The National Symphonic Orchestra, directed by master Pedro Ignacio Calderón, starts its 2009 season on Friday, March 13th, with a concert at Bolsa de Comercio de Buenos Aires. The program includes works by Ludwig Van Beethoven, Camille Saint-Saëns and Felix Mendelssohn.
The concerts offered this year will feature several guest artists, like directors Enrique Barrios (Mexico), and David Handel (USA), and Italian pianist Alessandro Césaro
Some of the singers will be Susanna Moncayo, Víctor Torres, Susana Caligaris, Gabriela Cipriani Zec, among others. The instrumental soloists: Denisse Richard, Marcelo Balat, Fernando Pérez and Eduardo Hubert (piano); Lucrecia Jancsa (harp), Isabel Siewers (guitar), Roberto Rutkauskas and Luis Roggero (violin), and Sebastián Bru, a 17 year old Argentine chelist, with an outstanding European career.
The Argentine guest directors are Alejo Pérez, José María Sciutto, Adrián Avila, Daniel Mazza, Carlos Vieu, Luis Gorelik, Mario Perusso, Guillermo Scarabino, Pablo Boggiano and Guillermo Becerra.
This year the Orchestra will join the world celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Felix Mendelssohn. Other notable concerts will be the ones dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the death of Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, and the choral-symphonic concerts: Stabat Mater, by Karol Szimanovsky; the rare Réquiem Mass, by Gaetano Donizetti; and Solemn Mass, by Franz Liszt, with the participation of the National Poliphonic Choir and vocal soloists.

During the current year, the Orchestra will offer 21 concerts at the Auditorium of Bolsa de Comercio (Sarmiento 229), and 7 at the Aula Magna of Facultad de Derecho, UBA (Av. Figueroa Alcorta 2263), all of them with free entrance to the general public:

March
Friday 13, 7 PM: Bolsa de Comercio de Buenos Aires
Friday 20, 7 PM: Bolsa de Comercio de Buenos Aires

April
Friday 3, 7 PM: Bolsa de Comercio de Buenos Aires
Friday 17, 8 PM: Facultad de Derecho
Friday 24, 7 PM: Bolsa de Comercio de Buenos Aires

May
Friday 9, 7 PM: Bolsa de Comercio de Buenos Aires
Friday 15, 8 PM: Facultad de Derecho
Friday 22, 7 PM: Bolsa de Comercio de Buenos Aires

June
Friday 5, 7 PM: Bolsa de Comercio de Buenos Aires
Friday 12, 7 PM: Bolsa de Comercio de Buenos Aires
Friday 19, 7 PM: Bolsa de Comercio de Buenos Aires
Friday 26, 8 PM: Facultad de Derecho

July
Friday 10, 8 PM: Facultad de Derecho
Friday 17, 7 PM: Bolsa de Comercio de Buenos Aires
Friday 24, 7 PM: Bolsa de Comercio de Buenos Aires

August
Friday 14, 8 PM: Facultad de Derecho de Buenos Aires
Friday 21, 7 PM: Bolsa de Comercio de Buenos Aires
Friday 28, 7 PM: Bolsa de Comercio de Buenos Aires

September
Friday 4, 7 PM: Bolsa de Comercio de Buenos Aires
Friday 11, 7 PM: Bolsa de Comercio de Buenos Aires
Friday 25, 8 PM: Facultad de Derecho

October
Friday 2, 7 PM: Bolsa de Comercio de Buenos Aires
Friday 9, 9 PM:
Friday 16, 8 PM: Facultad de Derecho
Friday 23: Bolsa de Comercio de Buenos Aires
Friday 30: Contemporary Music Festival. Teatro General San Martín, Buenos Aires

November
Friday 13, 7 PM: Bolsa de Comercio de Buenos Aires
Friday 20, 7 PM: Bolsa de Comercio de Buenos Aires
Friday 27, 7 PM: Bolsa de Comercio de Buenos Aires

December
Friday 4, 7 PM: Bolsa de Comercio de Buenos Aires

To see the complete program of concerts, click here.

The second edition of Ciudad Emergente, the Festival of the youth culture, will take place from Thursday 11 to Monday 15 June, 2009 at Centro Cultural Recoleta.

This Festival, organised by the Ministry of Culture of the Government of the City of Buenos Aires, presents the new expressions of the youth culture: rock, pop, street art, animation, poetry, cinema and digital art.

The activities in the festival include: fashion shows by the winners of the contest "Moda Emergente" (Emerging Fashion); events that combine poetry and music; street art (two murals that will be painted during the festival); hip hop and other dance style shows; movie screenings with a program related to national and international rock and roll; fashion and digital art exhibitions; chill out lounges.

Admission is free of charge for all the activities.

Location: Centro Cultural Recoleta. Junin 1930
Dates and Hours: June 11-15, 2009. 3.00 pm to 9.00 pm.

The National Academy of Fine Arts and the National Museum of Decorative Arts present the exhibition "De Durero a Picasso. Cinco siglos de grabado" (From Dürer to Picasso. Five Centuries of engravings), composed of fifty engravings belonging to a private collection.

The exhibition is made of works from the XVth century, by Albrecht Dürer and Lucas Cranach, among others; from the XVIth century plates by Lucas Vorsterman, Teodoro Bry, etc; from the XVIIth century, Wenzel Hollar, Claude Gellée Le Lorrain; from the XVIIIth, works by German artist Georges Schmidt; Japanese Utamaro, and Spanish Francisco de Goya; and from the XIXth century, works by Honoré Daumier, Henri Toulouse- Lautrec, and Pablo Picasso.

Engraving is a handicraft process. This exhibition is an homage to these artists and their world, allowing the visitor to see the evolution of the images and techniques of engraving between the XVth and XXth centuries.

Location: National Museum of Decorative Arts. Av. Libertador 1902
Dates: May 6th - June 14ht, 2009.
Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 2 pm to 7 pm
Entry fees:
General AR $ 2.-
Students and pensioners: AR $ 1.-
Tuesdays free

The 2009 Season of the Opera Association Buenos Aires Lirica starts on March 27th with La Traviata, and continues throughout the year with great titles and outstanding productions:

MARCH 27, 29, 31
APRIL 2, 4
GIUSEPPE VERDI: LA TRAVIATA
Cast: Ivanna Speranza, Arnaldo Quiroga, Omar Carrión.
Buenos Aires Lírica Chorus and Orchestra
Musical direction: Carlos Vieu
Regie: Pablo Maritano
A different approach to the all time classical favorite.

MAY 8, 10, 12, 14, 16
IGOR STRAVINSKY: THE RAKE'S PROGRESS (El progreso del libertino)
Cast: Gustavo Gibert, Jeffrey Lentz, Ana Laura Menéndez, Evelyn Ramírez, Christian Peregrino.
Buenos Aires Lírica Chorus
Camerata Bariloche
Musical Direction: Alejo Pérez
Regie: Marcelo Lombardero
Inspired by a famous series of engravings by Hogarth, Stravinsky, one of the most brilliant musical genius of the XXth century, composed this opera in a neoclassical language, paying homage to figures like Pergolesi, Händel, Scarlatti, and over all Mozart.

JULY 17, 19, 21, 23, 25
CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI: IL RITORNO D'ULISSE IN PATRIA
Cast: Víctor Torres, Evelyn Ramírez, Franco Fagioli, María Cristina Kiehr.
Ensamble I febiarmonici
Musical direction: Juan Manuel Quintana
Buenos Aires Lírica offers the South American debut of this Monteverde's title, great example of the XVIIth century Venetian opera.

SEPTEMBER 11, 13, 15, 17, 19
GIAN CARLO MENOTTI: THE CONSUL (El cónsul)
Cast: Carla Filipcic Holm, Hernán Iturralde, Elisabeth Canis, Virginia Correa Dupuy, Leonardo Estévez, Osvaldo Peroni.
Musical direction: Javier Logioia Orbe
Regie: Fabian von Matt

NOVEMBER 13, 15, 17, 19
VINCENZO BELLINI: I PURITANI
Cast: Laura Rizzo, Carlos Ullán, Omar Carrión, Christian Peregrino y elenco
Buenos Aires Lírica Chorus and Orchestra
Musical direction: Guillermo Brizzio
regie: Marcelo Perusso
Buenos Aires Lírica ends the 2009 season with its first Bellini.

All performances at Teatro Avenida, Av. de Mayo 1222