Iberian Folk Songs

Difficulty: Level A
Voices: SSA(B)
Age: 10-18 years old

Iberian Folk Songs

A journey through Iberian traditional music to discover its diversity and shared heritage.
This atelier is an invitation to explore the richness and diversity of traditional music from across the Iberian Peninsula. Through popular songs from different regions —from Catalonia to Galicia, from Castile to Portugal— we will discover melodies, rhythms, and languages that are part of a shared musical heritage. We will delve into the repertoire as a journey of discovery, exploring the character, history, and emotions behind each piece, and celebrating the cultural diversity that connects all these lands.
Montserrat Meneses
Catalonia, Spain

Montserrat Meneses Sendrós is a choir conductor and music educator. She studied at the Pau Casals Municipal School of Music in El Vendrell and at the conservatories of Tarragona and Badalona. She trained as a choir conductor with teachers such as Manel Cabero, Josep Prats, Josep Vila, Mireia Barrera, Pierre Cao, Laszlo Heltay, and Johan Duyck.

She has conducted various choirs throughout the country, notably Joves Veus del Vendrell (which she founded in 1989), Orfeó del Vendrell (1999–2005), the Allegro choir (1998–2018), the Genciana choir of Barcelona (1996–2001), the Regina choir of Manlleu (1998–2018), and the chamber choir of the Girona Provincial Council (2005–2008). She was assistant director of the Orfeó Català (2022–2024).

Between 2002 and 2008, she was assistant and principal preparer in various editions of the participatory Messiah in Barcelona, Granada, and Seville.

On the pedagogical side, she is a choral singing teacher at EMMPAC in El Vendrell, has taught choral conducting at SCIC and FCEC, and was an associate professor at the Rovira i Virgili University. She has given courses and workshops on choral conducting and choral singing pedagogy throughout the region.

For ten years, she was co-director of the Cantània program at the Barcelona Auditorium, and for eighteen years she has been co-director and artistic director of the Canta Gran program, a project co-produced by the Barcelona Auditorium and the Barcelona City Council, which has received the Anselm Clavé Award for Best Social Transformation Project and the Teresina Martorell Award.

She currently conducts the Cor Zóngora of El Vendrell — which she founded — the Coral Cantiga of Barcelona, and the Girls’ Choir of the Orfeó Català.