Composer Marisa Manchado and soprano Yolanda Auyanet, National Music Awards 2024

The composer Marisa Manchado and the soprano Yolanda Auyanet are the winners of the National Music Awards in their Composition and Performance modalities, respectively. The Ministry of Culture, promoter of the awards through the National Institute of Performing Arts and Music (INAEM), has provided 30,000 euros each of the awards.

The jury convened by the Ministry has chosen Manchado (Madrid, 1956) in recognition of his opera The Regenta joint production of the Teatro Real and the Teatro Español, in which he appreciates “an updated reading of a classic of universal literature through which she gives voice to an iconic female character, which underlines the composer’s long commitment to equality.” With this work, the jury’s ruling highlights, Manchado “has contributed to the expansion of Spanish musical heritage, highlighting the integration of innovative and hybrid styles”. The Regent It thus adds, according to the jury, “to a corpus of more than 150 works, including vocal music, chamber music, symphonic music and other genres” signed by Manchado. The winner has built “a career in which the search for new formats and languages ​​has always been present, and in which research and interaction between different artistic and academic disciplines have prevailed, in addition to a constant pedagogical commitment,” according to the jury.

For its part, the award for Yolanda Auyanet (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 1970) appears linked to “her applauded debut in the role of Tosca at the Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville in 2023, with which he has extended a three-decade career marked by the most demanding female rolesfrom Gilda or Violeta, to the bel canto players Norma, Lucia de Lammermoor, Isabel I by Roberto de Devereux, or Lucrezia Borgia, and where he has demonstrated his enormous virtuosity and interpretive ability.” Furthermore, the jury highlighted that “the quality of his technique and stage charisma have connected with the audiences of the main national and international theaters in a career in which he has also defended the zarzuela repertoire with titles such as Bread and bulls, The saffron rose y The barber of Lavapiés“.