Sinterklaas Concert 2020: Almudena Rubio (Embassy of Spain)

For several years, the Embassy of Spain has organized an annual concert on the occasion of the festivity of St. Nicholas (Sinterklaas). According to this popular Dutch feast close to Christmas, St. Nicolas travels from Spain to the Netherlands to bring gifts to the country’s children. Each year a sample of Spanish music repertoire is presented.

This year’s edition of the Sinterklaas Concert has brought, once again, a local artist: singer and art historian Almudena Rubio. She was born in Madrid and studied art history at “la Autónoma”, the Autonomous University of Spain’s capital. In 2012, Almudena Rubio moved to Amsterdam and in 2014 she started working at the International Institute of Social History.

But she also started singing. Almudena Rubio has been working with different artists such as jazz guitarist Davide Cristiani and Lucas Vázquez de la Rubio, releasing on her bandcamp (platform for artist promotion) two EP’s with free download: “Gallo Negro” and “Ejecución Pública”. Her repertoire for live shows revolves around singer-songwriter Chicho Sánchez Ferlosio, whom she greatly admires. In her concerts, popular music is melted together with songs of resistance against Franco’s regime.

The performance was originally to be held live on November 25 at the Paleiskerk church in The Hague. Due to the current COVID-19 situation, the concert has been recorded and will be distributed online via the Embassy’s media and the VIMEO channel of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), within the VENTANA program, a window to Spanish culture. The aim of this initiative is to promote Spanish creators, institutions, festivals and cultural industries through digital content to support their internationalization.

The video of the concert will be available on AECID’s VIMEO VENTANA program channel shortly. More information about Almudena Rubio can be found on her own website.