Alcalá de Henares, birthplace of Miguel de Cervantes and 30 km from Madrid, has its origins in the Roman city of COMPLUTUM. Today the city has 200,000 inhabitants. Its famous university was founded in 1499 and made Alcalá an important academic centre of the Spanish Golden Age. The great success of the new university model attracted the most important intellectuals of the 16th and 17th centuries.

Among them were Antonio de Nebrija, Sto Tomás de Villanueva, San Ignacio de Loyola, Ambrosio de Morales, Federico Vallés de Covarrubias and many more.

The impressive façade of the university, the Plateresque-style Colegio Mayor de San Ildefonso, is located in a unique historical setting. Alcalá was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998.

There, in the beautiful music hall of the university, Mundus maris had the privilege of inviting the public to celebrate World Oceans Day on 8 June 2024. The programme focused on a musical journey through the centuries around the theme of “water”, starting with G.F. Handel’s “Water Music” (18th century) and ending with the hymn “Blue Wonderland“, composed especially for this day.

See the programme here.

The skies seemed to bless this musical performance with plenty of rain, always welcome in the arid areas of central Spain.

The impressive room had a packed audience when the event began at 7:30pm with the welcome address by a representative of the University. Patricia Morales (Mundus maris) thanked for the hospitality and highlighted the problems we are currently facing, both ecological and ethical.

Next, Marianne Braun (Mundus maris) spoke about the importance of the ocean for humanity. She mentioned the urgent need to protect the ‘blue marble’ citing an encouraging example of what citizen engagement can achieve to give something back to the ocean (remarks attached here).

Then the musicians took the audience onto a beautiful musical journey, starting with Olegario Olayo Martínez on the piano, accompanying Almudena Olayo Martínez, soprano. At the end of this cycle, Olegario and Anastasia Petrushevska offered an instrumental version of “The Trout” by F. Schubert with Olegario, piano, and Anastasia, flute.

In the second part of the concert, the group Sun Day City played four pieces composed by Anastasia Petrushevska in a completely different, contemporary style. Anastasia doubled together with her sister Cristina Petrushevska as the group’s singer. In turn, Cristina curated the visual framing of the concert.

It was a lovely event that combined the serious global challenges of marine conservation with the all-encompassing language of music. The wonderful historical space, the music from different eras, the audience who completely filled the room, the information about Mundus maris distributed by young helpers at the exit, all this made for an unforgettable evening that, of course, ended with some summer red wine and some tapas

Mundus maris is most grateful to the University and its team for enabling and supporting the concert with their great efforts and dedication.

Marianne Braun Richter