PEDRO JOAQUIN FRANCES SANJUAN
Pedro Joaquín Francés Sanjuán (Beneixama, March 3, 1951 – Elda, July 24, 2013) was a Valencian conductor and musical composer, author of various Moors and Christians marches and paso-dobles to be performed by bands.
He began his musical training learning music theory and percussion in the band of the "La Paz" Musical Society of Beneixama, with Olegario Pastor Alcaraz, who was his director. Later he studied percussion and piano at the Conservatories of Villena and Alicante, and harmony with the composer Luis Hernández Navarro. He also attended conducting courses by Bernat Adam Ferrero and Pedro Pirfano, and one on choral technique with Ma. Ángeles López Ártiga.
In 1972 he was appointed deputy director of the "La Pau" Musical Society, with responsibility for the entity's music academy, until in 1978 when he took over the direction of the association's band, a position he held until 1991. During this period, in addition of the formative work of a large number of musicians, he organized and cataloged the enormous musical archive of the society and founded and directed a Youth Band. In addition, he managed to create a classroom displaced from the Villena Conservatory in Beneixama.
From 1993 to 1997 he was the founding director [1] of the Musical Society "Ruperto Chapí" of Villena.
He conducted several bands as a guest: Villena municipal, Nueva de Banyeres, Jumilla Music Friends, Benidorm Musical Union, Caravaca de la Cruz band, Alicante City of Assisi, Biarense Musical Union, Muro Musical Union, Musical Ateneo from Villajoyosa and the Island of Benidorm.
Pedro Joaquín Francés is the author of more than sixty compositions for band, mostly party music, awarded in several competitions (Alcoy, Benidorm, Bocairent, Callosa d'en Sarrià, Ontinyent...) and recorded in more than one hundred different recordings[2]. He founded the Association of Moors and Christians Music Composers and when he died in 2013 [3] he was the treasurer. He carried out historical research work [4] and compiled popular songs and themes by musicians from Beneixama, a town that distinguished him with the city's gold insignia.
