International Spring Music Festival livens up Viseu in April

The International Spring Music Festival returns to liven up Viseu in April, with two dozen concerts taking place in different spaces around the city and a competition that attracted some of the best guitarists of the new generation, according to the organizers.

Organized by Proviseu and the Viseu Regional Music Conservatory, the 17th International Spring Music Festival will take place between April 2nd and 20th and represents an investment of around 220 thousand euros.

The president of Proviseu, António Raínho, said today, in a press conference, that the support given this year by the Directorate-General for the Arts (35 thousand euros), in addition to that of the local authority (100 thousand euros) and patrons, allowed “ leveraging the quality, in quantitative terms”, of the festival.

“We have more music, more artists, more composers, more time”, he stressed, remembering that this edition of the festival had a prelude and, from May, it will have a postlude.

The concerts will take place in places such as the Grão Vasco National Museum, the Viriato Theater, the Aula Magna of the Polytechnic of Viseu, the Misericórdia Church, the Emídio Navarro Secondary School Auditorium and the Multipurpose Pavilion.

The festival’s artistic director, José Carlos Sousa, highlighted the opening concert by the Orquestra Portuguesa de Guitarras e Mandolins, at Teatro Viriato.

“The soloist is Pedro Rodrigues, professor at the University of Aveiro and one of the great guitarists of our time”, stated José Carlos Sousa, adding that this orchestra has never been to Viseu.

Another of the highlights of the first week of the festival will be the final of the 6th Viseu International Guitar Competition, which had 27 entries from 14 countries: Belgium, Croatia, France, Greece, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Mexico, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, South Korea, Spain and Ukraine.

According to José Carlos Sousa, after a first selection phase through video recordings, 17 guitarists will perform in Viseu. Portugal has never had a competitor in the final of the competition, and the artistic director is convinced that this could happen this year, on the 6th.

“Our conviction is that there are very good Portuguese competitors, who are studying abroad and can reach the final”, said the person in charge, remembering that the winner will win six thousand euros, a guitar with an estimated value of eight thousand euros and the opportunity to play at four international festivals (Bratislava, Seville, Fundão and Viseu).

The festival will close on the 20th with one of Gustav Mahler’s masterpieces, Symphony no. mezzo-soprano Patrícia Quinta, as soloists.

“We are going to have a large orchestral mass at the Pavilhão Multiusos, because we still don’t have a room in Viseu that can take 200 musicians on stage”, said the artistic director, adding that the orchestra is directed by maestro Osvaldo Ferreira.

Margarita Escarpa (Spain), Judicael Perroy (France) and the Sevilla Guitar Duo (Spain), on guitar, the piano, transverse flute and violin trio made up of Isolda Crespi Rubio, Joana Correia and Nuno Meira, the pianist Luísa Tender and the cello and piano duo of Jeremy Laque (United Kingdom) and Katerina Kabakli (Greece) are other musicians who can be heard in Viseu.

José Carlos Sousa warns, however, of more performances parallel to the program: “The festival does not only have the concerts that the majority of the public knows”, he stated.

An internal competition for instrumentalists at the conservatory is taking place, the final result of which can be seen at the concert on the 14th. There will also be educational concerts in schools, homes, institutions for people with disabilities, as well as in prisons and hospitals, in addition to ‘masterclasses’ for music students and professionals.

“It’s not just the international competition that brings in a lot of people from abroad. These ‘masterclasses’ bring to Viseu students who come from Belmonte, Portalegre, Évora, Aveiro, Seia, Covilhã, Santa Comba Dão, Vouzela, Viseu and [Escola Profissional de Artes Performativas] of Jobra”, he stressed.