Guide to L'Auditori

L'Auditori is a modern building with premises covering 42,000 square metres. Designed by architect Rafael Moneo, it was officially opened on 22 March 1999. It is Barcelona's most recently created music venue and home of the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra and the Barcelona Symphony Band. Situated at the heart of the new area of urban development in Plaça de les Glòries, where the city's three widest and longest avenues (Diagonal, Gran Via and Meridiana) converge. It is near the city's historic centre, the Eixample, the Teatre Nacional, the Glòries complex, the point where Diagonal reaches the sea, district 22 and the Forum area.

The building combines the restrained modernity of its exterior with Sala 1 Pau Casals for 2,200 spectators, Sala 2 Oriol Martorell with 600 seats, Sala 3 Tete Montoliu with 400 seats and Sala 4 Alicia de Larrocha with 152 seats. The same complex houses the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya and the Museum of Music. L'Auditori is thus a focal point for music in Barcelona, in the fields of dissemination, education and research.

Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya (OBC)

The Barcelona Symphony and National Orchestra of Catalonia was founded by the Barcelona City Council in 1944, building on the Orquestra Pau Casals (1920-1937) project that had come to an end as a result of the Spanish Civil War. Today, maintaining Casals' original spirit - open to the world and committed to society - it is mindful of Catalan artists and heritage, and its mission is to popularise symphonic music, primarily from the 19th century to the present day.

The Orchestra performs at L’Auditori more than twenty season programmes, as well as other concerts aimed at bringing orchestral music to the people: original version cinema, concerts for families and schoolchildren, experimental music, operas and chamber music. It also performs at emblematic locations such as the Plaça de la Catedral, Barceloneta beach and the Sagrada Familia.