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The Orchestra of New Spain was founded in 1989 by conductor Grover Wilkins as a means of enhancing the place of the landmark Cathedral Santuario de Guadalupe in the heart of the aborning Dallas Arts District. Plans for a concert series there led to his 1985 discovery of the neglected, staggeringly beautiful major musical works of the Spanish 17th and 18th centuries.

The opportunity to capitalize on this rediscovery came with the opening celebration of the I. M. Pei-designed Meyerson Symphony Center in October, 1989, for which its first concert was given. Seizing on the occasion of the Colombian Quincentenary, the Orchestra successfully realized its first four annual concerts, establishing itself as the premier exponent in the world of the lost music of the Spanish Baroque.

The Orchestra's concerts feature 18th-century Spanish works, unpublished and found only in manuscript in the libraries of the Royal Court and cathedrals in Spain for which they were originally written and where they have lain dormant for the past two centuries. The impressive quality of these works – for orchestra, soloists and chorus – reflects the importance of the Spanish capital in the artistic life of Europe of the 18th century, and its direct artistic links to Vienna, Paris and the Italian states.

To more successfully address a larger and increasingly diverse public the Orchestra has, since the 1993 season, included works from the general repertory of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Played on period instruments, an essential factor in performance today, these concerts allow a comparison to be made between the Spanish works and the established period repertory.

The Orchestra has been presented in concert by the Dallas Symphony Association, the Dallas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the Dallas Arts District, Dallas World Salute, and many regional churches and concert series. Its repertory and conductor have been featured on National Public Radio, in Spain's National Auditorium, and on European radio and television.


online: http://www.orchestraofnewspain.org/
email: info@orchestraofnewspain.org