Comillas sweeps the board at the 3rd edition of UNIVERSIFEST

Gym Tones, a group made up of staff from the Universidad Pontificia Comillas, then performed a pop rock repertoire. The group is made up of Ángela Sánchez González (vocals/ICADE), Jorge A. Portocarrero Quispe (bass), Roberto Barrella (vocals/IIT), Miguel A. Barruso Recuero (electric guitar/IIT), Devashish Sonowal (acoustic guitar/IIT), Alejandro Padín Vidal (drums/ICADE), Anne Maren Coll Franck (piano/IIT), Darío Torralba Romero (vocals) and Gabriel Rodríguez Garnica (saxophone/ICADE), who were accompanied by their teacher Álvaro Galera. Their repertoire included songs such as Valerie by Amy Winehouse, Losing my Religion by R.E.M., Could you be Loved by Bob Marley, Knocking on Heaven's Door by Bob Dylan, La Flaca by Jarabe de Palo, Cómo Hablar by Amaral, No Puedo Vivir sin Ti by Ronaldos, The Weight by The Band, Escuela de Calor by Radio Futura and Rolling in the Deep by Adele.

On Thursday, 13 March, it was the turn of the two student combos at the Sala Siroco: Pelos Azules, from the Cantoblanco Campus, and Combillas, from Alberto Aguilera. The Cantoblanco band, made up of students from the CIHS Faculty, was formed by Esther Soto San Pedro (castanets), Inés Marín López (piano), Lola Rodríguez Castillo (vocals), María Dolores Villarejo Molina (vocals), Venancio Frederico da Silva, Cristina Garrido Martínez (vocals), Elar Gonzalo Pérez Urbina (saxophone) and lecturer Miguel Ruiz de Elvira on drums. They performed You know I'm No Good by Amy Winehouse, El Sol No Regresa by La Quinta Estación, Superstition by Stevie Wonder, Stronger Than Me by Amy Winehouse and Caminando por la vida by Melendi.

The newly formed group "Combillas" is made up of students: Jaime Ruiz-Huerta (drums/ICAI), Julián Recuenco Romanillos (guitar/ICAI), Bruno Ruiz-Huerta (vocals and bass), Klara Roberts (vocals/exchange), Alejandra Catalán Sánchez (keyboards/ICADE), Marina Lefrançois Sánchez (vocals/ICADE) and José Plaza (bass/ICAI). Among the songs they performed were Don't look back in anger by Oasis, Starman by David Bowie, Crazy by Gnarls Barkley and In my life by the Beatles.

This year UNIVERSIFEST introduced a Digital Photography and Video Competition with three categories: portraits, nature and urban photography. The twelve selected artists exhibited their works in the Sala Siroco ArtLab on Friday, 7 March. Among the finalists was José Ríos Díaz, lecturer at the University School of Nursing and Physical Therapy, who is taking the Comillas Art Photography Workshop.

UNIVERSIFEST is the permanent platform for university music groups from Madrid, which this year celebrated its third edition. It is promoted by the Universidad CEU San Pablo together with the Universidad Francisco de Vitoria, Universidad Pontificia Comillas, Universidad Europea de Madrid and Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, and also aims to give space to groups that play both their own songs and cover versions. This project aims to generate and consolidate bands of young musicians, offering them a platform for artistic growth and greater visibility. In this way, interaction between musicians from different environments, universities and styles (pop-rock-author, and related genres) is promoted. This band festival aspires to be a point of reference in the world of university music and aims to promote the careers of young bands.

The bands from Comillas made a very enthusiastic audience enjoy their music.