The Canary Islands Music Festival ( CIMF) reaches its 30 Anniversary with a touched health due to the financial crisis, nevertheless it has overcome with real stoicism the onslaught of the difficult  economic situation we are going through in the last years.

On the way of its almost 30 years, the Canary Islands Music Festival has occupied an international reference place among the Classical Music Festivals, based on its artistic quality and on the fact to be the first European classical music event beginning in the year ( Jan./ Feb.).  This means, the CIMF is the only Festival of its kind which runs in the European winter, being our canary winter, in relation to the european, really a very kind spring.

The geographical distribution of the Canary Islands and the fact that music is present in the whole Archipelago makes also our Festival unique in its kind and focuses attraction in our public from inland and abroad.

In this sense, our Festival firmly goes forward with the principal aim we follow since its origin: music, and culture in general,  as a touristic pole. The artistic quality of our Festival attracts a progressive amount of Europeans visiting our halls in our 8 islands   ( little La Graciosa island is also included), which means that more and more people organize trips to the Canary Islands during the Festival. This call to tourism has been reinforced in the famous International Tourism Fair ITB in Berlin, proving that the cultural industry is an important element in national and international development strategies.

From an artistic point of view, we can state a large list of world celebrities which came along, like Anna Netrebko, Anne Sophie von Otter, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Isaac Stern, Midori, Shlomo Mintz, Yo Yo Ma, Mitsuko Uchida, Katia and Marielle Labèque, Murray Perahia, Ivo Pogorelich, etc. and conductors such as Zubin Mehta, Esa-Pekka Salonen, John Eliot Gardiner, Claudio Abbado, Lorin Maazel or Riccardo Muti, among many others. Regarding the orchestras we can quote Berliner Philharmoniker,  Philharmonia Orchestra, Wiener Symphoniker, Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Mahler Chamber Orchestra and many others chamber orchestras like King’s Consort or Il Giardino Armonico. The great stature of the whole artists has contributed to establish a solid and renowned Canary Islands Music Festival in the national and international cultural media.

We can’t forget our local talents ( Juan José Falcón Sanabria, Juan Manuel Marrero, Laura Vega, Gustavo Díaz Jerez, etc. ) and also national ( José Mª Sánchez Verdú, Joan Guinjoan, etc.) as another aim from the heart is to support interchange and relations among foreign and national musicians.

At last, we would like to express our great satisfaction about the success of the new “Youth Line” of the CIMF. 2013 we will celebrate the 3^rd Youth Festival, running parallel to the CIMF, and dedicated to the new generations.

Each artist in the history of our Festival has contributed to the spreading of the vast “serious” music. From here and as always, we will continue passionately well keeping this important cultural parcel- only one of so many and so important manifestations of civilization!- which we have built year after year.

Our identity grows, we create culture.