Following on from the Oxford Sorolla Symposium, which will be held from 09:00 – 16:30 at the Weston Library, St Cross College will be hosting an Art and Music Soirée in the evening. The latter will be part of the exciting Oxford Sorolla Day events taking place on 1 July on the life and work of Spain’s foremost Impressionist, Joaquín Sorolla.
The Art and Music Soirée includes the projection of the award-winning Sorolla: Journeys of Light documentary (Bronze Medal at the New York TV and Film Festival), which traces Sorolla’s leap to international fame in the first decade of the twentieth century. Spotted in London by New Yorker Archer Huntington, Sorolla travelled to the United States where he was commissioned to paint numerous portraits of well-known Americans, including President Taft, art designer Tiffany and Mrs J.P. Morgan, and a series of monumental canvasses that depict the regional costumes, landscape, and characters of his native Spain. (In Spanish with English subtitles).
This will be followed by Art, Music and Poetry: Joaquín Sorolla, Joaquín Rodrigo and Juan Ramón Jiménez, a music and light show at Pusey Chapel, which will bring Sorolla’s paintings in concert with his fellow contemporaries in the arts. We will hear privately held recordings of Nobel Laureate in Literature, Juan Ramón Jiménez, reciting his own poetry, and special renditions of leading composer, Joaquín Rodrigo’s scores for piano, violin and guitar as Sorolla’s iridescent paintings are projected onto the Chapel walls.
The programme has been curated by Professor Raymond Calcraft, a music conductor and former Head of Spanish at the Universities of Portsmouth, Warwick and Exeter, Professor Calcraft was also the Director of the Joaquín Rodrigo Festival on London’s South Bank in 1986 where the composer, Joaquín Rodrigo, and his family were present. Professor Calcraft will kindly provide a running commentary and offer valuable insights on the works of Sorolla, Rodrigo and Jiménez.
We will then have drinks in the quad and the Saugman Common Room provided by Verum, Gold Medal Decanter Award-winning winery from Spain’s La Mancha region, while listening to violin graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and BritishSpanish Society’s Centenary Scholar Lucía Veintimilla. Finally, we will inaugurate an art display to show students’ works from Hackney primary and secondary schools and ALCE, all inspired by Sorolla.
The Oxford Sorolla Day Art and Music Soirée has been organized by St Cross College and Spanish Studies at Oxford, in collaboration with the Education Office at the Spanish Embassy in London; with the support of the Instituto Cervantes London, Bodegas Verum, Baxter Storey, the BritishSpanish Society, and the generosity of Dr Rafael Mateu, Sonia Tercero, and Professor Raymond Calcraft.
This programme has been designed in keeping with St Cross College’s commitment to internationalism and interdisciplinarity, outreach and art.
St Cross College and Pusey Chapel
18.30-19.30 Documentary: ‘Sorolla: Journeys of Light’ (Bronze Medal at the New York TV and Film Festival) with a special introduction from award-winning director Sonia Tercero Ramiro.
19.30-21.15 Art, Music and Poetry: Joaquín Sorolla, Joaquín Rodrigo and Juan Ramón Jiménez at Pusey House Chapel. Programme curated by Professor Raymond Calcraft.
Drinks at St Cross College provided by Verum (Gold Medal 2019 – Graciano grape – Decanter, the world’s largest and most influential wine competition).
Live performance by BritishSpanish Society Centenary Award Scholar, Lucía Veintimilla, a violin graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. In collaboration with the BritishSpanish Society.
Art Display in the Saugman Common Room. In collaboration with the Spanish Embassy Education Office in London, ALCE Londres (Agrupación de Lengua y Cultura Española) in the UK and Hackney Learning Trust schools (Parkwood Primary School, William Patten Primary School, Skinners’ Academy).
