CULTURE
The cultural activities organised by the Complutense University aim to offer students access to world of theatre, music, literature, cinema and debates on the Campus to give them the opportunity to widen their cultural horizons and to participate actively in these cultural initiatives.
Music
The Complutense Concert Season
The Cultural Area of the General Foundation, with advisory help from the Complutense Institute of Musical Sciences, organizes the Complutense Concert Series which has taken place in the National Music Auditorium for the last fourteen years. Each year the best national and international orchestras and performers are chosen with a commitment to quality that has made our Concert Series a "must" on the musical calendar.
Music on Campus
A database of all the musical groups at the Complutense has been created to access the wide variety of music on offer at the Complutense (pop, rock, folk, jazz, etc.) by groups or individual musicians, singer and composers. A varied musical programme is available throughout the academic year, with an emphasis on stimulating creativity.
An annual concert season programmes live performances of different kinds of music. Universimad has been presenting young music with great success since 2004, and the UCM Complujazz Jazz Festival, aims to be the musical highlight of the summer season at the UCM.
The Complutense University Choir
The Complutense University Choir has sung in the Complutense Concert Season, in the Auditorio Nacional de Música, with the Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid, Capilla Real de Madrid and with the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Tamás Vásáry.
Other choral groups including Coro Microcosmos, Cantores de Santo Tomás, Coro Gospel and Capilla Renacentista all show the considerable interest there is in choral music.
The Complutense Chamber Orchestra
The Complutense Chamber Orchestra was founded in 2001 by María Pilar Alvira Martín, and is made up of young players. The orchestra's repertoire centres fundamentally on the baroque and early classical periods and on oratorio. Its main office is located in the Faculty of Veterinary Science.
The Pulse and Plectrum Orchestra
Ex-students from the Complutense take time off from their professional duties to take part, on a voluntary basis, in the rehearsals and concerts offered by the Orchestra.
Big Band Complutense
This band is made up of members from all sectors of the university community and has become established as one of the most popular University musical groups.
The Complutense Spanish Dance Group
This group was formed in 1979 and includes members from all areas of the university community (teachers, administrative and ancillary staff and students).
The wide ranging repertoire includes classical Spanish dance, bolero, flamenco and folk dance, all based on the corresponding techniques with a research and didactic background. Admission to the group is by audition for students with some dance experience.
This educational activity may be awarded 3 free elective credits per year, up to a maximum of 15 credits.
Theatre
University Theatre
There are thirty well-established theatre groups among the various faculties and schools of the Complutense. Spring sees the celebration of the very popular, and well-attended, Complutense Theatre Competition as well as festivals, competitions, displays and talks given by actors. Various seminars are offered: Acting I and II, Directing and Playwriting, and a Workshop on Oral Theatre Narrative is also given.
Plastic Arts
The plastic arts, in all their many and complex forms, are a reflection of the immense creative vitality of the university world.
Each year the Vice-Chancellor for Culture and Sport programmes various exhibitions on themes showing the great diversity of artistic expression in current society, including modern art, science, and themes related to the artistic and scientific-technical heritage of the UCM.
Art competitions open to all members of the university are held annually and are very popular with UCM students and staff.
The Complutense Art Centre
The Complutense Art Centre is a museum space for the diffusion of the historical and artistic heritage of the UCM, as well as a focal point for new artistic impulses and trends and a forum for culture and social integration.
The Complutense Forum
In the 21ST century knowledge is one of our most valuable assets. Recognizing this, the Complutense University through its General Foundation has created the Complutense Forum (Foro Complutense).
The Complutense Forum is a dialectic tool for thought and debate, an active cultural focus which includes book presentations, lectures, seminars and other activities of cultural and social interest. The Complutense Forum aims to be a meeting point for different ways of understanding life and analysing history. It is envisaged as a knowledge-based forum, fostering innovative theories in different fields.
The Complutense Forum organises symposia and conferences on the current thought-provoking subjects with the most highly respected national and international figures from a wide range of fields, as the evidence of the University's new attitude towards its relationship with society at large: it is an open window for ongoing dialogue. The Forum hopes to turn the knowledge of the academic experts into a space for social reflection, and so recover the true meaning of universitas , making the Complutense a cultural area with its own identity.
Youth Prize
This Youth Prize was created by the Complutense University General Foundation in 1998 to stimulate the career of young professionals in different knowledge areas. This is an annual competitive award and its main aim is to incentivise and promote research, creativity, solidarity and respect of young people for the Environment in the fields of knowledge, culture and social action.
The prize has seven categories : Economics, Plastic Arts, Communication , Sustainability and the Environment, Solidarity and Human Rights , Narrative, Science and Technology with a prize of 12,000 euros for the winners in each category.
The awarding Board includes prominent figures in each area. Entries for the prizes can be presented by individual or group of young people in 18-35 age range who must be Spanish or resident in Spain.
