The School
Studies and teaching staff
The aim of the Music School is to train young singers and introduce them to the world of music, not only through classes, but also through real stage performances. In all, four groups receive musical education within the Orfeón: The Initiation Group, the Junior Children’s Choir, the Senior Children's Children’s Choir and the Youth Choir.
Juan Gainza Berro directs the Senior Children’s Choir and the Youth Choir, and also teaches Musical Language. Teresa Apesteguía Guillén is the Director of the Junior Children’s Choir and she too teaches Musical Language. Diana Yerro, the Orfeón’s pianist, also gives Musical Language classes.
Juan Gainza Berro
Juan qualified as a Senior Teacher of Cello and Chamber Music from the Pablo Sarasate Higher Music Conservatory, and graduated in Law from the University of Navarre.
He joined the Orfeón Pamplonés in 1998 as a tenor and has been Tenor Section Leader and a member of the Artistic Team since 2001. He has sung with a number of choirs.
He studied Singing under Izaskun Arruabarrena and has attended numerous Voice and Choral Conducting courses.
Since being appointed Director of the Senior Children's Choir in 2004, he has initiated the choir in the field of choral-symphonic music through works such as Mahler’s Third and Eighth Symphonies, and Orff’s Carmina Burana, and introduced it to the world of opera through Hans Krása’s Brundibár and Puccini’s La Bohème and Tosca.
Under Gainza’s direction, the Senior Children’s Choir took part in the Choral Competition “La Antigua” in Zumárraga for the first time, winning overall prize and also coming away with the prize for the best performance.
Juan Gainza also directs the Orfeón Pamplonés’ Youth Choir, which consists of singers aged from seventeen to twenty-three.
The Youth Choir has performed Moreno Torroba’s Zarzuela Luisa Fernanda in Pamplona’s Teatro Gayarre and also sung works by Mozart, Beethoven, Buxtehude, Pergolesi, Vivaldi and the Navarrese composer Lorenzo Ondarra with Pamplona’s Sinfonietta Académica. It has taken part in several festivals, the most recent being the Eighth Choral Festival of the Bidasoa.
The Youth Choir has sung with the Orfeón Pamplonés in performances of Fauré’s Requiem, Verdi’s Requiem, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis and Orff’s Carmina Burana.
Teresa Apesteguía
Teresa qualified as a Western Concert Flute Teacher from the Pablo Sarasate Higher Music Conservatory, where she also studied Singing.
She has enjoyed a long career as a Music Teacher at a number of centres in Pamplona and Navarre.
She joined the Orfeón Pamplonés in 1998 as a soprano. She has studied Voice and also attended several Choral Conducting courses.
As Director of the Junior Children’s Choir, she has significantly broadened its repertoire and tackled large-scale projects such as Josu Elberdin’s musical children’s story Tiempo (Time), stage directed by Eduardo Bazo, and Tula, a children's story set to music, specially composed for the Orfeón Pamplonés by Eva Ugalde to celebrate its 150th anniversary and sung by the Junior and Senior Children's Choirs. She also collaborates with the Navarre Symphony Orchestra, the Pablo Sarasate Professional Music Conservatory Youth Orchestra and a range of chamber ensembles.
Diana Yerro Landajo
Diana has been the Orfeón Pamplonés’ pianist since 2007, a job which she has combined with teaching Musical Language and Piano to the children belonging to the Junior and Senior Children's Choirs, and providing all three Young Choirs with piano accompaniment.
She graduated in classical piano from the Pablo Sarasate Higher Music Conservatory and furthered her studies under Adela Martín. She has received master classes from Eulalia Solé.
She won the special prize awarded by the jury in the Fernando Remacha Chamber Music Competition in 2002.
As accompanying pianist, she has worked with such conductors as Ernest Martínez Izquierdo, Maximiano Valdés, Cristóbal Soler, Christian Mandeal, Juanjo Mena, Roberto Faurés, Alejandro Posadas, Simon Halsey, Antoni Ros Marbá, Gerd Albrecht and Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, among others.
She has accompanied the Young Choirs in concerts held at venues like Baluarte, Teatro Gayarre, Barcelona’s Petit Palau, the European Parliament in Brussels and La Casa de América in Madrid, and also worked with them at festivals like the Miramón Matinées and the Festival of Religious Music held in Cuenca.
She took part in La Fura dels Baus’ Carmina Burana (Orff) performance project at the Cap Roig Festival (Gerona, 2011).
She has accompanied the Young Choirs at concerts held throughout Navarre.
