Soprano Raquel Andueza and chef Jordi Roca talk about the voice at Espurnes Barroques

The Espurnes Barroques festival is now in its 8th year, taking place over five weekends (one more than before) between May 9 and June 8, in various towns in the regions of Solsonès, Bages, Anoia, Segarra, and Berguedà. There will be fifteen offerings—half of them homegrown—accompanied by workshops, roundtable discussions, an art installation, a luncheon among the vineyards with music, lectures, and 70 social and educational activities.

The edition's motto, "Enjoy yourself!" refers to the unique gems that fill these territories, "altarpieces that were not burned during the Civil War, unlike what happened in most of the rest of Catalonia," notes artistic director Josep Barcons. It also refers to the weeds, "which we now know carry a wealth of information about us, just as inherited jewels tell us about our lineage."

Both Andueza and the chef from Celler de Can Roca lost their voices; she recovered them singing among the trees of the Baztán Valley.

The voice would also be “our most unique jewel”, and for this reason, the headliner, the Navarrese soprano Raquel Andueza, who lost her voice and recovered it by moving to the Baztán Valley and singing among the trees, will talk about this matter with the chef Jordi Roca from Celler de Can Roca, who also lost it... This will happen on the first weekend, with a tasting of one of the festival’s new products: Espurnola, a healthy gummy made with rosehip and mallow, conceived by Jordi Roca in collaboration with the Plantas Olvidadas project promoted by the Eixarcolant collective.

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Immediately afterwards, the Mallorcan artist Júlia Febrer, who together with Raquel Andueza will have carried out a collaborative educational project with several primary school students from Solsona schools, will inaugurate her installation Arrelant l'aire,

Thus, Saturday mornings will not feature concerts, but workshops. The second workshop will focus on botanical discovery at the Miracle (with Berta Garriga of Arrels voladores); the third will focus on harmonic singing under the dome of the Sant Ramon church; the fourth will focus on gastronomy with Eixarcolant, focusing on mallow as a forgotten plant and Cardona salt; and the last, which will take place in Súria, will combine a reflection on "what a jewel is" with anthropologist Adrià Pujol and the creation of a jewel with Carla Bellera (which attendees can take home).

At the Santuari del Miracle, the Miracle Orchestra will perform repertoire inspired by the Mil·lenari of Montserrat, with a premiere by Bernat Vivancos

The concerts will take place on Saturdays at 7 p.m. and on Sundays at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. On Saturday, May 17, at the Santuari del Miracle, the Orquesta del Miracle will present its third production, performing a repertoire inspired by the Millenari de Montserrat, including a premiere by composer Bernat Vivancos.

On May 24 and 25, La Segarra will feature lunches with music and a premiere production based on the Goldberg Variations. The fourth weekend of concerts will begin in Igualada on the afternoon of Saturday, May 31, with a large-scale production in collaboration with the Jordi Savall Festival.

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The festival diversifies disciplines with dance and visual arts—already present in previous editions and now featuring more—and focuses on Catalan performers and young talent. The opening concert, taking place on Saturday, May 10th at 7:00 p.m. in the Godmar Rectory in Callús, will feature Bach's Musical Offering performed by La Guirlande, accompanied by a video art project using mapping (like a 21st-century altarpiece offered in a church that doesn't have one) created by Joan Rodón of dLux.pro. Sunday's concerts will be performed by The Delightful Pocket Company in Matamargó, with German music from the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and by Raquel Andueza and La Galanía in Castelltallat, with gems from the Italian, French, and Iberian Seicento.

On the final weekend, June 7 and 8, after the Súria jewelry workshop, the festival will move to the Catalan Baroque Museum in Manresa, where a roundtable discussion will take place in which four experts, moderated by journalist Maria Palau, will discuss heritage conservation.

Gastronomy will be a staple at any of the thirty events scheduled, with nearly fifty producers.