Image: Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, Madrid
The Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando is set to host two concerts in early July as part of Caprichos del Romanticismo 2026, a chamber-music festival presented by the Fundación Katarina Gurska. The Academy’s Salón de actos will welcome the first of the two dates on July 2 at 12 p.m., with free online reservations available until capacity is reached.
The concert forms part of a broader festival running from June 30 to July 9 across several historic and emblematic venues in Madrid. According to the Academy’s listing, the project brings together cultural institutions that open their spaces to support the work of young performers, placing emerging talent at the center of a program built around Romantic repertory. That model gives the festival a significance beyond a single concert: it links a specialist repertoire to some of the city’s most established cultural institutions.
At the San Fernando Academy, the featured performers are pianist Ismael Escribano, clarinetist Ignacio Calcedo and pianist Elizaveta Yaroshinskaia. The program pairs major Romantic figures with later repertoire that broadens the concert’s stylistic frame. Works listed for the performance include Schumann’s Papillons, Op. 2 and Fantasiestücke, Op. 73, alongside Rachmaninov preludes, Antón García Abril’s Dos piezas griegas and Salvador Brotons’ Sonata for clarinet and piano, Op. 46.
The Academy’s participation also reflects the institution’s continuing role as a venue for live music within Madrid’s cultural calendar. Better known internationally for its artistic and historical collections, the Royal Academy regularly uses its concert series to connect performance with its wider identity as one of Spain’s key academies of fine arts. Hosting a festival centered on Romantic chamber music underscores that role and adds music to the institution’s broader program of exhibitions, talks and concerts.
The artists named in the program represent a younger generation of performers working across solo and chamber repertory. The Academy’s website notes that Escribano has a particular sensitivity to Romantic music and special interest in Antón García Abril, while Calcedo is presented as a musician focused on chamber music and repertory from the 19th and 20th centuries. Yaroshinskaia, meanwhile, is described as a pianist and harpsichordist with an international performance background and teaching ties in Spain. Those biographies are included by the institution as part of the event page, signaling the festival’s emphasis on professional development as much as presentation.
For the wider art and culture world, the story is notable because it shows how major heritage institutions can act as platforms for contemporary performance without abandoning their historical identity. By hosting a festival that reaches beyond a single venue and highlights young musicians, the Academy positions itself within a network of Madrid institutions supporting live chamber music. In a crowded summer calendar, that combination of repertory, venue and emerging talent gives Caprichos del Romanticismo a clear place in the city’s cultural season.
