Following the establishment of the Princess of Asturias Foundation Choir and the Youth Choir, the Children’s Choir was created in 1990 to continue to broaden the work and goals of our Music Department. It likewise ceased its activities in March 2020.
Made up of children over the age of seven with an initial vocation for choral music, in addition to receiving the necessary technique and improvement classes, its young members began to use sheet music and made their first public performances.
Since its presentation in October 1991, the Children’s Choir has given numerous concerts in the Principality of Asturias’s major towns and cities. In 2001, the choir performed J. S. Bach’s The Saint Matthew Passion to alongside the Principality of Asturias Symphony Orchestra (OSPA), an oratorio they performed again in 2009 under the baton of maestro Valdés. The choir traveled to Madrid in 2003 to perform at the El Pardo Royal Palace, in a concert presided over by His Majesty King Felipe VI, then Prince of Asturias. In December 2005, the Children’s Choir performed the Christmas carol Silent Night at the concert given by the New Orleans Jazz Band and Woody Allen, 2002 Prince of Asturias Laureate for the Arts.
In 2006, the Children’s Choir was invited to take part in the TV programme “El Conciertazo”, where they performed Bizet’s The Changing of the Guard from the opera Carmen. On the occasion of the centenary of the Oviedo Philharmonic Society in 2007, the Children’s Choir sang G. Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 alongside the Foundation Choir and the Principality of Asturias Symphony Orchestra (OSPA). In June that year, the choir travelled to San Sebastian to perform alongside the Orfeoi Txiki, the children’s choir of the Orfeón Donostiarra (1984 Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts), at the Aita Donostia 10th Music Week. In June 2010, the choir performed Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, together with the Foundation’s Choirs and other Asturian groups, alongside the Oviedo Philharmonic Orchestra conducted Italian maestro Marzio Conti, as part of La Caixa’s “Participatory Concerts” project.
Together with the Foundation Choir, it participated in the concerts given by the Principality of Asturias Symphony Orchestra (OSPA) in Gijón and Oviedo to mark the opening of their 2017 season. In 2019, the Foundation’s Children’s Choir and Youth Choir both took part in the official welcoming ceremony for Their Majesties The King and Queen and Their Royal Highnesses The Princess of Asturias and Infanta Sofía of Spain held in the cathedral square in Oviedo. That same year, the Children’s Choir participated in the Auditorium Concert Series, alongside the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester conducted by Jonathan Nott, performing Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 3.
In 2012, the Children’s Choir took part in the 21st Princess of Asturias Awards Concert, held on the eve of the Awards Ceremony. In 2013, it performed Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, while in 2014 it collaborated with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Choir conducted by maestro Ton Koopman.