Seville, May 29. – Tomorrow, May 30, at 12:30 hours, the Focus-Abengoa Foundation will celebrate a mass-concert in the Hospital de los Venerables’ church, the Foundation’s headquarters, on the occasion of Saint Ferdinand’s Day, the patron saint of Seville and of the los Venerables church. The concert will be given by Jose Enrique Ayarra, the Focus-Abengoa Foundation’s titular organist, who will be accompanied by the “Capella Giulia” Choir from the Vatican’s Saint Peter’s Basilica, conducted by Monsignor Pablo Colino. Entry will be free of charge and limited to the church’s full capacity.

On May 31, the very same choir will give an extraordinary concert at 20:30 hours in Hospital de los Venerables.

The Roman Philharmonic Academy Choir is from the School of Music and Choral Singing that was founded in the Academy in 1961 under the directorship of the Master, Pablo Colino. The School has become one of the first free Musical Education Institutions of Italy and more than ten thousand students attend classes there. The Choir normally participates at the Philharmonic’s seasonal concerts, the solemn functions held in Saint Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, and at other artistic and musical events in Rome. In addition, it has also given concerts in many cities throughout Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Russia, Hungary, and the United States.

Of note among its performances are Stravinsky’s Mass in Palermo, Faure’s Requiem in the RAI of Naples, the concerts to celebrate the 4th Centenary of Frescobaldi in Saint Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, the Young Choir’s part in Wagner’s Parsifal in the Opera Theater of Rome, the Christmas concerts that are broadcast on mundiovision from Asis, the concerts in the Bolshoi Theater and in Moscow’s Saint Salvador’s Orthodox Cathedral, in the Conservatory and in the Yusupov Palace of Saint Petersburg, at the 2nd Centenary of the Franciscan Missions in California, and in the headquarters of the New Catholic University’s Foundation in Florida. The Choir’s repertoire is extremely extensive and commenced with Gregorian chant, and now extends to even the most modern songs inspired by international folklore.

Monsignor Pablo Colino graduated as a Composition professor in Sacred Music and Choral Conducting at the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music of Rome. He is Canon and Master of the Chapel of Saint Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, academician and conductor of the Roman Philharmonic Academy and Tiberina Academy choirs. He is also a Member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Saint Ferdinand of Madrid. He is the author of several works on chant, has made dozens of recordings and conducted numerous concerts in Italy, Spain, Switzerland and Hungary, among others.

Jose Enrique Ayarra graduated as a Piano Teacher at the Conservatory of Zaragoza at the tender age of eleven. He is also a qualified Organ and Gregorian chant teacher by the Catholic Institute of Paris. He is titular organist of the Cathedral and Hospital de los Venerables of Seville and was organ professor at the Superior Conservatory of Seville from 1979 to 2002.

A member of numerous academies such as that of Saint Ferdinand of Madrid or of Fine Arts of Seville, he has been awarded numerous prizes such as the Regional Government of Andalusia’s “Andalusia Music Prize” (1990), or the “City of Seville” Prize (1996). As a concert performer, he has played in more than thirty countries in Europe, Africa, America and Asia and, as a professor, has taught in American and Japanese universities and German academies. His research works focus mainly on the Sacred-Musical Heritage of Andalusia.

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.