THE AIMS FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA — 7th August to 9th August 2025

• An AIMS highlight: The Festival Orchestra – 3 days of intense work with a concert on the last day.
• Concert: 9th of August, 20h, in Solsona.
• We will be rehearsing and performing the Symphony nº8 in F major, op. 93 by Ludwig van Beethoven.
• Daniel Huertas Ferrer will conduct the 2025 AIMS Festival Orchestra.

Selection of string musicians:

• A selection will be made among the students of the Academy of Strings. This will be done by the faculty and the director of the Academy of Strings and Piano.
• Participation in the Orchestra is mandatory for selected students.
• Price: included in the Academy of Strings and Piano.

Selection of wind musicians:

• A selection will be made among the students of the Wind Academy. This will be done by the faculty and the director of the Wind Academy.
• Participation in the Orchestra is mandatory for selected students, except if there is a justified reason.
• The arrival will be before the start of the Wind Academy. Selected students have to arrive in Solsona on Wednesday, the 6th of August before 6pm.
• Price: there are no additional costs, and it will include accommodation and breakfast from the 7th to the 10th of August (3 nights) and lunch from the 8th to the 10th of August (both days included).

Conductor

Daniel Huertas is a young Spanish conductor interested in the classical and contemporary repertoire. His performances are characterised by a clear reading of the score and a sincere, direct expression. In the summer of 2022, he was awarded the Neeme Järvi Prize at the Yehudi Menuhin Festival in Gstaad, and in February 2023 he won second prize in the Juventudes Musicales de España conducting competition. He took part of Lucerne’s Festival Academy for conductors in 2024. He holds the position of assistant conductor in Ensemble Intercontemporain in Paris and in Spain´s National Orchestra and Choir in Madrid.

Daniel began his musical education in Campo de Criptana, Spain, at the age of 5. He took up the clarinet, while also showing an interest in conducting and the piano. He studied clarinet with José Luis Estellés, and orchestral and choral conducting with Arturo Tamayo and Gabriel Baltes at Musikene, San Sebastian. He continued his studies in conducting contemporary music at the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano, and holds a master’s degree in orchestral conducting from the Haute École de Musique de Genève with Laurent Gay.

He has had the opportunity to work with groups such as the French Basque Country National Orchestra, Contrechamps Ensemble, Gstaad Festival Orchestra, Pays de Savoie Orchestra, Bienne/Soleure Symphony Orchestra, Ars Nova Ensemble, Pays de la Loire National Orchestra, the Südwestfalen Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Castile and León Symphony Orchestra. He undertook an internship at the Grand Théâtre de Genève during the production of Parsifal with Jonathan Nott, and was assistant conductor in a production of Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortilèges with Jordi Francés. He has conducted opera productions such as Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti, Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, and Britten’s The Turn of the Screw.

During the 2024-2025 season, he will be guest conductor of the Pays de Savoie Orchestra, Arxis Ensemble, Ensemble Intercontemporain and the AVS Philharmonic Orchestra. He will continue his career in the lyrical repertoire as musical director of the OperaLab project at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, with the creation of Dernière expédition au pays des merveilles, and as musical director of the Oh!pera 2025 project at the Liceu in Barcelona. From January 2024 to 2026, Daniel will be assistant conductor at Ensemble Intercontemporain in Paris.