OPENING ACT AND INFORMATIVE SESSIONSOPENING ACT
Concert Sophie Klussmann & Hopkinson Smith
Wednesday, 11th at 9:00 pm
Església de Sant Pere de Monistrol de MontserratWorks by: Anonymous s. XVI, Sermisy, Moulu, Tromboncino, Cara, Holborne, Campian, Dowland and Pilkington
General admission at single price of € 10 (sale at the box one hour before the concert)
Students of the course: free
SOPHIE KLUSSMANN 
Photo: Marco Borggreve
Born in Freiburg / Germany,
Sophie Klussmann studied at the music conservatories of Detmold and Köln. Awards include the Mozart Competition Würzburg and the Trude Eiperle Stiftung. She is now a versatile concert, opera and recital singer who has worked with conductors such as V. Jurowski, H. Rilling, I. Metzmacher, M. Janowski, M. Gielen and M. Bosch and with orchestras like Radio Orchestras of Berlin, the Konzerthaus Orchestra Berlin, SWR Orchestra, Staatsphilharmonie Nürnberg, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, Tonhalle Orchestra Zürich and the Wiener Akademie. In 2022, she performed at the Copenhagen Philharmonic Hall with Christoph Eschenbach Brahms’ German Requiem. Early in her career, she was member of the opera Halle, singing the leading soprano parts such as Pamina, Nannetta, Dorinda but also Wellgunde and Waldvogel in Wagners Ring. In 2021/22 she sang the leading role of „The merry widow“ by Franz Léhar at the State Theatre of Cottbus.
With the Akademie für alte Musik, Collegium 1704 and the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, she worked intensively in the field of ancient music. In 2022/23, she will perform a renaissance program with the Lutinist Hopkinson Smith at several venues. In the field of contemporary music he has recorded works by Kurtág, Ligeti and Stockhausen, and in the Lied he has acted in the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, Kempten Festival and the Stift Festival Holland.
His recordings include Dixit Dominus by Händel (Harmonia Mundi), songs by Zemlinsky (Capriccio) and song cycles by S. Gervasoni (Cini Forum Venezia).
https://www.sophieklussmann.de
HOPKINSON SMITH
Foto: Santi PerielCurriculum at the section ‘PROFESSORATE’https://www.hopkinsonsmith.com/ Hopkinson Smith, in this case taking on the role of accompanist, and the German soprano Sophie Klussmann, present this concert designed as the inaugural act of the Acadèmia Internacional Joan Carles i Amat 2023. The first part will comprise works from France (chansons au luth) and Italy (frottole) from the beginning of the 16th century, and the second works of English Renaissance by Holborne, Campian, Dowland and Pilkington around 1600.
There cannot be a more appropriate prelude for an eminently pedagogical initiative, such as a course on historic pulsed string instruments, than this concert performed by himself, with the particularity of the participation of the human voice. The treatise of Carles i Amat is, above all, a work conceived for the precursor instrument of our current guitar as an accompaniment to the voice. In this sense, the fact that Hopkinson Smith has focused in recent years on the lute (after having performed and recorded extensively in the repertoire for the five-course guitar throughout his long career) forces follow the rule in the case of this concert. However, this is separate from the proposal because of apparent concordances. After all, both the lute and the guitar are members of the same family and have a perfect bond of union. Although the guitar was predominant in the Hispanic orbit while the lute was so in France, Italy and England, the Hispanic guitar crossed borders to radiate in those territories over time.
LECTURES ABOUT JOAN CARLES I AMAT Thursday 12th, Friday 13th and Saturday 14thThursday 12th at 7:00 pm.
DR. MIQUEL BRUGUERA “El Dr. Joan Carles i Amat (1572 - 1642) i el país en què va viure” (Doctor Joan Carles i Amat and the country in wich he lived)
Centre Cultural Can Gibert (c/ St. Joan, 1)
Free admission

Photo: Col·legi Oficial de Metges de Barcelona
Born in Barcelona in 1942,
Miquel Bruguera i Cortada PhD in Medicine with postgraduate studies at ‘Hópital Saint-Antoine’ de París and the Royal Free Hospital in London.
Consultant to the Hepatology Service at the ‘Hospital Clínic de Barcelona’ and a professor at the ‘Universitat de Barcelona’. Among his positions in other fields of medicine, Chairman of the ‘Col•legi Oficial de Metges de Barcelona’ and the ‘Consell de la Professió Médica” of Catalan Ministry of Health.
Awards: ‘Medalla Narcís Monturiol 2000’, ‘Medalla Josep Trueta 2010’, ‘Creu de Sant Jordi 2011’.
Great admirer of the figure of Joan Carles i Amat, as a head of the “Galeria de Metges Catalans” (
Medical Doctors Gallery) of ‘Col·legi Oficial de Metges de Barcelona’, includes an interesting review about the old “monistrolense” doctor.
https://curiositatshistoriamedicina.wordpress.com/ Friday 13th at 7:00 pm.
VÍCTOR PÀMIES“Paraules rimades d’un savi monistrolenc: Els Quatre-cents aforismes catalans” (Rhyming words of a wise man from Monistrol: The Four Hundred Catalan Aphorisms)
Centre Cultural Can Gibert (c/ St. Joan, 1)
Free admission
Photo: Xavier DengraVíctor Pàmies i Riudor (Barcelona 1963) is a philologist, linguist and blogger specializing in paremiology (the collection and study if paremias or proverbs). He is known for his publications in this discipline, for his collection of Catalan proverbs in more than twenty specialized blogs, and for his seminars for non-expert public. Since 2002, he has published various studies on Catalan paremiology on the Internet, offering tools and content such as a collection of Catalan-Spanish proverb, a compilation of Catalan-Spanish “dites” (sayings) and idioms, a dictionary of quotations and a thematic collection of proverbs, among others.
With regard to his work fot the general public, since the mid-2000s, he has developed a large part of his activity to the more than twenty blogs that he maintains. He has also stood out as a popularizer on the web by paying tributes to key figures of Catalan culture.
In 2012, he presented the “Mapa de paremiologia tòpica dels Països Catalans” (
Topical Paremiology Map of the Catalan Countries), and in January 2023, in collaboration with “Softcatalà”, he launched the new portal “Paremiologia Catalana Comparada Digital” (
Digital Comparative Catalan Paremiology), which includes 150.000 paremias of the more than 650.000 that he has collected over 25 years.
He is the author of the critical review of the new edition of the Aphorisms by Joan Carles i Amat, published by Morera Edicions in November 2022 under the title “Dites Catalanes”.
https://vpamies.dites.cat/
Saturday 14th at 7:00 pm.
DR. FRANCESC XAVIER ALERN“L’extraordinari Tractat de Guitarra de Joan Carles i Amat” (The extraordinary Guitar Treatise by Joan Carles i Amat)
Local de l’Associació Cultural Art i Esplai (c/del Pont, 2)
Free admission
Francesc Xavier Alern (Barcelona 1969) is doctor in Art History and Musicology (2015 Extraordinary Doctorate Award Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona - UAB), has a degree in History and Music Sciences and senior music professor in specialising on the guitar. His academic training includes studies in Philosophy at the UAB and renaissance and baroque stringed instruments at the Conservatori de Vila-Seca (Tarragona).
Currently, Alern combines his teaching as an associate professor of Musicology at the UAB, where he teaches Renaissance music and Musical Paleography, with the research, intepretation, music criticism and cultural management. He has previously been a teacher in schools and conservatories including the ‘Escola Superior d’Ensenyaments Musicals de Barcelona (ESEM - Taller de Músics) and the ‘Conservatori del Liceu’.
He also organized his own historical music festival and collaborated with various early music groups, performing more than thirty concerts in recents years.
This year he published the chapter “Ensenyar i aprendre música a Catalunya als segles XV, XVI i XVII” (
Teaching and learning music in Catalonia in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries) in ‘Història de la Pedagogia Musical a Catalunya’ (Àngels Arnaus, Cèsar Calmell, Reina Capdevila i Santi Riera, coord.), Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalunya i Biblioteca de Catalunya, pàgs. 33-80).
https://www.opusone.cat/en Language: Catalan/Spanish (with synopsis printed in English)