Oriol Roch, General Manager of the Euskadiko Orkestra (EO), the Basque National Orchestra.

Humanity at Music will be heard in September 2019 at Buesa Arena. Velázquez has composed the work and the Basque National Orchestra is in charge of interpreting it live. Oriol Roch, who hails from Catalonia, is the General Manager of the EO.

 

What does this collaboration with MONDRAGON mean for you and the EO?

It means an answer to a long-standing desire to work together. It’s a nationwide cultural project, a type of project that’s completely new for us, with the spirit of the cooperative movement, a real focal point. This collaborative project is very motivating, because the MONDRAGON brand is very important to the Basque Country.

 

The two organizations (MONDRAGON and the EO) share values.

The Orchestra as an instrument has been held up as the perfect example of flawless organization and harmony. The symphony orchestra itself is a metaphor for quite a number of values. And even more importantly, music transforms people. I think that the cooperative movement also has that power of transformation into a better society with better people.

 

The project is very evocative. What feelings does it produce inside of Oriol Roch?

The mission of the orchestra is knowledge, transformation, memory, the feeling of belonging… This is as true of the new music created for the occasion (Humanity at Music) as it is for a Beethoven symphony. Music is a sound that disappears in the moment it’s made, so we carry it in our memory. It gives us enjoyment. And in this project we speak about memory and the future, and it will give enjoyment to us and to the people who make up the whole cooperative movement.