Interview with Josep Vicent Giner, organist and harpsichordist

TextAmparo Sevilla
Pictures: Guillen Photo

Josep Vicent Giner (Dénia, 1970) is organist, harpsichordist and artistic director of the concert series Dénia-Clàssics, Which develops in Dénia January to April in the program of the Department of Cultural Progress Dénia City Council, and the prestigious Organ Festival of Pedreguer which this year celebrated its fourteenth edition. Josep Vicent Giner currently combines teaching task as professor of organ at the Conservatory of Music in Valencia with an intense concert activity all over the country and the rest of Europe, one of the pillars of his life, as he confesses: "Because touch is what keeps the flame of creation and interpretation."

The attraction for music, and especially the organ arose when JV Giner was just a child: "I remember as a kid going with my parents to the church of the Assumption and when I heard play that instrument, which is still conservative in me all vibrated. Still I do not understand how I feel an organ that can cause internal commotion ". He began his musical studies with Josep Sendra at the Academy of Artistic Association Musical of Dénia, playing the flute and one day, in the church, he met fortuitously who was his first teacher organ, the Dutch Rynko Ottes, professor and retired orchestra director who resided in Dénia.

In the 18 years Josep Vicent Giner moved to Barcelona to study at the Conservatorio Superior de Música del Liceu, under the direction of Professor Josep Mª organ More Bonet, where he obtained the title of Senior Professor Organ Honor Award in Middle and Extraordinary Degree Award limit. He subsequently harpsichord studies at the Conservatory of Music in Murcia, with Professor Javier Artigas, and ffinalizes obtaining the title of Superior Professor of Clavicordio with the maximum qualifications.

Before finishing higher studies, Josep Vicent Giner had traveled to the Netherlands on several occasions, taking advantage of the summer holidays. "There I soaked in that European music scene, concert, symphony orchestras, chamber music and especially organ music a lot, because Holland is paradise organ". According explains, Holland has a historical tradition of organ music, especially representing this instrument within the Evangelist or Lutheran World: "In the Protestant world, even today, the organ would say that is the commentator, prefiguring the word on which will relate the liturgy, it is essential to figure Instrumnt to support the singer, as something toned and overemphasis what the word says. "

When he finished studies in Barcelona, in 1993, Josep Vicent Giner march to Vienna as a fellow of the Generalitat Valenciana, the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Austrian Government. In the city of Vienda he studied for three years in the Faculty of Music and Dramatic Arts organ with Michael Radulescu, one of the greatest masters that has been in the twentieth century, and orchestra conducting with Professor Karl Österreicher. He graduated in June from 1995 with honorary distinction and one year later he obtained the academic degree of "Magister Artium" from the University of Vienna, with the qualification of Cum Laude.

Josep Vicent Giner maintain contact with Vienna years after finishing the studies, "Because life, mentality and sensibility for art was not the same there than here." "Things have changed a lot since-continuous-years 90 so far, fortunately, but nonetheless, in a country like that is a musical effervescence as barbaric ... In Vienna daily two operas and may be the same day, the same time, they have fifteen concerts!. "

Throughout his career he has won numerous awards and honors, including second prize in the "National Spanish Young Performers Jeunesses Musicales"Held in Seville in 1992; he "Artistic Merit Award of the Austrian Ministry of Science and Culture"In 1996; 2007 and was granted the Silver medal Jaime II the Just Foundation.

Concert activity Josep Vicent Giner began during the stage of studies in Barcelona, ​​and from 1996 touted "Where have an incentive and can present my art". Regularly it offers concerts in Spain and the rest of Europe as an organist and harpsichordist soloist with programs of renaissance, baroque, romantic, chamber and contemporary music and the premiere of composers like Armando Blanquer, Gordon Lawson and Josef Lammerz.

Josep Vicent Giner He has performed in major music cycles held at the Almudena Cathedral, Zaragoza, Sevilla, Pedreguer, Callosa den Sarria ...In concert halls like Palau de la Música in Santiago de Compostela, at the Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid, the Church of the Venerables in Seville, "Fantastic historical organs like the one in a monastery of Benedictine nuns called Ante Altares San Paio (Santiago de Compostela) ...". "But surely that I like to play especially it is the organ of Pedreguer, because this instrument corresponds to my ideals."

The body Pedreguer to terms found in the church of the Holy Cross, where he arrived thanks to a donation from a family of industrialists. "It is a very beautiful instrument, made of wood, a work almost of goldsmith work"Explains Josep Vicent iner. "Instruments like this are made specifically, each timber is different and has to try and feel like it sounds. So takes a creative and artistic process, because after the instrument has to transmit that energy, pure, poetic sound and then has to be the bridge between the expression of the instrumentalist and the perception that makes the listener. That, however much be diligent in factories, industrial process ices that emission of sound. "

To give life and meaning to this Instrumnt, Josep Vicent Giner organizes, since 1997, the International Organ Festival of Pedreguer, a cycle that includes the participation of instrumental vocal groups and various soloists internationally, which together with the body, offer a varied repertoire of Obas comprising more than four centuries of music. On the cycle, which this year was held between the 1 and 29 October, Josep Vicent Giner stresses that "Annually we have a lot of audience, many of them European tourists looking for an artistic moment of delight for the spirit."

Among other festivals in intervening, Josep Vicent Giner highlights organized by Cajastur in Asturias. Precisely in Asturias, specifically in Avilés, it will move shortly to inaugurating the organ of St. Thomas of Canterbury, the largest church in the center of the municipality. He has also played a lot in the Cathedral of Oviedo, and has been invited on numerous occasions to the Donostiarra Musical Fortnight.

Within the concertístics activity, is also noteworthy that Josep Vicent Giner is a member of various chamber groups, has performed with the Orchestra of Valencia and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Galicia and has Gura some European orchestras. In 2011 it is scheduled to perform in Italy and Germany.

As for the discography, the latest work by Josep Vicent Giner has not yet been published. This is an album recorded this summer in Oion (La Rioja), the first collection "Euskalerria bodies". Also It has six disks, soloist and jusnto formations as the Choir Valencia, the Choir Vila, with trompetistas Ernesto Chulià and Antonio Cambres body; and he has made recordings for Radio Classic 2, 9 Canal, Catalunya Música, WDR 3, etc.

We close this interview talking about the ambitions and desires of Josep Vicent Giner: "I wish more instruments like the organo in many places where you can do many activities were built; relaunch the activity of my students, because many people come to study and want to have professional expectations, which always is, it is to know the time and power to throw ... the sun rises every day, and goes for everyone, although a few They do not want there is always a way to find things. " "I would also like to have a foundation itself where you can shape many ideas, giving way to modern and contemporary language and to premiere works by many composers who write the history of our times".