Our Origin The Gaudeamus choir was founded in 1975 as a university choir attached to the Complutense University of Madrid. Nowadays, we are an independent choir made up of people of a wide range of ages, professions and nationalities. We all have an extensive choral background and sound musical knowledge.
The choir has participated in the most important Spanish choir competitions in places like Segovia, Avila, León, Isla Cristina, Murcia, Vitoria, Aranda de Duero, and Valladolid. We have toured in Germany, Austria, ex-Czechoslovakia, the USA, Canada, Poland, Hungary, ex-Yugoslavia, Belgium, Italy and France.
Gaudeamus acted on behalf of Spain in the Festival of Spanishness, Connecticut and in the Spanish Holy Week in NYC, back in 1978. We also performed in the Europalia ’85 Contest on behalf of The Community of Madrid, in Brussels. In April 1997, Gaudeamus was the 1st prize winner of the first Choir Contest of Móstoles Village and the 2nd prize winner of the same contest in 1999.
As a university choir, we have participated in a great number of inauguration and closing ceremonies, and have been involved in ambitious performances such as ‘Doctor Honoris Causa’, made famous by Plácido Domingo and Joaquín Rodrigo. We sang at the graduation of HRH The Infanta Cristina.
The choir has been conducted by José Ramón Pérez Rodríguez and Justino García del Vello (both founder members of the choir), Joaquín Fernández Picón, José Ramón Martínez Reyero, Pedro Pírfano, and Julius Gergely. Rubén Martínez Ortiz is our current director.
Repertoire Our repertoire includes the choral works of many different centuries, and we have given concerts with a variety of programmes, performing with a diverse range of musical instruments as well as singing ‘a capella’. We have made recordings for radio and TV programmes in Spain and abroad and we currently have three CD’s. Over the years, we have performed wonderful choral works like Carmina Burana by C. Orff, The Cantata 147 by Bach, The Petite Messe Solennelle by Rossini, The Requiem by Fauré, The German Mass by Schubert, The Six German Songs and The Seven Last Words of Christ by Haydn, The Six Nocturnes by Mozart and A Ceremony of Carols by Britten, among many others.
Nowadays Recently, the Gaudeamus has focused on the Polyphony of the XVI and XVII Centuries, both sacred and profane, including contemporary works for camera groups. We still keep in our repertoire a programme of English and Italian Madrigals of the XVI Century, peasant spirituals by Francisco Guerrero, hymns by Thomas Tallis, a selection of Responses by Tomás Luis de Victoria, choral works of the poems of Federico García Lorca and The 8 Chansons Françaises by Francis Poulenc.
The latest performances of Gaudeamus were: The O Magnum Mysterium Mass and its Officium Defunctorum by T.L. de Victoria, the Jesu Meine Freude motet by J. S. Bach, a selection of songs of the Cancionero de Medinaceli and Monteverdi’s Lamento d’Arianna, and many other motets by A. Bruckner and F. Mendelssohn. Our programme also included masterpieces by Duruflé, Poulenc, Vaugham Williams and Halffter.
In December 2006 our choir performed The Messiah by Händel in the National Auditorium along with the choir and orchestra The Age of Enlightenment conducted by Richard Egar. During Christmas 2007, we sang this masterpiece again but this time with the director Pierre Cao and the Baroque Orchestra of Seville in the Madrid Royal Theatre. Also in 2007, Gaudeamus sang in memory of Domenico Scarlatti on the 250th Anniversary of his death. July 23rd 1757 was the date this composer passed away in the city of Madrid, making history as the most important musician who helped in the transition to classicism. He spent most of his working life in our city, which is why we honored him by performing his Mass in G minor, also known as The Madrid Mass.
In 2008 we celebrated our XXX Anniversary by recording a CD which includes a selection of Spanish polyphonic masterpieces from the XVI and XVII centuries. In addition, we gave our customary Christmas and Holy Week concerts and in June, we participated in the 3rd Choral Encounter of Ceuta.
This year, Gaudeamus sang in the National Auditorium taking part in the 1st edition of the Participatory Carmina Burana, organized by La Caixa. We are currently rehearsing European Polyphony of Advent and Christmas music of the sixteenth century for our forthcoming concerts.
History
