The headquarters of the CajaCanarias Foundation in Santa Cruz de Tenerife This Friday, January 26, will host a tribute concert to the remembered journalist Guillermo García-Alcalde. The meeting will bring together a select group of artists who will perform in memory of someone who was also a relevant music critic. The list includes the Gran Canarian director and pianist Iván Martín, the pianist Nauzet Mederos, the tenor Manuel Gómez Ruiz, the famous Tenerife pianist Gustavo Díaz Jerez, the soprano Raquel Lojendio and Chiky Martín. They are all great personalities in the world of music.
Likewise, it will have the interventions of Margarita Ramos Quintana, president of the CajaCanarias Foundation; Rosario Álvarez Martínez, president of the Royal Canarian Academy of Fine Arts of San Miguel Arcángel; Marta Chirino Argenta, president of the Art and Thought Foundation Martin Chirino; Tomás Marco Aragón, director of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando (Madrid); and Francisco Javier Moll de Miguel, president of the Prensa Ibérica publishing group.
As the concert program details, the figure of Guillermo García-Alcalde Fernández is a clear example of the promotion of cultural rights, of professional and personal excellence as a basic and indisputable vital itinerary, of the daily effort to provide all the qualities in favor of the full development of society. «His path through the geography of our country is a faithful reflection of the multidisciplinarity of a cultured, deeply humanistic person, whose ultimate objective was none other than to make the community grow.»precise.
His doctoral thesis Ideological interpretation of culture after the crisis of the formal method can be considered an authentic manifesto of his extensive knowledge of Canarian and universal culture. Not in vain did he carry out an interesting critique of twenty-five Canarian creators who constitute essential chapters of each of the artistic branches in which they belong, fusing literature, music, sculpture, painting and even the performing arts. This vast knowledge served as the basis for him to become a leading journalist in the field of the Spanish press, being equally notable in the world of musical composition, where his works also constitute an important legacy for the history of the Islands.
Guillermo García-Alcalde Fernández was born in Luarca (Asturias) on October 22, 1940 and since 1972 he established his residence in The Gran Canarian palms.
He studied Law at the University and Music at the Oviedo Conservatory, also Journalism in La Laguna and Madrid, graduating from the Complutense University, where he obtained a doctorate in Information Sciences. In 1962 he began writing music criticism for the newspaper La Voz de Asturias in Oviedo and served as the Asturias correspondent for the musical magazine Ritmo.
In 1965 he decided to dedicate himself professionally to the profession of journalism. In December 1966 he joined the editorial team with which LA PROVINCE reappeared. In 1967 he was elected corresponding academic of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando and was sponsored by the architect Luis Menéndez Pidal and the musicologist Federico Sopeña.
From 1969 to 1972 he worked for the newspaper La Nueva España in Oviedo and for the weekly Asturias magazine, of which he was editor-in-chief. Then, he returned in 1972 to LA PROVINCE, this time as director, a role he would fulfill for five years.
Since 1978 he was director and general director of Editorial Prensa Canaria, positions also held since 1984 at Editorial Prensa Asturiana and since 1986 at Faro de Vigo. Subsequently, for eight years he was CEO of the Prensa Ibérica Editorial Group, which currently has 27 daily newspapers in Spain, including LA PROVINCIA and El Día.
As an editorial writer for these Canarian newspapers, his articles number in the thousands. Since her retirement at age 70, in October 2010, He served as a member of the Board of Directors of Editorial Prensa Ibérica and a columnist for its newspapers. He passed away on May 15, 2023.
