ORFEÓ CATALÁ
DAVID CIERI
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Núria Rial
London’s Philharmonia
Marin Alsop
Featuring:
Marin Alsop, Núria Rial, London's Philharmonia, David Cieri and ORFEÓ CATALÁ
Celebrate the Year of Gaudí
June 11, 2026 | Plaça Catalunya
Free Outdoor Concert, 20:30h
Maestra Marin Alsop conducts London’s Philharmonia Orchestra and Barcelona’s Orfeó Català performing 84 Bells, composer David Cieri’s tribute to Gaudí’s vision of the Sagrada Familia as a colossal musical instrument where sound is woven with the spiritual experience.
THE CONCERT
The world premiere of
Thursday, 11 June, 2026
Start time at 20:30
Artists
Philharmonia Orchestra
Marin Alsop, conductor
Núria Rial, soprano
Orfeó Català-Palau de la Música Catalana
Chamber Choir
Program
A selection of celebratory songs performed by
the Chamber Choir of the Palau de la Musica Catalana
David Cieri, 84 Bells
Ludwig von Beethoven, 7th Symphony, IV movement
Brian Tyler, Formula 1 Theme Song
Free Admission
ARTISTS
David Cieri Composer
Marin Alsop Conductor
Núria Rial Soprano
Galdric Santana Percussionist and Musical Advisor
London’s Philharmonia Orchestra
Orfeó Català
David Cieri
Composer
David Cieri is a prolific composer and musician who has written scores for some of the best-known documentarians and filmmakers. He has collaborated with award-winning documentarian Ken Burns on the newly released Thoreau, featuring George Clooney, Jeff Goldblum and Meryl Streep. He previously worked with Burns on The American Revolution (2025), Hiding in Plain Sight (2022), Benjamin Franklin (2022), Muhammad Ali (2021), Hemingway (2021), The Vietnam War (with Yo-Yo Ma and Trent Reznor, 2017), The Roosevelts: An Intimate History (2014), Prohibition (with Wynton Marsalis, 2011) and National Parks (2008). He is currently composing for Burn’s forthcoming Lyndon B Johnson documentary, With Crime and Punishment (with Lynn Novick) arriving on PBS in November 2026.
Additional film work includes The Mayo Clinic (2018, featuring guitarist Bill Frisell), Barak Goodman’s Sundance-screened Oklahoma City (2017, Oscar long-listed), Emmy-nominated Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies (2015), and Booker’s Place: A Mississippi Story (2014, Oscar long-listed). In 2013, he worked with George Lucas on The Heart of the Matter.
Cieri has released twenty-one albums, including Dark Furniture (2018) and White Dust (2017) and collaborations with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa. He created the World Carillon Project in 2020 and in 2016 composed Graves of Light, a tone poem for carillon bells recorded at Yale’s Harkness Tower.
Born in Philadelphia, Cieri was introduced to music by his mother, a concert pianist and harpsichordist. He has performed at Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center and other iconic musical venues. He has taught Music and Film Scoring at The City College of New York since 2010. Find more information about David on his website.
Marin Alsop
Conductor
Alsop is Chief Conductor of the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Artistic Director & Chief Conductor of the Polish National Radio Symphony, Principal Guest Conductor of London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and Chief Conductor of the Ravinia Festival, where she leads the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s annual residencies. She is the first Music Director of the University of Maryland’s National Orchestral Institute + Festival, Conductor of Honour of Brazil’s São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, and Music Director Laureate and OrchKids Founder at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, after an outstanding 14-year tenure as its Music Director.
Alsop has made history as the first female conductor of the BBC’s Last Night of the Proms, and in the 24-25 season became the first U.S.-born woman to conduct the Berlin Philharmonic.
To promote and nurture female conductors’ careers, in 2002 she founded the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship. The only conductor to receive a MacArthur Fellowship, she has also been honored with the World Economic Forum’s Crystal Award. The Conductor, a documentary about her life, was nominated for an Emmy and recognized with a Naples International Film Festival award.
Núria Rial
soprano
Núria Rial is one of the leading voices in Baroque and Classical repertoire in recent years and is frequently praised for the purity of her voice and the naturalness of her singing. She regularly performs in major European concert halls and festivals such as the Salzburg Festival, Lucerne Festival, Bachfest Leipzig, Berliner Philharmonie, and Wiener Musikverein. Her extensive discography has been honored with awards such as the Orphée d’Or, Echo Klassik, and Opus Klassik.
Galdric Santana
Percussionist and Musical Advisor
Galdric Santana is an architect, musician, musical instrument builder, and co-curator of the Year of Gaudi 2026 centennial celebrations. He holds a Ph.D. in Architecture, and wrote his thesis on Gaudí’s Sagrada Família organ bells. Santana is the Director of the Real Cátedra Gaudí at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) and a professor at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya (ESMUC). He has researched and restored historical musical instruments and worked on documentation and conservation projects for the Sagrada Família.
London’s Philharmonia Orchestra
Founded in 1945, the Philharmonia Orchestra is one of the world’s great orchestras. Finnish conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali took up the baton as Principal Conductor in 2021, and Marin Alsop joined him as Principal Guest Conductor in 2023. They follow in illustrious footsteps: Herbert von Karajan, Otto Klemperer, Ricardo Muti, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Christoph von Dohnányi, Vladimir Ashkenazy and Esa-Pekka Salonen are some of the key figures who have honed the renowned Philharmonia sound over eight decades.
The Orchestra is made up of 80 outstanding musicians. It has premiered works by Richard Strauss, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Errollyn Wallen, Laufey and many others, and performs with many of the world’s most admired soloists.
Resident at the Southbank Centre in the heart of London, the Philharmonia also holds residencies in Basingstoke, Bedford, Canterbury and Leicester, at Garsington Opera and at the Three Choirs Festival. In each of these residencies, the Orchestra is deeply embedded in the community, empowering people to engage with and participate in orchestral music. The Orchestra has a global audience – it tours extensively throughout Europe and has performed in China…
Read full bio
Orfeó Català
Cor de Cambra
The chamber choir at the Palau de la Música Catalana, the Cor de Cambra, is one of the most prestigious professional choirs in Spain. The choir was founded by the Orfeó Català in 1990 in order to promote universal choral music, give new energy to Catalan musical heritage, and encourage new compositions. Xavier Puig is the current choir director, while Pau Casan is the choir pianist. The Cor de Cambra has also been conducted by great maestros, such as R. Jacobs, M. Minkowski, K. Nagano, S. Rattle, D. Barenboim, C. Rousset, V. Jurowski, D. Gatti, S. Carrington, F. Biondi, and G. Dudamel.
The Cor de Cambra has performed throughout Spain and further afield, including at the BBC Proms in London and the MÜPA Festival in Budapest. Notably, the choir performed in Los Angeles (USA) at the start of the choir’s international tour, giving a rendition of Beethoven’s opera Fidelio with the LA Phil, under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel (2024).
THE STORY
La Sagrada Familia is a “symphony of stone,” designed to be a colossal instrument where architecture breathes through the wind and every void is shaped to cradle the divine resonance of bells, blurring the line between physical space and the invisible magic of sound.
Gaudí's
Original
Design
Gaudí designed 84 bells, one for each key on a piano’s standard register, to be hung in the 18 towers of La Sagrada Família’s. His vision was to create a sacred carillon with a three-kilometer acoustic range, transforming the Basilica into a colossal musical instrument that would resonate across Barcelona’s urban landscape.
ARTISTIC ADVISORS
Galdric Santana Historic and Acoustic Advisor
Osvaldo Golijov Artistic Advisor
Marti Epstein Artistic Mentor
Arturo Rodríguez Orchestrator
Galdric Santana
Historical and acoustics advisor
Galdric Santana is an architect, musician, musical instrument builder, and co-curator of the Year of Gaudi 2026 centennial celebrations. He holds a Ph.D. in Architecture, and wrote his thesis on Gaudí’s Sagrada Família organ bells. Santana is the Director of the Real Cátedra Gaudí at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) and a professor at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya (ESMUC). He has researched and restored historical musical instruments and worked on documentation and conservation projects for the Sagrada Família.
Osvaldo Golijov
Artistic Advisor
Osvaldo Golijov is an Argentine composer, born in 1960, celebrated for his eclectic blend of musical styles, including classical, Jewish liturgical, klezmer, and nuevo tango. His compositions, which often feature unconventional instrumentation, have garnered widespread acclaim and numerous awards, including a MacArthur Fellowship and multiple Grammy Awards. Golijov’s works have been performed by renowned artists and ensembles worldwide, such as the Kronos Quartet, St. Lawrence String Quartet, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, soprano Dawn Upshaw, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the Silkroad Ensemble. He has also composed scores for films by Francis Ford Coppola.
Marti Epstein
Artistic Mentor
Marti Epstein, born in 1959, is an American composer known for her avant-garde post-classical concert music. She approaches composition by prioritizing sound as organizing musical materials over traditional melody or harmony, often creating works that are deliberate in pace and rich in texture. Epstein’s works have been performed globally by distinguished ensembles including the San Francisco Symphony, The Radio Symphony Orchestra of Frankfurt, Ensemble Modern, and members of the Boston Symphony. She has received numerous commissions and awards, notably a Guggenheim Fellowship and multiple MacDowell Fellowships.
Arturo Rodríguez
Orchestrator
Arturo Rodríguez, born in Mexico in 1976, is a composer, conductor, and pianist. His first symphonic work was premiered by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra; Noche de Posadas was commissioned and premiered by the Boston Pops. He has collaborated with the San Francisco Symphony for their Día de los Muertos concerts and made orchestral arrangements for the LA Philharmonic. Rodriguez is an accomplished film composer, orchestrator, and conductor for film and TV, including orchestrating and conducting the soundtrack for Francis Ford Coppola’s film Megalopolis, and conducting the original soundtracks for Furious7, and Twisters. Rodríguez was the youngest recipient of Mexico’s Mozart Medal.
PRODUCTION TEAM
Jennifer Ritvo Hughes Senior Producer
Raquel Peula Associate Producer
María del Mar de Ros Institutional Relations Advisor
Gijs van Hensbergen Historical Advisor
Almudena Campos Advisor
Jennifer Ritvo Hughes
Senior Producer
Jennifer Ritvo Hughes is an arts administrator, consultant and educator. Prior to founding her arts consultancy firm specializing in creative growth strategies and financial resiliency, Hughes spent 12 years in leadership positions in the performing arts, including serving as the CEO of the American Friends of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Executive Director of six-time GRAMMY-nominee Boston Baroque, and Executive Director of Cantata Singers. Hughes is a lecturer at Boston University’s Graduate Program in Arts Administration, where she teaches Performing Arts Management.
Raquel Peul
Associate Producer
Raquel Peula is an experienced Arts Project Manager and the Outreach and Admissions Director at UIC Barcelona (International University of Catalonia). She has extensive international experience and has organized numerous events in both the visual and performing arts. Raquel holds an M.S. in Arts Administration from Boston University, where she is now a guest lecturer. Her leadership roles include serving as Cultural Manager at the Embassy of Spain in Ukraine and as Executive Director of the Cervantine Stories: Quixotic Moments concert series, commemorating in the greater Boston area the 400th anniversary of Cervantes’ death.
María del Mar de Ros
Institutional Relations Advisor
María del Mar de Ros Raventós is an entrepreneur with a passion for driving initiatives that promote young talent and promote Barcelona ‘s identity to the world. She combines experience in strategy, innovation, and leadership with a deep connection to the sea and the city’s culture.
María del Mar holds degrees in Business Administration and Law from the University of Navarra and an MBA from IESE Business School. She has worked in investment banking, consulting, and international projects, and also studied piano performance at the Liceu Conservatory of Music, where she co-founded, together with her four sisters, the musical group Burbujitas.
Gijs van Hensbergen
Historical Advisor
Gijs van Hensbergen is a preeminent Gaudí biographer and historian, renowned for his deep exploration of Spanish culture, food, and architecture. He is the author of the critically acclaimed Gaudí, The Sagrada Família, Guernica: The Biography of a Twentieth-Century Icon, and other works of Spanish history. A frequent lecturer and international media contributor, van Hensbergen is celebrated for bringing the richness of Spanish artistic heritage to a global audience.
CREATORS AND EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS
EAC Productions is an independent production company founded by Renee Chan and Pat Mitchell that develops and promotes musical and artistic projects across the US and Spain. EAC is inspired by community, history, and the preservation of local culture, and has supported live music productions, street art projects in Barcelona’s El Born neighborhood, as well as a musical podcast exploring the history of New Orleans rhythm and blues music.
Renée Chan is an active supporter of the Boston and Barcelona communities, where she has founded Everyday Deeds, a non-profit organization connecting volunteers with underserved communities, and serves on the Board of Directors of More Than Words, a social enterprise teaching business and life skills to young adults.
Pat Mitchell is a partner at the international law firm Goodwin Procter LLP, where he advises growth-stage technology companies and venture capital funds. Pat is active in many community efforts in Boston, including serving on the Board of Directors of Embrace Boston, a racial justice organization promoting arts and culture, community and policy, that designed and built a memorial to Martin Luther King and Corretta Scott King on the Boston Common, the oldest public park in America.
MADE POSSIBLE BY
Gaudí Centennial Concert Series
Visit the concert website
Wednesday June 10, 2026
Start time at 20:00
Gaudí Centennial Concert Series
Visit the concert website
Wednesday June 10, 2026
Start time at 20:00