This weekend, the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra (OBC) will be giving the first performance of Suite of Myself, the choral-symphonic work by Raquel García-Tomás.

Commissioned by L’Auditori, the piece was developed by the composer during the months of strict lockdown and stems from various fragments of Bach’s music: the Saint John Passion, the three-part invention BWV 797 and the Sarabande from French Suite No. 2. The music will be accompanied by the epic, solemn, liberating text of Song of Myself by Walt Whitman.

The concert will see the return of Lithuanian Giedrė Šlekytė, conducting the OBC in a programme that will also feature composer Raquel García-Tomás as a singer, as she will be joining El Cor Canta, an amateur choir founded from earlier participative groups at L’Auditori.

The programme, which can be heard on 13 and 14 May (on 14 May it is also available streamed via L’Auditori Digital), will also include Bruckner’s Third Symphony and Bach’s Concerto for piano and orchestra No. 6 in F major, with Pavel Kolesnikov as soloist.

Raquel García-Tomás talks about Suite of Myself.


Giedrė Šlekytė is assistant to Vladimir Jurowski in the Bavarian State Opera and has conducted orchestras that include the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Swedish Radio Orchestra, Bruckner Orchester Linz, Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre de chambre de Paris, RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra, Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Filarmonica del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia and the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra.

Russian pianist Pavel Kolesnikov has been artist in residence at Wigmore Hall in London and has performed at venues including Carnegie Hall in New York, the Konzerthaus in Berlin and Suntory Hall in Tokyo. He has also taken part in festivals such as La Roque d’Antheron, Musiq3 Festival, Piano aux Jacobins and the Aldeburgh Festival.