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The
first International Festival of Music was first celebrated in Jimena
in 2000 and is now a regular summer fiesta, with zestful popular
and official support.
Classical
music, jazz, flamenco and world music are all featured. Concerts
every evening stretching into the night over a period of several
days demand organisation, keen audiences and lots of artists, groups
and soloists, young and promising, famous and established, local
and international. In 2002, for example, there were the European
Union Chamber orchestra, the Steve Waterman quintet, a company from
the Bolshoi Ballet, the Barefield Ceili Band, Sara Baras, Alba Ventura,
Mercedes Peon, Justus Grimm, Vicente Amigo, Josep Sancho, Die Reinhardt.
The
simple white courtyard and nave of the old convent and Church of
Nuestra Señora de los Angeles as well as the Centro Cultural
Reina Sofia provide concert halls for classical music. The open
air of a cortijo in the countryside and public squares next to old
churches and towers provide for flamenco, jazz and music of the
world. The squares and streets of this old white town are magically
illuminated at night and so too are the warmer colours of churches
and the castle perched above, launching the final firework display.
The
castle of Jimena de la Frontera looks south to frontiers between
continents and countries, seas and oceans. In the town below many
different peoples have lived in turn, creating international frontiers
in time as well as in place, where the frontier has sometimes been
a scene of conflict. Jimena might have been placed and built on
purpose for an international festival. What better language for
the festival than music of all kinds, sounding in the squares and
courtyards, in the old white churches?
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