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More than 700 young people will sing at the Palau for 15 years of Palau Vincles
On 3 June, Palau de la Música will host one of those days that goes beyond a concert. More than 700 children and young people will take the stage to celebrate the end of the school year for Palau Vincles, the Palau’s social project, which turns 15 bringing choral music closer to children and teenagers in vulnerable situations.
The event will have two parts. At midday, the Sala de Concerts will bring together the Palau Vincles Children’s and Youth Choirs with groups from schools and open centres that work with the project during the academic year. It will not be a small performance: there will be voices of different ages, repertoires prepared over months and a youth orchestra made up of musicians from Sistema Texas and Oriol Martorell.
The celebration also comes with an unusual new feature in a choral concert of this kind: the premiere of two hip-hop pieces created with young people from Escola Pia de Salt and Fundació Marianao. The initiative seeks to connect with languages closer to adolescents and show that choral music can also engage with urban rhythms.
In the afternoon, Petit Palau will host a second, more intimate concert, with choirs linked to social organisations such as Creu Roja. It will be a way of showing the breadth of the project, which is not limited to a single group or neighbourhood, but works with a network of educational, social and cultural centres.
Palau Vincles offers free choral training throughout the academic year, but its impact does not end with rehearsals. Participants in the central choirs also receive psychological, speech-therapy and educational support, as well as dance training. For many families, the project provides steady support at a key stage.
The 15th anniversary comes at a time when Barcelona talks a great deal about culture, but not always about real access to culture. Here the difference lies in who takes the stage: children and young people who might not have easily found a path to Palau de la Música, and who now occupy it with their own voices.
That is precisely where the value of Palau Vincles lies. It does not turn music into a luxury or an activity reserved for those who already have opportunities. It uses it as a tool to gain confidence, discipline, group belonging and presence. On 3 June, the Palau will not only celebrate an anniversary: it will remind us that a city is also built when its most emblematic spaces open to those who do not usually have them so close.