"Like someone who has been away from home for a long time and now returns with the curious gaze of a visitor, Maestro Espada immerses us in the musical tradition of his native Murcia to give birth to an exciting musical project in which analogue synthesizers combine with castanets and lutes, and prove that electronics can also be folklore". 

With these words, the brothers Alejandro and Víctor Hernández present us with this singular project in which two voices that have been sounding together all their lives come together and open up a way to approach folklore not as a relic but as a source of inspiration, a new material made up of seeds and roots that improve musical biodiversity.

Their songs are sung and hummed like the Arabic verses that have been sung for centuries in the orchards of Murcia. Their lyrics surf traditional notes and structure, which merge with more experimental noises and sounds, in a rediscovery of traditional folklore, without limitations or preconceived ideas. Creating something new, trying not to let what is known condition the form. 

Alejandro Hernández (vocals, synthesizer and castanets), Víctor Hernández (vocals and castanets).

Antonio Castrignanò, a native of Galatina (Puglia, Italy) defines himself as an author, composer and musician. He approached the folk music of Salento in its early days and, instead of mimicking this phenomenon that was growing around him, he marked a turning point in the exaggerated "pizzica" fever unleashed by the ancestral dance so called that attracted tourists and all kinds of audiences, and chose to experiment with the contemporary in a very personal style. 

After more than a decade of work as a musician in Italy and internationally, in 2010 he released his first solo album (Mara la fatia), a collection of evocative songs, a fusion of tradition and innovation that is a manifesto of the author's musical poetics. 

In 2014 he released his second solo album (Fomenta), in which his great attraction for both Salento tradition and contemporary music form a perfect and extremely balanced blend. This tendency, typical of Castrignanò's style, is also present in the subsequent EP, also produced by Ponderosa, Aria Caddhipulina.

Antonio Castrignanò has collaborated with artists such as Stewart Copeland, Ludovico Einaudi and Ballakè Sissoko and has created soundtracks for film projects. He performs on the stages of prestigious national and international festivals and has become an important reference for the rediscovery of the traditional music of Salento from a contemporary perspective. 

Antonio Castrignanò (voice and tambourine), Rocco Nigro (accordion), Giuseppe Spedicato (bass and mandola), Gianni Gelao (bagpipe and bouzouki), Luigi Marra (violin), Maurizio Pelizzari (guitar and mandolin). 

 
Header photo: Salvatore Coluccia

Efrén López has a long musical career and has played in groups such as L'Ham de Foc, Aman Aman, Sabir, Evo, Trio Petrakis-López-Chemirani, etc. In the year of ETNOMUSIC's 20th anniversary, the multi-instrumentalist and composer comes together in this unique encounter with some of the best performers and composers with whom he has collaborated most closely in recent years, all of them leading names in their respective musical traditions (Greek, Persian, Breton or Castilian). A cosmopolitan ensemble of musicians who draw the musical geographies to which Efrén López has travelled, studied and from which he has drawn inspiration to create his own themes. 

The group is made up of the singer and multi-instrumentalist Isabel Martín ─ member of the Toledan duo Milo ke Mandarini─, the Cretan virtuoso musician and luthier Stelios Petrakis, the Greek kanun player Sofia Labropoulou, the Iranian-French percussionist Keyvan Chemirani, the great Breton flautist Sylvain Barou and the double bass player Alejandro Royo from Castellón come together to give life to their original pieces from the last decade, in a framework of close complicity and communication, through virtuosity and improvisation, making use of a colourful instrumental and interpretative range always at the service of the music.

Efrén López (ud, rabab, hurdy-gurdy, oğur saz, laouto, cistro, voice and direction), Isabel Martín (voice, bendir, tambourine and tambourine), Stelios Petrakis (lyra and lavta), Sofia Labropoulou (kanun), Keyvan Chemirani (zarb and daf), Sylvain Barou (flute, bansuri, duduk, uilleann pipes, zurna and dilli kaval), Alejandro Royo (double bass).

Headline photo: @Laura Soriano

KILEMA is a musician from Madagascar with more than forty years of experience in world music. Always faithful to the cultural tradition of his country, this vocalist, composer and multi-instrumentalist works especially with the indigenous instruments of the south of Madagascar.

From his residence in Cordoba, he has projected his music to the five continents. More than forty countries have been able to enjoy his rich personal style that fuses a multitude of influences, without losing the purity of his Malagasy roots. Four albums on the market summarise his recording career, but experts always highlight the strength of his live concerts: he is a born communicator with an extraordinary ability to connect with all kinds of audiences and backgrounds.

Today, this global ambassador of Malagasy culture combines his work as a musician with an important pedagogical work in which he carries out workshops for children and families, and a great deal of solidarity and aid work for disadvantaged communities. 

Marked by a didactic character, the concert will bring us closer to the instruments, rhythms, harmonies and words of his country as an excuse to propose universal values such as respect, solidarity, interculturalism and sustainability.  

Kilema (marovany, valiha, kabosy, katsá and vocals), Nesa Randrianantoandro (vocals, melodica and katsá), Manuel Luque (percussion), Carlos Léon (bass and vocals).

*Concert performed in collaboration with the SARC (Área de Cultura de la Diputación de Valencia).

Mujeres con Raíz (Women with Roots) was born at the end of 2014 to pay a well-deserved tribute to the traditional voice of Murcian women, the owners of a large part of the oral heritage of the southeast of the peninsula. Women's voices that most of the time were relegated to the domestic sphere through lullabies, or also to intimate and family prayers; but who also worked, like men, and then threw their harvest and threshing songs to the wind. Either they asked the heavens for water or they celebrated with malagueñas, jotas and seguidillas. Women, in short, who set all ages of life to music.

The project is presented as a look at space and time in which female voices bring us closer to the east and west of each day, recognising in it our past and our destiny, that of the everyday stories told and sung by all and that of the geographies travelled by the members of the group from their different trajectories, travelling from east to west and from north to south through the territory of Murcia, to build a project to recover and listen to this musical repertoire. 

Carmen María Martínez (vocals and castanets), Mari Cruz Sánchez (vocals), Tomás García (guitar, guitarrón, tambourines, cymbals and backing vocals), Juan José Robles (guitar, guitar, lute and backing vocals), R. Enrique González (percussion and backing vocals).

*Concert included in the ETNOMUSIC ALS POBLES cycle.

Silento is a duo formed by the Valencian musicians Celina Jiménez and Ana Ferrer, two artists who began performing together at a very young age and over the years have performed in different countries as a duo. Based in Berlin, Celina Jiménez works as a lyric singer and has performed in emblematic venues such as the Juan March Foundation in Madrid and the main hall of the Berlin Philharmonic. Ana Ferrer, guitarist and composer, graduated in classical guitar at the ESMUC (Barcelona) and holds a Master's degree in Music from the UPV. Beyond their training and activity, both show a great interest in musical traditions and experimentation. 

Their concerts are characterised by creating a close and emotional atmosphere, with a careful selection of repertoire that includes folk pieces, singer-songwriters' songs, their own compositions and traditional music, all of them arranged with a personal language full of creativity. 

In De València i ultramar, with an intimate and acoustic format (two voices, a guitar and small percussions), Silento offers a concert fed by a selection of their own compositions and original arrangements that cover multiple fields: the copla of Concha Piquer, Sephardic music, traditional Valencian songs related to everyday work or parenting, the poetic world of Federico García Lorca, the decadence of the Viennese waltz, or Argentine tangos. 

Celina Jiménez (voice and percussion), Ana Ferrer (guitar).

*Concert included in the Cicle Música en construcció of the Área de Cultura de la Diputación de Valencia. Before the concert (5:00 p.m.) there will be a visit to the exhibition It's not easy to be Valencian, a permanent exhibition at L'ETNO, Museu Valencià d'Etnologia.

Xabier Díaz is one of the leading names in Galician traditional music. With more than three decades behind him, this musician from A Coruña has received numerous awards and has performed at various international festivals. 

In this concert he presents As Catedrais Silenciadas, the third work of a project carried out in collaboration with Adufeiras de Salitre that began in 2015 and in which the differential element is the impressive group of female vocalists and percussionists.  Throughout these years, the musician has carried out research in Galician villages, rescuing women's songs and giving them his personal touch. His music and his new lyrics give freshness to a traditional raw material from the northwest that combines pasodobles, jotes, alalás, ribeiranas, muñeiras and agarrados. 

The album has been recognised by the specialised critics and the public (Top Ten in the World Music Charts Europe and Top of the World in Songlines magazine) and is presented with a force that seeks to move an audience in which they always find complicity, with a modern and contemporary look at the traditional festivities of the villages and towns. 

Xabier Díaz (vocals, percussion and bagpipes), Iván Costa (hurdy-gurdy), Roberto Grandal (accordion), Adufeiras de Salit (accordion), Iván Costa (hurdy-gurdy) and Roberto Grandal (accordion).
Adufeiras de Salitre (percussion and vocals)

The publication of Orgànic in 2001 marked a turning point in the career of this renowned Valencian musician and at the same time was a very important milestone in Valencian popular music. The work was based on modern approaches applied to traditional musical structures, in a very personal mixture in which the rhythmic patterns or melodic lines that had accompanied the author until then were placed at the service of a renewed cançó de autor. 

Having become, as Josep Vicent Frechina points out, an inescapable reference in our contemporary musical canon, this project is now presented in a renewed and revised version under the title of 20 anys d'Orgànic. In it, Miquel Gil reviews two decades of his solo career through the most celebrated songs of his repertoire.

The musician from Catarroja offers us a concert that recreates the original sound and features some of the musicians who formed part of the first band, reunited expressly for this project. To link and celebrate both birthdays (Orgànic and ETNOMUSIC) he will be accompanied by his friend Borja Penalba, producer and musician with whom he has collaborated on different occasions throughout his career, and by Noelia Llorens Titana, the new voice of Valencian singing with whom Miquel Gil has shared one of his latest musical projects (Arrel) and with whom he has a great musical affinity and affinity.

Miquel Gil (guitar and vocals), Toni Porcar (classical guitar), Eduard Navarro (various instruments), Tobal Rentero (various instruments), José María Reillo (percussion), Gusmà Gil (electric bass), Nel·lo Alfonso (keyboard and vocals).

Collaborations: Noelia Llorens Titana and Borja Penalba.

From May to May. From Thursday to Thursday. 

This is the rhythm with which ETNOMÚSIC has been presented to the Valencian public every year for the last 20 years. When May returns, from Thursday to Thursday, it resumes its engagement with the public this project born in a museum - L'ETNO, Museu Valencià d'Etnologia - which, due to the dedication of its staff and institutional support, has also opted for music as a way of presenting itself to the public. 

ETNOMUSIC has allowed us to present in Valencia performers from various continents who have gone on to establish themselves on the international scene. With the aim of keeping the project up-to-date and relevant, over time we have introduced new spaces and concerts for young audiences and families into the programme. Throughout these 20 years of the festival, we have been accompanied by professionals, friends and a good handful of specialists who have worked to offer this music that is so much ours and at the same time so universal to an audience that every May, from Thursday to Thursday, diligently attends ETNOMÚSIC, and whom we at L'ETNO would like to thank for their enthusiasm and their company.  

It is no coincidence that the prologue to the twentieth edition is a special presentation concert by Miquel Gil, who will offer us his work 20 anys d'Orgànic (20 years of Organic) in April. In May, the festival will begin its usual series of concerts with the musician from A Coruña, Xabier Díaz, accompanied by the Adufeiras de Salitre. This performance marks the beginning of a musical journey that has a second stop with the Murcian group Mujeres con raíz (Women with Roots).

With an ensemble formed especially for the 20th anniversary of ETNOMUSIC, Efrén López will take us from Valencia to the Eastern Mediterranean, the Middle East and Central Asia. On the return journey, the festival will stop in the region of Apulia, where Antonio Castrignanò will offer us a personal rediscovery of the musical tradition of Southeast Italy.

ETNOMÚSIC PERIFÈRIC presents two very remarkable projects, both of which have received critical acclaim. On the one hand, the stimulating project of Maestro Espada, where analogue synthesizers marry with castanets and lutes. On the other, Rocío Márquez + Bronquio, a new project by this prestigious flamenco musician.

The 2023 programme will include a family concert by Kilema in collaboration with the SARC (Diputación de Valencia). As a new feature in 2023, ETNOMÚSIC will include in its programme a concert by the duo Silento as a part of the Music in Construction Series (Cicle Música en Construcción) (Diputación de Valencia) . 

The festival will be touring the municipalities of the province (ETNOMÚSIC ALS POBLES) with two Valencian groups: Krama and Urbàlia Rurana. Their concerts will be preceded by Naiet Cirerer, with a show that pays homage to the storytellers and singers who travelled from town to town.

This contest has been held since 2017 and over the years more than 3,100 images have been released showing how Valencians live the Fallas Festival. A work still necessary to be able to document the work of the fallero artists and the festival in the street every year.  

L'ETNO, together with Wikimedia España, Amical Wikimedia and with the collaboration of the Concejalía de Cultura Festiva of the València Council and the Fallas Research Society, organizes, within the international call Wiki Loves Folklore, a special contest centered on the Fallas Festival with the aim of expanding the existing images in Wikimedia Commons from this annual event.

L'ETNO proposes to go out in the streets, enjoy the festival, take photos and share them on Wikimedia Commons. The period for uploading the photographs is from 15 March to 15 April 2023 and the uploading system is very easy and intuitive, but if you have any questions, the L'ETNO Library offers to guide your through the process. This competition is open to any Valencian town that celebrates Fallas as long as the photographs are from 2023.

A jury made up of six people linked to the organising entities will choose the winners in the two established categories:

• The best photo of a falla, of the monument, both a general view and a detail.
• The best photo of a fallera activity, whether it is the plantà, the cremà, the offering to the Virgin Mary, the fritters, the music, the parades, the street parties... any aspect that shows how we Valencians live the festival.

The prizes are two sets of publications and gifts courtesy of L'ETNO and the Department of Festive Culture, including books such as the Guia inacabada de la fantasia valenciana, an extraordinary letter from the Fallera Calavera Espanta la por, a folder with two original prints by Marina Puche, designer of the municipal falla 2023, and a scarf designed by Marina Puche and inspired by the falla's motifs. 

The photographs will also be entered in the Wiki Loves Folklore competition, which is held all over the world.