• Accompanied by the Foundation’s titular organist, Jose Enrique Ayarra
• Tickets can be purchased today at the "Hospital de los Venerables", based on the availability of seats

Seville, May 19, 2006. - On May 21, the Focus-Abengoa Foundation will offer a concert commencing at 12:00 hours on Sunday, at its Hospital de los Venerables headquarters, by the Chamber Orchestra of the Royal Symphonic Orchestra of Seville, conducted by Biao Xue, and accompanied by the Focus-Abengoa Foundation’s titular organist, Jose Enrique Ayarra.

The Chamber Orchestra will play works by Joaquín Turina, Georg Friederich Händel and Piotr I. Tschaikowsky.. The concert will commence with “La oración del torero” (the oration of the bullfighter) by J. Turina, and will be followed by G. F.c Händel’s “El cuco y el ruiseñor” (the cuckoo and the nightingale). The second half of the concert will be dedicated to P. I. Tschaikowsky¨s “Serenata para Orquesta de Cuerda en Do Mayor” (Serenade for String Orchestra in C major).

Father Ayarra will play the solo section of the Concert for the organ and orchestra composed by G. F. Händel , the program’s central piece, on the Hospital de los Venerables’s exceptional organ built by the German organ maker Gerhard Grenzing, upon request by the Focus-Abengoa Foundation. Inaugurated in 1991, it is considered the best organ of its style of those built in the 20th century for Baroque music.

The Chamber Orchestra of the Royal Symphonic Orchestra of Seville was established in 1998 to cover the repertoire of music written for chamber orchestras. Formed by teachers of the Symphonic Orchestra and under the artistic guiding hand of its own concertmasters since its Presentation Concert in Seville, on February 24, 1998, the Chamber Orchestra of the Royal Symphonic Orchestra of Seville’s music stands have been incorporating an ever-increasing repertoire that includes the main chamber pieces covering a historic and aesthetic period that commences with the Baroque style (J. S. Bach, G. F. Handel, A. Vivaldi, G. B. Pergolesi...), continues with the Classic style (F. J. Haydn, W. A. Mozart), the Romantic and Post-romantic composers (J. Suk, E. Elgar, E. Grieg, F. Mendelssohn, P. I. Tchaikovsky, ...) or the Contemporary composers (B. Brittem, M. Mozetich, N. Rota, ...) and the Spanish composers (I. Albéniz, J. C. Arriaga, J. Turina, ...).

Since the very year of its creation, the Chamber Orchestra of the Royal Symphonic Orchestra of Seville plays each year in Hospital de los Venerables as part of the Focus-Abengoa Foundation’s music program, accompanied by Father Ayarra on the organ, playing Handel’s concerts for the organ and orchestra.

The Focus-Abengoa Foundation was established in 1982 as a consequence of the cultural activity initiated in 1972 by Abengoa with the publishing of the works "Sevillian Topics" and "Iconography of Seville". During this same period a collection of documents, books and prints on Seville, or by Sevillian authors, was being put together. This initial cultural activity brought Abengoa's senior management to see the importance of the company being seen outside its essential technological functions through an activity that would be of benefit to society as a whole, which led to the founding of the Fundación Fondo de Cultura de Sevilla.

The Foundation's activities have been ever-increasing, while complying unwaveringly with its foundational objective of promoting culture in its different artistic and scientific manifestations. The major protagonists in the existence of Focus-Abengoa have been education, painting, restoration and music, closely followed by seminars, the written word and prints.

Biao Xue

Born in China in 1963, he studied music at the conservatories of Shenyang and Shanghais (1978-1981), Houston University (1986-1989) and at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Ohio (1987 and 1988). He has been taught by Fredell Lack, Kenneth Goldsmith, Albert Muenzer, Laurence Wheeler, Isaac Stern, Camilla Wicks, and Gyoge Pauke...

Winner of the National Violin Competition of China in 1984, and of the National Chamber Music Competition of China in 1985, he was awarded first prize in the Kingsville International Young Performers Competition, in 1987. He also won second prize in the Shopmaker Mid-America Violin Competition in Kansas City, in 1988.

From 1985 to 1986, he was first violin of the Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra of Peking. Since then, he has played with the Tampa Orchestra of Florida, the Chinese Virtuoso, the Beaumont Symphony, the Houston Ballet, the Symphonic Orchestra of the University of Houston (first violin), the Lake Charles Philharmonic, the Houston Pop Orchestra, the Houston Symphony (1986-1989); as first violin of the New American Chamber Orchestra (1989-1990), and as first violin of the Royal Symphonic Orchestra of Seville. In addition to conducting the Chamber Orchestra of the Royal Symphonic Orchestra of Seville, he has played soloist with the Houston Civic Symphony (Brahms), the Galveston Symphony Orchestra (Elgar) and the Royal Symphonic Orchestra of Seville (Beethoven, Brahms…).

Jose Enrique Ayarra Jarne

Born in Jaca (Huesca), he began to study music at the age of three. He qualified as a Piano Professor at the School of Music of Zaragoza at the age of eleven and a Graduate in Organ music and Gregorian chant by the Catholic Institute of Paris. He is a graduate in Sacred Theology from the Pontifical University of Salamanca and is titular Canonical Organist of the Cathedral and Hospital de los Venerables, of Seville. He was Organ Professor at the Superior School of Music of Seville, from 1979 to 2002. H is a Numerary Academic of the Seville Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Saint Isabel of Hungary, a fellow of the Academies of Saint Ferdinand (Madrid) and Our lady of the Anguishes (Granada), technical-musical advisor of the Royal Symphonic Orchestra of Seville, of the Department of Artistic Patrimony of the Archbishopric of Seville and of the Focus-Abengoa Foundation.

José Enrique Ayarra was General Coordinator of the 3rd Spanish National Organ Congress (organized by the Focus-Abengoa Foundation, Seville, 1998), and President of the Hispano Organ Association (AOH).

Among the prizes he has won, we would mention the Regional Government of Andalusia’s “Andalusia” Music Prize in 1990. He has given concerts in more than thirty countries of Europe, Africa, America and Asia, and has made radio broadcasts for different radio and television channels of a dozen countries, and has made records playing organs at different European schools, among which we would especially mention that of the integral work of Francisco Correa de Arauxo on historic Andalusia instruments, that of Spanish music for the organ on the Beckerat of Yamaguchi (Japan), for the NHK, and the work Baroque airs on the organ of los Venerables, for RTVE (2003). He will shortly be setting off on his annual tour of concerts abroad which, this year, will take him to Mexico, Japan, Germany, Poland, Belgium, Italy and Switzerland, among others.