Amalgama de Castellón is an association born from the desire of developing a musical culture of quality to be represented and performed on stage. It aims at promoting musicians mainly issued from the community of Valencia.
Working towards that goal, the association has already organized various activities and productions for the past few years. It previously produced an Opera based on Puchini’s work that premiered in the Alcazar de Nules theater (Castellón), played along with the Symphonic Orchestra of Castellón and also did a few shows in Zarzuelas, Viveros and Valencia etc. Amalgama was also implied in various projects on an international scale and organized various concerts by request of the city council of Castellón

Lately it has been working for the International Organization of Sacred Music of the VIIth century that performs in the monastery De los Carmelitas Descalzos located in Benicàssim.

Amalgama’s enthusiastic participation to the FIB is significant of its will to approach pop music, to merge with it by accompanying the contemporary band with its symphonies, in order to lead to some unimaginable possibilities. Especially for that event, Amalgama has gathered a bunch of musicians from Valencia that will perfectly fit the challenge.

Synfonietta, is a post-graduate orchestra from the National Academy of Music and Dance of Belfort, (ENMD) it allows the students who are part of it to discover the symphonic repertoire. Lately, for example, the orchestra performed pieces from Haynd, Beethoven, Mozart and Saint-Saëns…

Many projects involving choruses are also part of the orchestra’s curriculum. To name a few let’s talk about Beethoven’s “Fantasy”, Emil Cossetto’s “Rapsodia del Cante Jondo” and also “Orphée”, named after the chorus from ENMD, piece that was created for its 30th anniversary.

The orchestra is under the direction of the school’s dean, Jean-Jacques Griesser. It is a musical structure that is opened to every amateur who applies and who gathers the skills required for admission.

After having successfully worked on a project with An Pierlé, Synfonietta performed on the 1st of July 2005 with Emilie Simon and the Drums-Keyboards of Lyon at the latest edition of the Eurockéennes de Belfort. This year, Synfonietta will be joined by a 4-voices chorus to accompany the French rock band Dyonisos.

The Mons Orchestra is a spin-off of Ensemble Musiques Nouvelles, the famous musical ensemble born in 1962 from Pierre-Bartholomée and now orchestrated by Jean-Paul Dessy, artistic director.

It won’t be the first time that the Botanique opens its doors to the orchestra. As a matter of facts, the Mons Orchestra has already worked many times with the Belgian festival and its performances always get more anticipated, by the public as well as by the professionals, because the string ensemble doesn’t offer your typical kind of show: each time it performs along with a contemporary pop/rock artist, and without distorting its music, it adds a universal and classical feel to it. Amongst the bands or artists that it previously played with are Archive, Keren Ann, Perry Blake, Louis Chedid, The Divine Comedy and a lot more. This year, for Un-Pop Classik, it will accompany Venus, the Belgian rock sensation.

According to Paul-Henri Wauters, the festival’s artistic director, “it’s not about replacing the synthesizers by strings, but bringing a vibrating and noble material that will amplify the singer and band’s emotions.”

For the Danish orchestra Ensemble MidtVest, the goal is clearly set: taking classical music to another level updating its performances to modern times, which always get more innovative, and therefore turning classical music into a music influenced as much from the past as it is from the future.

Born in 2002 and formed by 10 artists, the variety of instruments used by the orchestra is as wide as their repertoire. Musically we are talking about a string quartet (two violins, a viola and a cello), a wind quintet (a flute, an oboe, a clarinet, a horn and a bassoon) and a piano. Always following this goal of promoting a heterogeneous musical repertoire, the orchestra often plays with well-known soloists to perform around Denmark’s best stages and occasionally worldwide.

Un-Pop Classik will unite them to Teitur, the contemporary folk singer, to prove the public that traditions and pop culture can get on well to join the crowds.