The musicians' batons dazzle the senior students

The Torrevieja branch of the UNED (National University of Distance Education) continues to set milestones. This time, an ambitious program was planned for January, in which musicians of the caliber of José Francisco Sánchez, accompanied by pianist Nataliya Khomiac, and Doctors Francisco Joaquín Garres, Luis Sánchez, and Aurelio Martínez intended to delight the audience by addressing different aspects of musical composition and works by local masters and other world-renowned classical composers.

The intensity of the applause that each of them received, in addition to the requests for them to return and for the encores to be extended, shows us that, once again, among the students of the Open University there is a desire to discover, learn and grow culturally, in this case under the guidelines of the staves and the tunings.

José F. Sánchez Sánchez, a master of the baton and an exquisite popularizer

Eager to play the oboe, José Francisco Sánchez was the first to take the baton on January 9th. He focused on Ricardo Lafuente, explaining how, through self-teaching, he found the perfect music for each lyric. Among those attending this first session, feet tapped to the rhythm of "Son tus ojos" or "Dile ," not to mention the general jubilation at the end with "Torrevieja ." With Sánchez and Khomyak, on oboe and piano respectively, they culminated their presentation on the arrangements in what was conceived as a choral piece. Indeed, one could hear the lyrics by listening to the music, or intuit what was being played even if unfamiliar, because the melodies, as Sánchez pointed out, "have curves, and if there's a repeating chord, it can't be played the same way because there's an intention for it to vary." In his second session, on Friday the 16th, he continued discussing the adaptations of habaneras for orchestra and peppered his presentation with numerous anecdotes about Francisco Casanovas. This repertoire of experiences with his first teacher was expanded on Friday the 23rd in the session dedicated to the musician, commemorating the 125th anniversary of his birth and the 40th anniversary of his death, which took place in Torrevieja in 1986.

A violinist who teaches blind people to be music lovers and violinists: Luis Sánchez

A single session, on January 20th, was all it took for violinist Luis Sánchez to captivate the audience with his presentation. He detailed the steps he took in writing his doctoral thesis and the specifics of the interviews he conducted with musicians who share a unique condition: blindness or very limited vision. Throughout his presentation, he projected videos of bands composed of blind musicians brilliantly performing great works, attentive to the conductor's cues and demonstrating remarkable concentration and memory, since they cannot see the scores or read the Braille transcriptions while playing. Therefore, their need to have prepared each piece in advance is vital.

Francisco J. Garres, a clarinetist with no stage fright who performs Mozart and Beethoven

Francisco Joaquín Garres elaborated on stage fright and anxiety in music students. Although the focus was on students aged 8 to 12, the concentration, focus, and dialogue techniques that Garres proposes are applicable to adults and any type of public appearance, not just musical ones. His first session dealt with Mozart: the clarinet and chamber music, while the last one, which concluded the course this past Wednesday, January 28, explored Beethoven's three musical stages: evolution and transition to Romanticism.

The habanera singer who best conveys choral chromaticism: Aurelio Martínez

Aurelio Martínez's appearance in the auditorium of the International Conservatory, at the still-temporary headquarters of UNED Torrevieja, did not go unnoticed. The musician and choral director prepared a speech delivered with such cadence that many in the audience felt they were listening to a habanera. In fact, the melody of the habanera played behind the words that spoke of the history and evolution of the musical genre that crossed oceans aboard ships and ended up being included in operas and zarzuelas, as was the case with the aria " L'amour est un oiseau rebelle" in Bizet's Carmen .

Harmonic balance of a musical course yearning for a second part  

In the words of Ana Pérez Caselles, coordinator of university extension at the UNED in Torrevieja: “This course has been a tribute to the habanera, to music, and to composition in general. We have seen that it is not a local phenomenon, but rather one that transcends borders and cultures. We have discussed teaching and transmitting concepts to groups that are not usually the most represented. Undoubtedly, we are very satisfied with the effort and dedication of the speakers and with the enthusiastic response from the students.”

And the new course: cinematic language in film analysis

Professor Riquelme, coordinator of the UNED (National University of Distance Education) classroom in Torrevieja, who received the 2026 Torrevieja Press Salero Award on Wednesday evening, announced the halfway point of the Open University for Seniors program: “Next week, specifically on February 3rd, the fifth course begins, and so, little by little , with the occasional burst of speed , we will continue to progress. The new course will focus on film language: we will be analyzing numerous shots and film sequences. The speaker will be film director Carlos Escolano.”