ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
ENSEMBLE OIHUA
Ensemble Oihua is a young and dynamic ensemble dedicated to discover and perform contemporary music, engaging the public through their intense and energetic performances. Their debut piece A veces, el silencio es la peor mentira became a key stone and a representation of their engagement and their approach towards the social unrest of today. The eclecticism of their members offers a rich palette of sonic proaches that under the hands of their director melt into one another compounding a strong and firm sonic voice.
Click on each picture to know more about the members:
ENSEMBLE OIHUA’S ONGOING PROJECTS
SOMETIMES SILENCE IS THE BIGEST LIE
“A veces, el silencio es la peor mentira” takes its title from Miguel de Unamuno’s response to a Francoist commander at the University of Salamanca during the Spanish Civil War—words that led to his house arrest and death soon after.
This phrase embodies Spain’s open wound: a history still marked by silence and unacknowledged crimes.
The piece was inspired by my visit to the Basilica del Valle de los Caídos, a vast church carved into rock where the dictator and thousands of unidentified bodies lie buried. Walking through its cold, endless corridor—guarded by monumental archangels—I felt a mix of grief and fury.
The abrupt opening mirrors my first impression before its gates; the drone in A, the walk through its darkness. Flute and clarinet evoke the monks’ Gregorian chants, while the mezzo-soprano’s melody recalls the mine workers forced to carve the monument. Her voice is gradually engulfed by the rhythm of a Seguirya, symbolising pain that refuses to be silenced.
SPAIN’S SILENCED VOICES
This project aims to commemorate the memory of Spanish composers who suffered the consequences of Francoist repression. During a period of two years Saskia Venegas, our artistic director, began a research through various archives in throughout Spain and south of France, unearthing the works of several composers whose lives and artistic contributions were cut short from the cultural activity of the Iberian Peninsula and condemned to oblivion.
With this project Venegas along with Ensemble Oihua,wants to contribute in keeping the dialogue alive and reinforcing the work of those who strive to bring to light the hidden stories that Spain conceals.
Spain’s Silenced Voice features works by:
Rosa García Ascot, Jesús Bal y Gay,Salvador Bacarisse, Antonio José, Fernando Remacha, José de Uruñuela, Roberto Gerhard.
The program concludes with the composition, “A veces, el Silencio es la peor mentira” (Sometimes silence is the biggest lie) writen by Venegas in 2018 (with a title that quotes Miguel de Unamuno), which critiques the political, social, and historical silence that plagues Spain and programmatically describes the inhuman proportions, dark history, and questionaThis project had it’s premiere at XIII Semana de la Memoria Histórica y de los derechos humanos Giulia Tamayo (Week of Democratic Memory and Human Rights, Gilulia Tamayo) in Soria (Spain). in 2020 the Spanish Ministry of Justice invited Saskia Venegas to present her research on music by Spanish oppressed composers. She programmed Los Silenciados at the closing ceremony of the exhibition “1939: Spanish Republican Exile,” performed by Ensemble Oihua.
INTERVIEW AT SPANISH NATIONAL TV RTVE -LA HORA CULTURAL
RTVE – La Hora Cultural (1 July 2019)
On July 1st, 2019, Saskia Venegas Aernouts was invited to the Spanish national television programme La Hora Cultural(RTVE), hosted by journalist Antonio Gárate Oronoz, to speak about her project Spain’s Silenced Voices.
During the interview, she discussed how the project came to life — from the discovery of forgotten scores in archives across Spain and France to the creation of concert-scapes that bring these voices back to the present. The conversation explored the intersection between music, memory, and historical justice, and how art can restore what silence once erased.
INTERVIEW AT SORIA TV ABOUT SPAIN’S SILENCED VOICE
(November 2019)
Artistic director composer and researcher Saskia Venegas Aernouts was invited to the Soria’s television programme to speak about her project Spain’s Silenced Voices.
During the interview, she discussed how the project came to life — from the discovery of forgotten scores in archives across Spain and France to the creation of concert-scapes that bring these voices back to the present. The conversation explored the intersection between music, memory, and historical justice, and how art can restore what silence once erased.
HUMAN RIGHTS DOCUMENTARY “EL ADN DE LA MEMORIA”
Ensemble Oihua contributed to the creation of this very necessary documentary Spanish documentary “El ADN de la Memoria” (The DNA of Memory) for which we recorded the music written by Saskia Venegas.The documentyary will have it’s premiere on the 2nd of November 2023 This production by Recuerdo y Dignidad is centered on unfolding the inheritance of grief caused by the traumas created during the Francoist Spanish regime.
Composition, violin and voice Saskia Venega; bass clarinet: Mayuko Takeda; Flute: Carmen Terol; piano: Panos Gklistis percussion: Robin Eggers
