July in full swing
Summer at Casa da Música has one obvious destination: the terrace. That’s where the city gathers to enjoy the music – and stays.
The open-air sessions kick off with the Argentinian band El Sonidero Insurgente: fist-pumping rock, fearless dancing, and boundless energy. Next to take to the stage is Lala Tamar – she plays the guimbri, moves her body to the rhythm and sings in Arabic, Amazigh and Portuguese. Next up are two artists from Bahia: Eric Assmar (a master of the blues) and Melly (nominated for a Latin Grammy for her fusion of R&B, contemporary pop and Afro-Brazilian musical styles). There is also André Rio from Pernambuco (whose maracatu has become an anthem), LUIZGA in a duet with percussionist Juninho Ibituruna, the Organ Trio led by the prodigious Chilean bassist Christian Gálvez, Nico Guedes (soul, funk and R&B) and Leo Bianchini, formerly of 5 a Seco, who joins forces with Italian pianist Gianni Cappiello. To round things off, Jasmim performs a piano and guitar set, in an intimate atmosphere that needs no artifice. All events are free entry. It’s all waiting for you.
Sonópolis is the Educational Service’s festival. Around two hundred people on stage at the Sala Suggia: graduates of the Music Entertainment Course, professional musicians, children and grandparents. The show has no audience – it has a community. It is a sight to behold, but above all a sound to hear: diversity as the raw material, sharing as the sole instrument.
Under the baton of conductor Diogo Costa, the Symphony Orchestra is joining forces with Pedro Abrunhosa for a charity concert in aid of the victims of Storm Kristin. It is not every day that a symphony orchestra embraces popular song with such generosity – and the gesture is, at times, just as important as the music.
As has become customary year after year, Maia Symphonic is once again bringing our orchestra to Praça Dr. José Vieira de Carvalho with a programme of pure enjoyment. This time, the programme features the overture to Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman, excerpts from Verdi and Rossini, Suppé’s Leichte Kavallerie, Strauss’s Die Fledermaus and the delightful Gaîté parisienne by Offenbach/Rosenthal. The same stage will host the Maia Classical Orchestra the following evening. Both concerts are free to attend.
The Suggia International Prize selects the three finalists who will perform with the Symphony Orchestra. The MIA Festival announces the finalists for the ESMAE Master’s programme. The Porto Orff Orchestra celebrates forty years of ensemble music.
The Brazilian group Barbatuques make music using only their bodies – clapping, snapping, chest-beating, half a million followers and three decades of rhythmic innovation. Portuguese singer-songwriter HIARA takes the stage at Geração Casa to perform, as part of a quintet, tracks from the album Algo Que Não Sei Guardar. Regarded by Ney Matogrosso as one of the great contemporary composers of Brazilian music, Martins invites us to a musical autobiography, a medley of songs from the Northeast, MPB, samba and romantic ballads.
Café com Nata presents one of Bach’s Cello Suites alongside Benjamin Britten, in a programme of pure subtlety. And the Philharmonic Bands Festival tours six towns – from Terras do Bouro to Torres Novas – with the sound of wind instruments and percussion, in the name of an age-old tradition that has lost none of its passion.
July is not a month for taking a break. It’s a month for outdoor cafés, work placements, emerging talent, collaborations, pianists who are redefining jazz, and orchestras shaping the future. A Partitura opens its doors. The city is invited.