An educational project by the Metalquímia Foundation, which promotes creativity and innovation across different areas of society, the Youth Orchestra of Girona connects music schools in the Girona region with the professional world while also acting as a tool for social integration. It brings together young talents who, after being selected for this year’s concert, will rehearse throughout July to prepare for the final concert at the Auditori de Girona on 20 July, followed by a performance at the Palau de la Música Catalana on 21 July, as part of the 2025 Barcelona Grec Festival. On both occasions, the same repertoire will be performed, with the highlight being Gustav Holst’s The Planets , an orchestral suite composed between 1914 and 1917. The piece consists of seven movements, each named after a planet in the solar system, with music that evokes the astrological qualities of each. In the final movement, the symphony orchestra will be joined by a wordless female choir, specifically the Girls’ Choir of the Orfeó Català, a group of around forty female voices aged 16 to 25, together with the Geriona Choir and Claudefaula Girl’s Choir of Girona, under the direction of conductor Montserrat Meneses.

In addition to The Planets, the concert will feature two premieres of newly commissioned works. One of them is Blau trencat, an overture specially composed by Mariona Vila, a Barcelona-born composer who has previously created works for major cultural institutions such as L’Auditori, the Gran Teatre del Liceu, the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya, and the Barcelona Centre for Contemporary Culture. Vila’s works include the opera Regals [Gifts] (2002), the children’s cantata Ha passat un àngel [The Angel of Silence] (2012-2013) with a libretto by Guillem Clua, and Gall de foc [Fire Chicken] (2018-2019). The second premiere is Improvisació by Oriol Marès and Talal Fayad, a duo that blends diverse cultural backgrounds and musical traditions, ranging from jazz and clarinet to the sounds of Syria performed on instruments such as the oud. During their residency, they will conduct an improvisation workshop and present the results in the concerts.

A production by Palau de la Música Catalana and the Youth Orchestra of Girona.