JULY 2010
JUNE 2010
APRIL 2010
A CONCERT OF MUSIC FROM OLOT
On the 24th of April, the ensemble " La Capella de Sant Esteve d'Olot"conducted by Elisenda Carrasco gave a concert in St. Stevens' church in the city of Olot highlighting the works which are slowly being recuperated from the historical achives of St. Stevens' church. With more than one thousand unedited musical scores, this archive is comparable to the other archives to be found in the Girona Cathedral and the church of Santa María del Mar of Barcelona.
Here is a photo of the post concert party that was given in the Olot Theatre with some of the founding members of the "Capella", the association that dedicates its efforts to bringing these unedited works to the public at large and in concerts.
APRIL 2010
¡Solo,Solo!
The cobla "La Flama de Farners" under the baton of Jordi Molina, gave an entertaining and well received concert in the city of Torelló toghether with the youthful and talented singer Rosa Mari Ramirez and soloists James Testi (Doublebass), Mercè Parareda (flabiol) and Felip Morales(tible).
James Testi interpreting the composition of Jaume Cristau "El Contrabaix i la Nina" which received much applause from the public in attendance.
APRIL 2010
The cobla "La Flama de Farners" gave their very awaited concert on Good Friday at Santa Coloma de Farners before a large grouping of their faithful fans and spectators from the city and its surroundings.
The photo after the concert shows the musicians in great musical form.
Informaly smiling!
MARCH 2010
The Figueres Youth Orchestra was recently able to do an exchange with the Youth Orchestra of Les Franqueses del Vallés.It was a great oportunity to exchange ideas and listen to other colleagues and have fun together!
Here are the two bass sections after the evening concert .
MARCH 2010
A very fun recording session of music written by the composer Joanna Bruzdovicz-Tittel for a new production of BREAKTHRU FILMS for a new videogame about ALIENS for use on the iPhone system .
CLICK HERE
and you'll be able to see the fun photos of the session with François Ragot (violoncello), James Testi (contrabass) and an excellent accordionist who is now living in England, Senya.
Thanks to one of the videogame designers and co-producer Romain Gauthier, for these excellent photos.
Thanks to Joanna,Jörg, Romain, Tim, Sylvain and all the cats(more than 40!!) for an unforgetable recording session!
FEBRUARY 2010
The Trio of MAITE MER (soprano) with François Ragot (violoncello), Alex Vila (tenora) and James Testi (contrabass) conquered the inaugurational ceremony of the new home for the library of the GENERALITAT of Catalonia in Girona.
CHEERS!
FEBRUARY 2010
The latest concert of the Menorca Chamber Orchestra was able to count on the presence of the very talented orchestra conductor Virginia Martínez.
http://www.batutavirginia.com/ (for more information)
To watch a video-interview of the conductor with the OCIM
click HERE
NOVEMBER 2009
Having made a short but sweet visit to "The Big Apple", it would be a sin not to take advantage of the many cultural activities this great place has to offer.
VISIT TO THE MOMA >>> Here's a work of the surrealist sculptor Man Ray entitled "Emak Bakia", which translated from the Basc language, means "leave me alone ". It's a doublebass neck (altough Mr.Ray insists on telling us that it's a cello neck... but we know the difference, don't we?) with a cello tuning peg and some white horse hair hanging from it.
VISIT TO DAVID GAGES' SHOP >>> A visit to one of the mecas for all doublebassists, the famous Doublebass shop of David Gage. Here I'm posing with one of historiess most famous instruments: The instrument once owned by renowned conductor and doublebass soloist, Sergei Koussevitzky.This instrument was then given as a gift to the also world famous soloist, Gary Karr.
An exchange of opinions with one of the master luthiers at this establishment, Mr. "Sprocket".
JAZZ NIGHT>>> Together with Michael Bates (right) and Mark Helias (center), afteran excellent jazz concert on the last day.
This summer (August 2009), James Testi had the privilege of playing with the ONCA (National Chamber Orchestra of Andorra), in the Festival Castell de Peralada. In the photos, we can see him with the doublebass section, with the renowned singer Josep Bros and with the Italian conductor Roberto Rizzi Brignoli.
February 2009: Conference with Power Point presentation elaborated for the association "El Taller d'Orquestra", in the library of the city of Salt:
Conference"A Guide for young musicians" which took place at the "Isaac Albéniz" conservatory of Girona, within the program of "culture week 2008".
Saturday 17th of May 2008, The Doublebassist James Testi premiered the work "Pirineus Orientals" together with the Cobla Sant Jordi Ciutat de Barcelona, in the Prado theatre of Sitges.
The composition is for doublebass soloist and cobla and the composer and director is David Llorens.
Here you can listen and watch a small sample of the cadenza.
Here you can download the plug-in for quicktime if you haven't got it
double click to play and pause
During the month of novembre 2007 Lutheria Testi participated in two interesting events.
III MOSTRA D'INSTRUMENTS D'ANGLÈS
James Testi exposed his work as a luthier in the exposition on thursday 25th of November.
CONFERENCE: "Discovering Luthery. A small survival guide for parents and professors ".
A bit of history about luthery and it's actual state in this century, how to choose the best instrument for each student, fundemental differences in various instruments when one chooses to start classes and a long list of other topics and information were discussed about the string world. This event took place on Saturday 24th of November , in Figueres.
WE'DE LIKE TO NOTE THAT THIS MONTH OF NOVEMBER, JAMES TESTI AS PERFORMER ON THE DOUBLEBASS, HAS STARTED A SERIES OF PRESENTATIONS IN THE CATALAN SCHOOLS ABOUT THE DOUBLEBASS AS AN INSTRUMENT SHOWING OFF ITS MANY MUSICAL POSSIBILITIES (Through the childrens concert agency "ATOTMUSICA").
HERE WE SEE THAT HE'S ASKING FOR SILENCE BECAUSE HIS FRIEND THE BASS IS STILL SLEEPING.
The children look on with anticipation as the instrument is taken out of the case.
James explains all of the parts of the doublebass.
Here james takes them on a fast track ride with the bass making motorcycle sounds. Look at the kids leening into the upcoming curve!
Now it's up to the little ones to try and get a sound out of the huge instrument.
