The University of Navarra Symphony Orchestra presents its 7th Autumn Concert at the MUN, with a program based on Dvořák's "New World Symphony".

The MUN has in its DNA the character of a university museum. For this reason, students play a leading role in its activities, with regular events such as the autumn concert of the University of Navarra Symphony Orchestra. Next Tuesday, November 25 at 7.30 p.m., the young musicians will offer the seventh edition of this recital, culminating two months of rehearsals. The last tickets can be purchased on the website and in the locker.

"During these eight years, numerous students from more than a dozen Schools and centers have passed through the orchestra. For them, it has been a deeply educational and enriching process. They have had the opportunity to play together in a high-level orchestra while taking their programs of study, guided by a director like Borja Quintas," explains Carlos Bernar, in charge of the MUN's activities for students. He adds that "this experience has allowed them to grow as individuals, learn to work as a team and manage their time better. Many of them tell us that their time in the orchestra has been one of the most important and rewarding experiences of their lives.

Among the 75 musicians, the two instrumentalists who will be in charge of the solos stand out. Chosen in a soloist competition held last October, the Navarrese Diego San Millán (who is studying 4th year of Human Nutrition and Dietetics after finishing the Degree in Pharmacy, and is a member of the Orchestra since its origin in 2017) was declared winner on clarinet; in addition to the violinist Lorenzo Costa, a Mexican student of Medicine, coming from the University of Heidelberg (Germany), who is currently doing an internship at the Clínica Universidad de Navarra.

Maestro Borja Quintas conducts the orchestra. "The accompaniment work is always very enriching for the students, with the greater stimulus of accompanying your own fellow orchestra members. It involves a special exercise in listening and flexibility in the service of the soloist," he says. In addition, about the repertoire, he comments that "with respect to the Symphony, the great challenge is to interpret such an emblematic work and try to make a new, fresh reading, without falling into the inertia of the versions so often heard in everyone's homes".

The young musicians who currently make up the group study at 9 Schools and centers of the University of Navarra: Medicine, Nursing, Architecture, Pharmacy and Nutrition, Science, Economics and Business, Communication, Philosophy and Letters, and Law. Its members come from Spain, France, Italy, Finland, Hungary, Germany, the United States, Mexico, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Colombia and Peru.

The Choir, the Symphony Orchestra and the Theater training Plan are the most outstanding activities of the MUN for the artistic development of university students. Through the Artistic Talent program, they can also obtain credits for this development of their creative facet. In addition to these proposals, there are others such as the musicals workshop (which will end on November 27 with two performances of Hairspray) or the singing competition La voz de tu School -with its corresponding finale on stage-.

Program

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Concerto for clarinet and orchestra in A M, K. 622

• I. Allegro

Max Bruch

Concerto for violin and orchestra No. 1 in G m, Op. 26

• II. Adagio
• III. Finale. Allegro energico

Antonín Dvořák

Symphony No. 9 in E m "of the New World".

Biographies

Borja Quintas - Director

He has conducted some of the most important ensembles in the world, such as the London Symphony Orchestra or the New Russia Symphony Orchestra and has accompanied soloists of the stature of Plácido Domingo, Javier Camarena, Ainhoa Arteta or María Bayo. Committed to young symphonic ensembles, he is Artistic Director of the Orquesta Sinfónica Universidad de Navarra and the Orquesta Sinfónica, Coro y Escolanía JMJ. He develops his professor activity at the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Aragón and at the Centro Superior Katarina Gurska. Trained entirely as a director at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, he develops his artistic activity mainly in Russia and Spain, although he has performed in most European capitals and in countries of the Middle East.

Diego San Millán - Clarinet

Native of Pamplona and member of the Symphony Orchestra of the University of Navarra since its foundation. He began his musical training in the schools of Sos del Rey Católico and Zizur Mayor, before entering the Pablo Sarasate Professional Conservatory of Music. In this center, he demonstrated a high level by obtaining theIntercenter award in 2021 and finishing his professional programs of study with the Fin de Degree award in 2022. Currently, she is in her last year at the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Navarra. Parallel to his higher musical career, Diego has developed a complete training in Health Sciences, being a graduate in Pharmacy at the University of Navarra and student of the Degree in Human Nutrition and Dietetics at the same institution.

Lorenzo Costa - Violin

He began his violin programs of study with his father at the age of 4. He studied with Prof. Stefan Arzberger at the Musikhochschule in Mannheim. Since then, he has played as concertmaster and soloist in various orchestras. He was director of the Heidelberg Physicians' Orchestra from 2022 to 2024. He has received masterclasses from Viktor Pikaizen, Josef Rissin, Midori, Nicola Benedetti, among other acclaimed artists. He is currently a final year medical student at the University of Heidelberg.