TOGETHER IN THE DISTANCE X: 2024/25 SEASON FINALE MEETING

Between June 22nd and August 10th, we held the final meeting of the now past 2024/25 season. In the previous two blog articles, we shared our experience as teachers and guest artists at the Vigo Sax Forum course, as well as our adventures at the Palmela International Saxophone Festival in Portugal. In this blog post, we tell you about the rest of the projects we carried out during this meeting, which, by the way, was the longest one to date.

Lítore Quartet during the final stage of the 112th edition of the Juventudes Musicales de España competition, chamber music category. 27/06/2025

On June 23rd, we began rehearsals with our sights set on the Juventudes Musicales de España competition in the chamber music category. This year marked the 112th edition of this historic event, in which we were participating for the second time. For the first live round, we prepared the Pypes study from Fantasy Etudes by William Albright and Andante et Scherzo by Eugène Bozza. For the final round, we performed a program featuring Phantom Galop (also by Albright), Fragments Striées by Hèctor Parra, and the Saxophone Quartet by Alfred Desenclos. Alongside intense rehearsals between O Rosal and Belesar, we gave a concert at Santa Mariña Church in O Rosal on June 25th, playing the same repertoire planned for the competition.

Lítore Quartet during their concert at Santa Mariña Church in O Rosal. 25/06/2025

On June 26th, we traveled by train to Madrid to rest and prepare for the semifinal the next day. Despite scorching temperatures reaching 40ºC, we had a few intense days surrounded by colleagues and friends. Although we made it to the final and were very pleased with our performance, we were once again not awarded any prize. This competition has been a major goal of ours since the beginning, and we were very excited about the possibility of gaining recognition. We've been selected as participants in the last three editions, and in the two we were able to attend, we reached the final round. We don’t see the lack of a prize as a bitter disappointment, but rather as another chapter in our path and a key moment in our growth. It was a somewhat painful experience, given the significance of the occasion and the fact that we are no longer eligible to participate due to the age limit. This shows that not all steps are “successful,” and… who knows? Maybe these are the experiences that help us grow the most.

Lítore Quartet and A Delta Trío after knowing they made it to the JME competition final. 27/06/2025

You can read more about the rest of the projects in our previous blog posts. With those, we wrap up a season full of new experiences and fulfilled goals: ten days of top-level training in Weikersheim and our debut in Germany in September; rehearsal days in Helsinki, our debut in Finland, and our participation in the Montserrat Alavedra competition in November; the premiere of Selkie in November, perhaps our most innovative and meaningful project to date; the celebration of our fifth anniversary in Palma in March; and finally this end-of-season meeting, where we performed in Portugal for the first time. All in all, it has been a season with five artistically rich and personally/professionally significant projects, in which we expanded our international presence by performing in three new countries and upheld our commitment to supporting contemporary composers with the premiere of Selkie by Brais González. We're heading into the next season stronger than ever!