Banda de Música Municipal de Agolada

HISTORY OF THE BAND

After the previous town band disappeared, the current Band was founded in 1993 with the support of the Association of Friends of the Agolada Municipal Wind Band, presided by Andrés Otero Vásquez.

The Band's first director was José Manuel Collazo Verde, who consolidated the group and founded the Music School. In 1994, José Luis Quintás Carreira took over as director and did some very important work in promoting the School. In 2007 the baton was passed to Nilo Jesús García Armas, who had been Director of the Music School since 2005. This marked the beginning of a new era for the Band.

In addition to performing all over Galicia and sometimes outside the region, the following activities and achievements are particularly notable:

First Prize at the 1st and 2nd Pontevedra Provincial Wind Band Contest, Division Three (2001, 2002).
Second Prize at the 4th Pontevedra Provincial Wind Band Contest, Division Two (2004).
First Prize at the 8th Pontevedra Provincial Wind Band Contest, Division Two (2008).
First Prize at the 2nd Galician Popular Wind Band Contest, Division Two (2008).
First Prize at the 2nd Pontevedra Provincial Wind Band Sectional Contest, Division Two (2009).
Second Prize at the 5th Galician Popular Wind Band Contest, Division Two (2011).
Recording their first CD (2008).

The Band has 75 musicians and is supported by the "Association of Friends of the Agolada Municipal Wind Band" which has 230 members and a committee made up of band members and parents of children who attend the music school.

BIOGRAPHY OF THE CONDUCTOR

Nilo Jesús García Armas

Nilo Jesús García Armas was born in Maracaibo (Venezuela) in 1981.

He began studying music at the age of 8 in the A Coruña Conservatory.

He later went on to the Vigo Superior Conservatory of Music, where he studied under Roberto Noche and Francisco Pérez. He finished his studies in 2005 at the A Coruña Superior Conservatory under Vicente Pérez Planells.

He has attended several courses in technique and performance with teachers such as Manuel Juan López (Soloist of the Galicia Philharmonic Orchestra), Juan Navarro (Soloist of the Euskadi Symphony Orchestra), Enrique Pérez Piquer (Soloist of the Spanish National Orchestra), Lars Wouters, Walter Boeykens and Han Deinzer. He has also collaborated with the A Coruña Municipal Wind Band.

He is a founding member of the Stadler Clarinet Quartet with which he was a finalist in the 3rd Arnuero Chamber Music Contest (Cantabria). In the same contest he received the award for the best performer; his prize was entrance to the 2005 Santander Music and Academia Symposium where he attended master classes given by Karl-Heinz Steffens, the clarinet soloist of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.

He gave his end-of-degree concert in December 2005 and received the highest grades. Consequently, he was chosen to take part in the first edition of the Prize for Musical Excellence organized by the Galicia Regional Government. As an orchestral soloist he has performed with the Melide Symphony Orchestra and the Galician Chamber Orchestra. He attended courses in direction taught by Marcel Van Bree and Pascual Villaplana.

In July 2007 he passed the Galician Regional Government's public examinations to become a music teacher and became a director and teacher at the Agolada Municipal Music School (Pontevedra). He has directed the Agolada Municipal Wind Band since January 2007.