A new version of Els Segadors, Catalonia's national anthem, will receive its world premiere in Plaça Major de Nou Barris at 20:45 on Saturday 26 September, as part of La Mercè 2026.

The free outdoor concert will be performed by the Banda Municipal de Barcelona, the city council's professional wind band. For Nou Barris residents and other visitors, it offers a no-charge evening performance by a major Barcelona ensemble without travelling to central venues.

Bernat Vivancos composed the arrangement specifically for wind band. José R. Pascual-Vilaplana will conduct the concert, which is part of Lletres al vent, a curated La Mercè series whose name means “Letters in the Wind”.

The Banda Municipal programme will also include Yasuhide Ito's Peace, Peace, So Sing the Birds, a work linked to the Catalan cellist and composer Pau Casals, along with Marc Migó's Suite Furera and Joaquín Rodrigo's For the Blue Lily Flower.

It will close with two sardanas, the traditional Catalan circle-dance music: Pau Casals's Sant Martí del Canigó and Heroica by his brother, Enric Casals.

Three free events in Nou Barris and at Museu de la Música

  • Thursday 24 September, 10:00–21:00: Museu de la Música will offer free entry to its permanent collection and temporary exhibitions. Guided tours are scheduled for 11:00, 12:30 and 17:00, while children aged over five can join the Colours of Sound workshop at 10:30 and 12:00.
  • Friday 25 September, 20:45: the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya (OBC), Barcelona's symphony orchestra and national orchestra of Catalonia, will perform in Plaça Major de Nou Barris under Portuguese conductor Miguel Sepúlveda. The programme includes Borodin's Polovtsian Dances, Bartók's Romanian Dances and extracts from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.
  • Saturday 26 September, 20:45: the Banda Municipal de Barcelona will premiere Vivancos's arrangement of Els Segadors in the same square.

On Saturday, the Museu de la Música will also hold a study day marking the 150th anniversary of pianist Ricard Viñes's birth, followed at 19:00 by a recital from Pedro López Salas. Its exhibition Ricard Viñes in Paris: Diary of a Pianist is due to remain open until 11 October.

How to attend

La Mercè runs from Wednesday 23 to Sunday 27 September, with 235 cultural events across Barcelona's ten districts. The Plaça Major de Nou Barris concerts are free and outdoors, according to the programme.

Visitors can go directly to Plaça Major de Nou Barris for the 20:45 concerts. The Ajuntament de Barcelona's official La Mercè website has the full programme and event details.

Reported by barna.news.