Carpe Diem-Enharmonia: Deepening Roots in “Empty Spain”

Author: Adriana Ruiz Garcia (Spain)

In the summer of 2021, a decade after founding the Carpe Diem-Enharmonia Cultural Association, musical conductor Pablo Marqués Mestre confronted a strategic paradox. His organisation had succeeded beyond expectation, creating a vibrant classical music festival that brought world-class musicians to the depopulated rural region of Alto Palancia, a part of what is known as “Empty Spain.” The festival was financially self-sustaining on earned revenue alone, and demand from local towns outstripped the orchestra’s capacity. Yet, as he analysed the demographics of his sold-out audiences, Marqués identified a critical vulnerability: a near-total absence of attendees under the age of 30. Faced with this reality, he had to decide whether to continue optimising the existing successful model or to pivot toward a new, untested strategy of youth engagement that could secure the organisation’s long-term relevance.

BACKGROUND

The Carpe Diem-Enharmonia Cultural Association was born from a 2011 experiment. Marqués, a native of the small town of Altura (population 3,601), and Raisa Ulumbekova, artistic director of the Carpe Diem Chamber Orchestra of St. Petersburg, brought Russian musicians to Spain’s Alto Palancia region. This area exemplifies “Empty Spain,” a term for the vast, sparsely populated rural territories that have suffered from youth exodus due to a lack of economic and cultural opportunities. Marqués, who had to leave his hometown to pursue a professional music career, sought to bring high-quality cultural experiences back to the community he left behind. The initial tour, run on a volunteer basis, revealed a strong local appetite for classical music and an interest from international musicians in a unique, community-integrated performance experience.

BUSINESS AND ORGANISATIONAL MODEL

The association operates a lean, financially self-sufficient festival model. For two weeks each August, a collective of professional musicians—a mix of Russian artists and young Spanish professionals—convenes in Alto Palancia to perform six to eight concerts. Its unique value proposition is twofold: it offers rural audiences access to high-calibre classical music typically found only in urban centres, and it provides musicians a fulfilling alternative to the formal orchestra setting through deep community immersion.

Financially, the model is remarkably robust. Concert fees from municipal councils cover all operational costs, including travel and lodging for the volunteer musicians, and have generated a healthy surplus. This eliminates the need for complex grant applications or private sponsorships, which are notoriously difficult to secure in Spain. Operationally, the model relies on the goodwill of locals, who often provide housing, and the shared ethos of the musicians, who contribute to communal duties. The primary beneficiaries have been adults aged 30-50, who have become a loyal audience base. However, this success has also defined the model’s primary limitation: its failure to organically attract the next generation.

STRATEGIC CHALLENGE

Having reached maximum capacity for its current touring model, Carpe Diem-Enharmonia faces a challenge not of growth, but of depth and sustainability. Lengthening the annual tour is not feasible, as it would risk musician burnout and dilute the unique, high-quality experience. The organisation could pursue expansion by touring to larger cities or seeking international funding, but these avenues would add significant administrative burdens and divert focus from its core mission in “Empty Spain.”

The most pressing strategic issue, identified by Marqués and his stakeholders, is the demographic gap in their audience. While the current adult audience ensures financial viability today, the absence of children, teenagers, and young adults threatens the organisation’s future. The challenge is to reallocate its existing resources—financial surplus, artistic talent, and community trust—to cultivate a younger audience without compromising the model that has proven so successful with their current base. The organisation must shift its focus from merely filling seats to actively building a pipeline of future beneficiaries.

VALUE-ADDED CONCEPT

The proposed strategic initiative is to forge a formal partnership with “La Ciudad de los Niños” (The City of Children), a pedagogical movement that advocates for integrating children into civic decision-making. Adapted for rural areas by local architect David Cuesta, this initiative works to empower children by giving them agency over community projects. The concept is to leverage this existing framework to co-design and co-create musical experiences with the region’s youth.

Rather than developing a separate “educational concert” model, this partnership would integrate children directly into the planning and programming of the main festival concerts. The logic model for this initiative posits that by combining Carpe Diem’s inputs (musical expertise, professional performers, and concert infrastructure) with The City of Children’s inputs (a network of engaged youth and a methodology for child-led design), they can create new activities. These activities would include workshops where children and musicians collaborate on concert design, from repertoire selection to venue setup. The output would be a series of concerts programmed with direct input from young people, leading to outcomes of increased youth attendance, a greater sense of community ownership, and an innovative artistic product. The long-term impact is the creation of a sustainable, intergenerational audience base, securing Carpe Diem’s mission for the future.

IMPLEMENTATION CONSIDERATIONS

This initiative is designed for high efficiency, leveraging existing resources and partnerships to minimise new costs and administrative load. The primary investment is not financial, but one of time and a willingness to cede some artistic control to young collaborators. The implementation plan, already underway, involves scheduling joint workshops between Carpe Diem musicians and youth participants from The City of Children during the summer festival period.

The key risk in this strategy is artistic. Professional musicians may be resistant to incorporating ideas from children that could be perceived as compromising the artistic quality of the performance. Success will depend on the ability of Carpe Diem’s leadership to frame this collaboration not as a dilution of quality, but as a form of artistic innovation and a necessary step for community integration. The partnership structure mitigates logistical risks, as The City of Children will manage youth recruitment and workshop facilitation, allowing Carpe Diem to focus on the musical execution. Formal and informal feedback mechanisms will be established by both partners to assess the project’s impact.

IMPACT ANALYSIS

The primary impact of this initiative will be the cultivation of a new generation of beneficiaries. Quantitatively, success will be measured by the increase in attendees under 30 at festival concerts. Qualitatively, impact will be assessed through feedback from both youth participants and orchestra musicians, evaluating the perceived value of the collaborative process. This strategy directly addresses the organisation’s key demographic vulnerability and strengthens its narrative as a vital community institution.

For stakeholders, the benefits are clear. The children gain a sense of agency and a meaningful connection to high culture. The musicians are exposed to new, innovative ideas and deepen their community engagement. Municipal councils see a higher return on their investment as the concerts begin to serve a broader cross-section of their constituents. This partnership enhances Carpe Diem’s brand, reinforcing its identity as a flexible, community-responsive organisation and providing a powerful model for other rural arts initiatives.

DECISION POINT

As Pablo Marqués Mestre finalised the schedule for the upcoming season, he had to commit to this strategic pivot. The partnership with The City of Children was initiated, but its level of integration into the core festival remained a decision point.

One option was to treat the youth collaboration as a limited, ancillary “outreach” project, separate from the mainstage concerts. This would be a low-risk approach, preserving the established artistic product while ticking a box for youth engagement. The alternative was a bolder, more integrated strategy: to fully empower the youth participants to influence the design and programming of primetime festival performances. This path carried the risk of alienating some traditional audience members or creating logistical challenges, but it also held the promise of fundamentally transforming the organisation’s relationship with its community and securing its long-term vitality. The decision would determine whether Carpe Diem-Enharmonia would simply perform for the people of “Empty Spain,” or truly become an orchestra of its people, across all generations.