IGNACIO SANCHEZ NAVARRO
Ignacio Sánchez Navarro. He was born in Caravaca de la Cruz in 1964 and since he was a child began playing the requinto with the maestro Antonio Martínez Nevado, who was then the titular director of the Agrupación Musical de Caravaca de la Cruz. When he came of age he joined the Military Music Corps of the Army. Later, when he returned to his hometown, he continued his incessant musical work in the Municipal School of Music of Caravaca as a professor of harmony and clarinet. It should also be noted that Sánchez Navarro began, specifically from 1986, to direct the Musical Grouping of this city.
He completed higher studies in Clarinet, Harmony, Counterpoint, Fugue, Composition and Instrumentation, and Orchestra Conducting at the higher conservatories of Malaga and Murcia, as well as attending different training courses with important musicians. He has been a juror in different composition contests and music band contests in our country and has been invited to conduct different music bands, such as those from Cocentaina, Elche, Biar or Caudete.
In 1998 he continued his work as a music teacher in Lugo, specializing in Harmony and Accompanied Melody. Later he taught the same specialty at the professional music conservatories of Murcia, Cartagena and Lorca. He currently teaches Fundamentals of Composition at the Professional Conservatory of Music "Tomás de Torrejón y Velasco" in Albacete.
But Sánchez Navarro, in addition to devoting himself to teaching music, is a composer of works for piano, chamber groups, orchestra and band. Most of his compositions for his band are linked to the Moors and Christians festivities and are widely performed and well-known in towns in Murcia, Alicante, Valencia and Albacete. Alhakem stands out, a Moorish march composed in 1988, or the Christian march Caballeros de Navarra (1995), which, both well-known, have been and are performed by numerous bands at Moors and Christians festivals in neighboring towns.
But, despite the fact that Ignacio Sánchez has a long list of music for Moors and Christians festivals, he has also composed some pasodobles that have certainly been widely accepted and performed by bands from all over Spain. We will highlight, for example, his pasodoble titled Juanito El Jarri (2003).
Finally, when speaking of his compositions, we cannot fail to mention that he has also been the creator of a truly fascinating processional march entitled La Cruz de Doble Brazo, the composer's only processional march to date, and one of great sentiment since it is dedicated to the Cross of Caravaca (hence the march's name).
With some of the marches and pasodobles by the composer from Caravaca, specifically with 15, the Agrupación Musical de Caravaca de la Cruz wanted to record an album to honor Ignacio Sánchez. These compositions were selected by the composer himself and conducted by the band's director, Francisco García Alcázar.
In addition, as a result of his ingenious compositions, he has been awarded several prizes, among which we highlight: the first prize in the I Contest of Composition of Festera Music of Callosa d'en Sarriá with the Moorish march Rifeño and in the VI Contest of Composition of Festera Music "Villa de Benidorm" with the Christian march Templarios de Caravaca; the second prize in the VIII and X National Contests of Composition of Pasodobles of Pozo Estrecho with Orgullo Santiaguista and 12 de Junio respectively, and the third prize in the I National Contest of Composition of Pasodobles of Pozo Estrecho with Reina Paloma. In 2009 he was also winner of the contest of festive music of Caudete.
