Collective residencies / Musical creation. From staff to interpretation / Olot
JAUME ANGELÈS
From Monday, 10 February 2025 to Friday, 14 February 2025
Bio
Jaume Angelès Fité currently lives in Basel, where he is finishing his studies with the Helix Trio. Previously, he studied with Silvia Simionescu, Rainer Schmidt and, in chamber music, with Quartet Casals, Anton Kernjak, Claudio Martínez Mehner, and Kennedy Moretti.
He has been invited to several festivals, such as Prussia Cove OCM, Festival Pau Casals, Mizmorim Festival and Davos Festival.
With the Helix Trio, he has won the 2024 BBVA Montserrat Alavedra Chamber Music Award and the 2022 Orpheus Swiss Chamber Music Competition, among others, and performed at the Musikdorf Ernen Festival, Palau de la Música de Catalunya and L’Auditori de Barcelona.
He has been a member of Quartet Atenea (2021-2024), playing at the Lucerne Festival, Wigmore Hall, Barcelona String Quartet Biennial and Philharmonie de Paris. Plus, he won the 2023 Credit Suisse Jeunes Solistes competition and Primer Palau 2022. He has been awarded two Rahn Kulturfonds grants and worked as head of the second violin section at the Sinfonietta Basel Orchestra. He is currently principal violist with the Kammerorchester Basel.
Our experience at Faberllull in Olot this week was very positive and enriching.
It was the first time we'd had a piece written for us and having the chance to work on it directly with the composer was a unique experience. In this case, the score was by Javier Quislant, with whom we had a very good connection from the start. Working with him made it easier for us to understand the sound and idea behind the work and allowed us to interpret it much more convincingly. Furthermore, on the last day we got some valuable advice from Odile Auboin, a soloist with the Ensemble Intercontemporain, who helped us find a common gesture in the interpretation, which was very interesting.
Having the company of Joan Magrané was another big plus. Not only did he offer musical advice but we spent a lot of time with him, enabling us to create a very beautiful bond. A highlight of the residency was the excellent organisation, credit for which goes to Marina Zamora and Olga Rodon (even if she wasn't there, we know she did a lot of work on it), who were in charge of managing our stay at the Olot School of Music and coordinating all the activities so well.
And speaking of the activities, they were very interesting and well-planned. The talk we gave to the students about modern compositional techniques, which they hadn't had the chance to see before, went down very well. The concert, of course, was also very well organised and a great experience. We spent a very pleasant afternoon visiting the volcanoes and exploring the town of Olot. It was an excellent chance to learn a little more about the environment and disconnect from our daily work.
Although the experience covered many aspects, one thing we perhaps missed was having a little more time for our own study. Since we only had the mornings available to study at the School of Music and the afternoons were taken up with other activities, time to rehearse individually and collectively was somewhat limited, especially considering the commitments that followed right after the residency. However, we were able to adapt and it wasn't a major obstacle to making the most of the experience.
Finally, the hotel we stayed in was wonderful.
In short, the residency at Faberllull was a highly enriching experience, both professionally and personally. We are thankful for the opportunity to have been part of this well-organised project.