The Festival
The Santuario de la Santa de Totana is the main tourist attraction in the municipality of Totana. Thousands of people, arriving from different parts of Spain, as well as many foreigners, visit the hermitage and its surroundings, enjoying unique architecture, splendid paintings, and a natural landscape that makes the complex a truly unique and singular place.
The initiative to create an Organ Festival in the town of Totana responds to the need to reinforce this unique character, which makes it so attractive for tourism, and which allows for economic, social, and environmental preservation development throughout the entire region (comarca).
In addition to the undeniable artistic, religious, and touristic value of the “La Santa” enclave, which is promoted through various activities, and to achieve a greater tourist presence, our festival aims to support greater development of the enclave within the cultural sphere, and more specifically the musical one. We consider it to be underutilized, especially given that it houses one of only two historical organs currently in use in the Guadalentín Valley.
Artistic performances—musical ones in our case—held in unique spaces like this one have proven to be a very powerful tool for touristic development, as they motivate numerous music lovers to discover these spaces through musical events programmed within them.
Following the organ’s restoration, undertaken in 2005 thanks to an agreement between the Ministry of Culture and the Bishopric of Cartagena, the organ, which had been unused for decades, was played again.
Since then, the organ, which is maintained in perfect condition thanks to the efforts of the Totana Town Council and the Patronato de la Santa, has been used sporadically in several concerts.
Through this festival, the organizers intend to diversify the area’s cultural and tourist offerings by providing a unique festival in the Guadalentín Valley. This will establish a stable annual event for this space, which will showcase and enhance the musical qualities of the organ, featuring high-level organists and groups that will maximize its possibilities, attracting residents of Totana and its surrounding areas to the concerts to enjoy the music, the hermitage, and the privileged environment of Sierra Espuña, where it is located.
Festival 2025
The festival will feature four concerts distributed across the Saturdays in October, and they will be held at the Ermita de Santa Eulalia de Totana at 8:00 PM (20:00h).
Following each concert, and for all attendees, a “Spanish wine” (vino español) reception will be offered. This reception will allow people to meet the organist in person and converse with the artist.
This post-concert reception will be sponsored by Bodegas Luzón de Jumilla.
Roberto Fresco
Roberto Fresco (Astorga, 1967) is the organist of the Cathedral of Santa María la Real de la Almudena and an organ professor at the Centro Superior Katarina Gurska in Madrid. He studied at the Royal Higher Conservatory of Music in Madrid (Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid) and later at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna with Michael Radulescu, an organist to whom he attributes many features of his musical philosophy. However, it is the Spanish musician Montserrat Torrent who has exerted the greatest influence on him.
His career as a concert artist and professor has taken him across Europe, the USA, Latin America, and the Philippine Islands. He is the director of the “Fray Joseph de Echevarría” Organ Academy, which is held annually on the historical organs of Tierra de Campos (Palencia), and a professor for the Música en Compostela International Courses.
www.robertofresco.es
Carlos Paterson
Organist, pianist, and composer from Aragon, he was trained in his different disciplines by great masters such as Jan Willem Jansen, Olivier Baumont, Anna Jastrzebska, and Antón García Abril. Recently awarded the ‘Cristóbal Halffter’ International Composition Prize, his concert career has taken him to some of the most prestigious national and international festivals, including those in Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, León, Porto, Florence, Venice, Palermo, Leuven, Leeds, Duisburg, Landsberg, Dilingen, Lugano, Gdańsk, and the Hong Kong Concert Hall.
He frequently gives lectures at venues such as the Cervantes Institute in Brussels, the Lund University in Malmø (Sweden), the Haydn Conservatory in Eisenstadt (Austria), and the LUCA Lemmens Instituut in Leuven (Belgium). He is a member of the organizing and artistic committee for the ‘Antón García Abril’ International Piano Competition. He has made recordings for Spanish National Radio (RNE2) and for the record labels European Gramophone and Warner Classics.
Notable Works
His notable works include the Suite-Sonata for Piano ‘Hugo & Daniela’, recorded by international pianist Brenno Ambrosini; chamber music such as ‘In Paradisum’, premiered at the Zomerconcerten in Leuven in 2017 and recently recorded with the prestigious trumpeter Pacho Flores (Deutsche Grammophon Artist); and choral and symphonic music like his ‘Crux Fidelis’ and ‘Alborada’, the latter recently premiered at the Palau de la Música in Valencia.
Academic and Professional Roles
He holds a Doctorate in History from the University of Valencia, a Master’s in Music Research from the International University of La Rioja, and a Degree in Law from UNED. Currently, and for the past twelve years, he has served as a Professor of Organ at the ‘Joaquín Rodrigo’ Higher Conservatory of Music in Valencia and as Coordinator for various organ series and festivals in Valencia and Aragon. He is a professor at the International University of Valencia (VIU), organist at the Monumental Cabanilles Organ of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Valencia, and a member of the Scientific Council of the Institute of Teruel Studies (CSIC).
Miriam Cepeda
Born in Bilbao, she studied at the J.C. Arriaga Higher Conservatory of Music (Conservatorio Superior de Música J.C Arriaga), earning degrees in Piano (with A. Vergara), Solfege, and Musical Pedagogy. Subsequently, she enrolled at the F. Escudero Conservatory in San Sebastián, where she obtained the Professional Title in Organ and Harpsichord with E. Elizondo and L.F. Imaz, respectively. She completed her advanced organ studies with the highest qualification with E. Landart and L. Mallié at the Higher Music Center of the Basque Country (Musikene) in San Sebastián.
She has offered concerts in the Hospital de los Venerables in Seville, the S.I. Cathedral of Valladolid, Saint-Jean-de-Luz, San Sebastián, Ataun, Cenarruza Collegiate Church, Andorra, Leyre Monastery, Boadilla de Rioseco, Castromocho, Salvatierra, Santo Toribio de Liébana Monastery, Hendaye, Bordeaux, Torreciudad Sanctuary, Vitoria, Cuenca Cathedral, Pedreguer, Deba, Zumaia, Montesa, and Xunqueira de Ambía Collegiate Church.
She regularly collaborates with various choral groups and, since 2006, has formed a duo with clarinetist L.A. Requejo, the bass clarinet soloist in the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra (Sinfónica de Bilbao), with whom she has performed various concerts. Noteworthy performances include a tour of Slovakia, highlighting her participation in the International Festival of Cífer and the “Matinées” at the Mirbach Palace (Bratislava), at the church of Saint-Pierre de Manigod (Rhône-Alpes, France), as well as in the BOS Chamber Season at the Euskalduna Palace.
She is also the organist of the Basilica of Sta. María de Begoña (Cavaillé-Coll 1884) and an organ professor at the “Jesús de Monasterio” Conservatory in Santander, an activity she combines with various concerts.
Marina López
Marina, a harpsichordist, organist, and pianist from Murcia, focuses her training on historical music and musical education. She began her studies in piano and harpsichord at the Murcia Conservatory of Music, later pursuing her advanced degrees at the Higher Conservatory of Music of Murcia and ESMAE in Porto (Portugal), and furthered her studies at ESMUC in Barcelona. She graduated in 2022 under the tutelage of Javier Artigas with Matrícula de Honor (Highest Honors) and the top grades. In 2021, she was selected as a soloist for the XIV Cycle of Young Soloists of the Region of Murcia and was a finalist in the “Juventudes Musicales de España” competition with the ensemble Anacronía, receiving the special prize for “best performer of baroque music.”
“The organist accompanied the consort flawlessly and garnered applause and cheers for the solo pieces,” “what that woman was doing seemed truly virtuosic”—a review by Ars Musica for EmilcarFm radio.
After completing postgraduate studies in Musical Education at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and Cultural Management at IGECA, she specialized in the performance and research of Iberian Music at the Royal Higher Conservatory of Music in Madrid and in Organ at the Higher Conservatory of Music of Murcia. Additionally, in 2024, she received a scholarship from the International University of Valencia (Becas Enseña) to complete the Master’s in Teacher Training in the specialization of Music. She currently works as a harpsichord professor at the “Guitarrista José Tomás” Professional Conservatory of Music in Alicante.
Ensemble and Collaborative Work
Since 2020, she has been a member of Anacronía, an ensemble with which she has toured across Spain—a result of winning the “Emerging Ensemble 2023” Award from Festclásica—as well as the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Latvia, France, and Poland. Furthermore, the group was honored as “Best Young Group 2022” by the GEMA Association and selected to participate in IYAP (Antwerp) and EEEMERGING+.
In addition to being a founding member of the groups Anacronía, Pulsar Velado, Mavra, and Capella Invicta, she collaborates with Murcian countertenor Pedro Pérez and with major ensembles such as Cantoría—with which she has performed at the prestigious Wigmore Hall in London, among other venues—the Murcia Symphony Orchestra, the Madrid Symphony Orchestra, the Jovem Orquestra Portuguesa, Boreas Musica, Sine Tempore, the Region of Murcia Youth Orchestra, the UCAM Symphony Orchestra, Intensio, the Camerata Antonio Soler, the ECOS Ensemble, and the University of Murcia Orchestra, where she works as the coordinator and professor for the Chamber Music Workshop and the Classical Music JAMS (Jornadas de Actualización Musical) for the University of Murcia.
Other Interests
In parallel, she has training in performing arts and university studies in Art History from the University of Murcia. Her interests include experimentation with sound art and avant-garde music. She is a pianist and performer in The Tacet Collective and has participated in the programming of Monoton—the Phonotheque of the Region of Murcia—and in performances alongside Eduardo Balanza and Pedro Guirao with the project Órgano B71, inaugurating this instrument in 2021.