The Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport will celebrate the Day of Music with a symphonic marathon at the National Auditorium and live concerts all over Spain

With the title "Nueve Novenas" (Nine Ninths) the symphonic marathon Solo Música returns to the National Auditorium on June 24 ready to make history with over 500 performers and 13 hours of music in which, for the first time in the world, on the same day, the nine ninth symphonies by Beethoven, Haydn, Schubert, Garay, Mozart, Bruckner, Dvořák, Shostakovich and Mahler will be played.

The maestro Víctor Pablo Pérez will be in charge of directing this milestone event with the aid of five orchestras; the National Orchestra and Choir of Spain (OCNE) and the National Youth Orchestra of Spain (JONDE) - both belonging to the INAEM -, the RTVE Symphony Orchestra, the Community of Madrid Orchestra and the Madrid Symphony Orchestra.

The marathon, riding on the success of past events (the 2011, 2013 and 2015 editions were attended by over 70,000 people spread over 72 hours of music and 82 concerts), is organised by the National Centre for the Dissemination of Music (Spanish acronym: CNDM) and the National Auditorium - also members of the INAEM - and there will be another series of performances in parallel with the concerts in the Symphonic Hall.

In the Chamber Hall of the National Auditorium, Spanish pianists Miguel Ituarte, Juan Carlos Garvayo, Eduardo Fernández, Miriam Gómez-Morán and José Menor will be playing transcriptions for piano by the great Hungarian composer Franz Liszt of Beethoven's nine symphonies. Meanwhile, in the Hall of Tapestries there will be jazz improvisations on the nine symphonies on the programme, and in the Rodolfo y Ernesto Halffter Square (opposite the entrance to the Symphonic Hall of the National Auditorium) they will live broadcasts of the ninth symphonies of Shostakovich, Dvořák and Mahler starting at 19.30. The day's music will end with the customary fireworks accompanying Händel's "Music for the Royal Fireworks".

The Minister of Education, Culture and Sport, Íñigo Méndez de Vigo and the Secretary of State for Culture, Fernando Benzo, accompanied by the Director General of INAEM, Montserrat Iglesias, all plan to attend this marathon and so help celebrate this Day of Music.

Noches Bárbaras and music venues

In order to promote this celebration throughout Spain, INAEM is also helping to fund the concerts of 12 bands which the State Association of Live Music Venues (Spanish acronym: ACCES) is organising in a number of Spanish cities on June 21, 22 and 23. The concerts will take place at 12 venues in cities in the regions of Aragon, Andalusia, Castile-La Mancha, Castile and Leon, Catalonia, Extremadura, Galicia, Murcia and Valencia.

INAEM is also collaborating with the Fine Arts Circle of Madrid in the organisation of "Las Noches Bárbaras" (literally Barbarian Nights but with a play on words also meaning Fantastic Nights), the 13th Festival of Street Musicians, which this year is being held on June 24. It is a free show, open to everyone, in which between 9 in the evening until 1 in the morning street musicians will be able to get up to perform their songs on various stages installed at strategic points around the Fine Arts Circle: the terrace, the lobby, the ballroom, and the Hall of Columns.