Canary Islands Religious Music Festival to Host World Premiere of 'Nuntia a María Magdalena'

The 20th Canary Islands Religious Music Festival is heading into its final weekend with a focus on modern compositions and fresh takes on historical figures. Organizers have announced that the event will close in Tenerife with the world premiere of a piece commissioned specifically for this year’s festival.

Tenerife-born composer Dori Díaz Jerez has written Nuntia a María Magdalena. Moving away from traditional portrayals of grief, the piece uses texts from apocryphal gospels to explore the spiritual side and positive legacy of Mary Magdalene. The work, written for a solo soprano and chamber orchestra, will feature Australian soprano Alexandra Flood and be conducted by the festival’s musical director, Gregorio Gutiérrez.

Performances will take place this Saturday at 8:30 p.m. at the Church of Nuestra Señora de la Concepción in La Laguna, and Sunday at 12:30 p.m. at the Church of San Marcos in Icod de los Vinos. Both concerts are free to the public and will include Díaz Jerez’s new work alongside Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem, op. 48 and Giacomo Puccini’s Crisantemi. The festival orchestra will be joined by the Ainur Chamber Choir, led by Mariola Rodríguez Suárez, and Austrian baritone Paul Armin Edelmann.

This project is part of the festival’s ongoing effort to commission, perform, and record new music by contemporary composers. The festival is made possible through a mix of public and private funding, supported by the Government of the Canary Islands, the National Institute of Performing Arts and Music (INAEM), the Cabildo de Tenerife, the city councils of La Laguna and Icod, the Diocese of San Cristóbal de La Laguna, and the CajaCanarias Foundation.