The first references come from the XIX century, but it was in the XX century when the choir finally had an important promotion thanks to the organist Mr. Fidel Ibargutxi, as he managed to give an important projection to the choir. He also offered solid musical training for many young people in Aramaio, some of which are still active in musical activities now.
It was at that time when the Ochote of Aramaio (a choir of eight voices) was created, with members of Aramaio Choir and conducted by Sabin Salaberri. That Ochote represented Alava at the Basque Country and Navarre Ochotes Contest in 1963.
In July 1993 the choir became member of the Alava Choir Federation, already as Bizente Goikoetxea Abesbatza, in honour of Bizente Goikoetxea, a well-known man from Aramaio and a brilliant musician of his time, especially in polyphonic religious music (1854/1916). From that time, the choir has been performing regularly in the program ARABA KANTAN, in many different towns and cities of Alava. The choir has also been part of several exchanges with choirs from Catalonia, has performed in Toledo, collaborated with TVE (Spanish National Television Channel) within a program about B. Goikoetxea’s work, also in Sunday mass programs in ETB1 (Basque Country Public Television Channel in Basque), etcetera.
An important milestone in our history was the premiere of Mass in Sol in 1999, a work composed by Father Goikoetxea for the Lore Jokoak (Basque floral games and poetry competitions) that took place in Aramaio in 1899. At that time, Father Goikoetxea’s work was finally never performed, so it was in 1999 when it was first showed by our choir, in collaboration with Samaniego Choir and Carmelo Bernaola orchestra, with Sabin Salaberri once more as a conductor, a distinguished musician and composer born in Aramaio.
Over the last years, we have been working more steadily with conductors Paco Salaberri, Tere Gonzalez, Manu Sagastume, Esther Mendialdua and Martin Arana. They all contributed to uplift our Choir and they deserve our acknowledgement.
The first references come from the XIX century, but it was in the XX century when the choir finally had an important promotion thanks to the organist Mr. Fidel Ibargutxi, as he managed to give an important projection to the choir. He also offered solid musical training for many young people in Aramaio, some of which are still active in musical activities now.
Bizente Goikoetxea Abesbatza 