’s artistic and general director Valery Gergiev; excerpts from Richard Wagner’s opera Parsifal; The Dream of Gerontis, Op. 38 by Edward Elgar, under the baton of Rossen Milanov; as well as Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Sergei Prokofiev’s Ivan the Terrible, conducted, respectively, by Pedro Amaral and Mykola Dyadyura. Since its inception, the Princess of Asturias Foundation Choir has been led by outstanding conductors such as Marcus Creed, Friedrich Haider, Ros Marbá, Peter Maag, John Neschling, Yuri Bashmet, Alberto Zedda, Paul Mann, Jesús López Cobos, Krzysztof Penderecki, Gustavo Dudamel, Sir Neville Marriner, Marzio Conti, Rossen Milanov, Juanjo Mena and Jonathan Webb. It has also collaborated with the Symphony Orchestra of the State of São Paulo; the Vienna Sinfonietta Classical Orchestra; the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra, belonging to the National Network of Youth and Children’s Orchestras of Venezuela (2008 Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts); and the Philharmonic Orchestra of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (2009 Prince of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities), among others.

Principality of Asturias Symphony Orchestra

Established in 1991 by the Regional Government of the Principality of Asturias, His Majesty King Felipe VI is the orchestra’s Honorary President. The Principality of Asturias Symphony Orchestra (OSPA), whose principal conductor is Nuno Coelho, runs a concert season in Oviedo and Gijón as well as performing extensively throughout Asturias and Spain. In addition to its previous principal conductors, namely Jesse Levine, Maximiano Valdés and Rossen Milanov, maestros of the calibre of Pablo González, Jaime Martín, Elim Chan, Michal Nesterowicz, Vasily Petrenko, Dalia Stasevska and Hans Graf have also conducted the orchestra. It regularly collaborates with major soloists such as Javier Perianes, Pablo Ferrández, Akiko Suwanai, Daniel Müller-Schott and Kirill Gerstein, among others.

The OSPA also carries out intense educational and social work in Asturias, expanding its horizons every year and garnering widespread acclaim in all the places where it performs. Its most noteworthy activities include its collaboration with Carnegie Hall via the venue’s LinkUp program, in which more than nine thousand students participate each year, and its annual participation in the concert prior to the Princess of Asturias Awards, with the presence of the Royal Family. Outside the Principality, the OSPA has performed at Spain’s foremost auditoriums and concert halls. It is also regularly invited to play at festivals such as the Festival Internacional de Santander and the Festival Musika-Música de Bilbao. It has toured Mexico and Chile, has participated in the Inter-Celtic Festival of Lorient in France, and has performed in China, Bulgaria and New York. In 2011, it gave a massively attended concert before His Holiness Benedict XVI in the Nervi Hall in the Vatican. It has recorded for the following labels: Artek, Naxos, Classic Concert Records and Channel Classics. It has recovered titles from Spain’s musical heritage such as Tomás Bretón’s Los amantes de Teruel and Covadonga, as well as reviving 19th-century Spanish symphonic works. The OSPA is an independent body of the Principality of Asturias’ Regional Vice-Ministry of Culture, Language Policy and Sports.