Agencia EFE brings to a close its 75th anniversary with a concert in the National Auditorium in Madrid
16 January 2015 | Madrid
AGENCIA EFE will bring to a close in Madrid the celebrations for its 75th anniversary with a concert at the National Auditorium and the awarding of its prizes EFE Cultura, which this time have been given to the Fundeu-BBVA, Mr. José Manuel Blecua, Ms. Carmen Mateu, and Ms. Judith Jáuregui.
The concert, promoted by EFE and by the Fundación Excelentia, will be played by the London & Vienna Kammerorchester and by the Classical Orchestra Santa Cecilia, which will interpret, under the lead of Igor Grupmann, the 'Coriolano' opening and Beethoven’s Symphony no. 4 and Mendelssohn’s concert for violin and orchestra, in which Ms. Alexandra Soumm will be the soloist.
Before, in a ceremony which is expected to be attended by the Deputy Secretary of Culture, Mr. José María Lassalle, prizes will be awarded to the following persons; to the pianist Ms. Judith Jáuregui; to the General Manager of Fundeu-BBVA, Mr. Joaquín Muller; to the philanthropist Ms. Carmen Mateu, Chairperson of the Asociación Cultural del Castillo de Peralada, organizer of the Perelada International Music, and to the former director of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) and member of the RAE Mr. José Manuel Blecua.
Mr. Blecua has held since 2003 the chair 'lower case letter h' of the Royal Spanish Academy and until last December he led this institution, in which he promoted the use of the new technologies applied to the study and the diffusion of the language, was in charge of organizing the three centenary of the institution’s birth, and made the presentation of the 23rd issue of the Dictionary of the Spanish Language.
The philanthropist Ms. Carmen Mateu set up in 1987 what is now one of the music festivals of reference in the international circuit, and the gardens of the Perelada Castle, in the heart of the Empordà region, have been the scenario for more than 15 years now to EFE’s main social event in Catalonia, the so-called la Nit de la Comunicació, jointly organized with Grupo Abertis.The Fundación del Español Urgente was born on February 2005 as an EFE’s initiative, the sponsorship of the bank BBVA, and the backing of RAE with the goal of promoting the good use of the Spanish language in the media, and ten years later, it has taken strong roots, thanks to its recommendations and to the answers which it provides to the hundreds of queries which it receives every day.
The pianist Ms. Judith Jáuregui (born in San Sebastián in 1985), a gifted student of the Russian Vadim Suchanov, is a well-known figure at the main Spanish scenarios, which has enjoyed the opportunity of working with the most prestigious orchestra directors in the international scene.
Celebrations for its 75th anniversary
In this way, EFE, which was set up as a small local news agency, puts an end in Madrid to the celebrations for its 75th anniversary, which it reaches placed among the four largest of its kind in the world and the first in the Spanish language, with 3 Million of news items transmitted each year, as well as 900,000 photographs, 40,000 videos, 40,000 audio news, and 4,000 reports.
During the last twelve months, it has celebrated its seven and a half decades of uninterrupted activity with conferences, symposia and exhibitions of its historical archives all over Spain and in several Latin American countries, and with its move from the Espronceda street, where it had its main offices during 36 years, to the new head offices located at the Avenida de Burgos, which were inaugurated by the then Royal Crown Prince Don Felipe and his wife Doña Letizia on February 13th, 2014.
In the news agency - which won the award Príncipe de Asturias for Communication and the Humanities - work more than three thousand professionals, who come from 60 countries, in news services operated in Spanish, English, Portuguese, and Arabic.
The concert which will bring to a close in Madrid the commemorative ceremonies is organized by the Fundación Excelentia as part of its series Great Classics, in which from February to May have been programmed, among others, the following plays, Orff’s 'Carmina Burana', Bach’s 'St Mathew Passion', Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, and Dvo?ák’s New World Symphony.
About Grupo SEPI
AGENCIA EFE belongs to Grupo SEPI, a corporate holding which includes a total of 16 state-owned companies in which it has direct, majority shareholding participations, with a final workforce of more than 74,000 professionals in 2013; the Spanish state-owned television and radio corporation, Corporación Radiotelevisión Española, which is attached to SEPI, and one public foundation. Equally, SEPI has direct minority shareholdings in a further nine companies, and indirect shareholdings in more than one hundred companies.