‎Maestro Kazushi Ono will continue to lead the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra until ‎the 2021-22 season. This was announced this afternoon by L’Auditori’s manager, ‎Jordi Tort, during a press conference at which Ono was also present. Kazushi Ono has been ‎the conductor of the Orchestra since the 2015-16 season and, with his renewed contract, he ‎will complete six seasons as the director of the OBC.‎
Today’s meeting with the media was followed by a tour on TMB’s Barcelona Tourist ‎Bus during which the press and OBC musicians went from L’Auditori to the Born ‎neighbourhood. Once in Born, a quintet of the Orchestra treated the city to a ‎‎surprise concert.‎
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‎The new season gets off to a start with Mahler and Stefan Dohr‎
The OBC’s 2018-19 season starts on 28 September at L’Auditori with a top-‎class programme featuring Gustav Mahler’s Fifth Symphony and ‎‎Robert Schumann’s concert piece for four horns and orchestra.‎
‎Mahler will be one this season’s central figures and his music will form the ‎essence of programmes in which we will be treated to the music of composer’s Romantic and ‎contemporary roots and of his successors.‎
‎The Fifth will be accompanied by an extraordinary work from the Robert Schumann ‎catalogue that is rarely performed and which requires great involvement on the part of the ‎soloists. The Concert piece for four horns and orchestra ‎‎ will feature four acclaimed and highly experienced performers such as the ‎‎horn soloists of the Berlin Philharmonic and of the OBC, Stefan Dohr and Juan ‎Manuel Gómez, and José Vicente Castelló and José Miguel Asensi. They will all be ‎accompanied by the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Kazushi Ono.‎
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‎Art and film open the OBC to new audiences‎
This season, the Orchestra is presenting its new image created by visual artist ‎Frederic Amat, reaffirming its link with artistic excellence and promoting a dialogue ‎of music with the other arts under the slogan “You are art. You are music. You are OBC”.‎
This new image comes with other new developments, such as the creation of the ‎OBCPOPS series, aimed at all audiences and with proposals for new collaborations and the ‎screening of films with the soundtracks performed live by the Orchestra. ‎


Commitment to social and educational projects and the search for new ‎talent

The OBC continues its commitment to promoting new generations of musicians through the ‎‎.‎
The OBC’s social and educational engagement is a fundamental part of its artistic project. Two ‎European projects have been added this year to bring classical music closer to younger ‎audiences. In addition to a new concert for family audiencesthe OBC dances ‎Ravel, based on Ma mère l’Oye (Mother Goose), the projectEt ‎Toca a Tuis back this season. This is a participatory concert in which organizations ‎that use music as a tool for education and social inclusion share the stage with the OBC to ‎premiere a work at L’Auditori. The piece will be composed by Mariona Vila ‎with the Entre Cordes project of the Pepa Colomer school in El Prat de ‎Llobregat.‎

After the resounding success of the first edition, Canta amb l’OBC! (Sing ‎with the OBC!) will be back this season. Once again, the social projectA Morning ‎with the Orchestra will offer a musical experience for people with ‎intellectual disabilities or Alzheimer’s. The two versions of the activity have been ‎specially adapted to each of these groups, who will find in music a space for transformation. ‎Each season, almost 2,000 people enjoy the OBC through the Apropa ‎Cultura programme, which enables social entities to access and use cultural ‎facilities.‎