26 Years of Great Music
To all Amigos/as
From Helga Hampton
NEWSLETTER July 16th, 2017
Dear Amigos,
Summer Greetings to you from London where we are enjoying tennis at moderate temperatures while you, who have decided to spend the summer in the Algarve, seem to “enjoy” Sahara temperatures. I see this as perfect justification for our habitual July / August summer break.
Concert evening saunas are just not my or our musicians’ thing.
Our Grand Finale June concerts were airily bearable at our lovely Os Agostos auditorium, but certainly not only that. How fortunate we are to have artists of this calibre performing for us.
Alissa Firsova, Tim Hugh and Andrew Marriner had put together a programme of music that showed their virtuosity to perfection and its variety was hugely enjoyable from beginning to end. Truly world class. And let me add here that Tim and Andrew, who we chatted with at the interval of their Concert this week at the Barbican with the LSO under Sir Simon Rattle, thanked us again for the good time they had with the Amigos and for giving them a chance to play true Hausmusik.
They loved the atmosphere of Os Agostos and the knowledgeable and appreciative response of the Amigo audience. They loved the spur-of-the-moment foundation of “The Amigo Trio” idea and stand behind it. They will be glad to return as such when the time comes. We could not have ended the 2016/17 membership season on a more inspiring and inspired note.
Alissa Firsova has already agreed to come to us in May 2019 with her favourite violinist, Daniel Rowland, leader of the Brodsky Quartet.
Into the summer break falls the beginning of the new membership season 2017/18 for which another great series of concerts is awaiting you and your appreciation. There are, as usual, various highlights of “old” Amigo favourites like Anne Kaasa, Joana Gama and Piers Lane, and new artists like the Haga Duo, Helene Tysman, Kirill Timofeev, Evgeny Sinaiski and Istvan Lajko – a few Portuguese and various international greats, also, as usual. I already look forward to your approval.
But first let me take this opportunity to remind and urge you to renew your membership.
PLEASE ! Without your subscriptions, no budget, without budget, no concerts. I have to know at least one year in advance how much money I have to make advances to our type of musicians and to invite them. To find a copy of the Membership Renewal Form which gives all information about procedure please click on Members’ Page; Membership Renewal. I look forward to welcoming you back into the fold.
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Our next and first activity of the new membership year will be the Annual General Meeting (AGM) preceding the September concerts on Tuesday, September 19th, 2017. You will be receiving the formal convocations to the AGM towards the end of August. Following the AGM before the Haga Duo concert you will meet Tiago Rosario. This young man will introduce himself with a short pianistic interlude to give you a chance to vet him as our possible next protégé within the Amigo Young Portuguese Musician Sponsorship programme.
In the hopes that you will take my invitation to you to rejoin us as active Amigos for the next season seriously, I greet you from London where in our living room background Roger Federer is elegantly vying for the ultimate tennis crown. What joy to watch ! May excellence prevail.
Excellence has been an Amigo motto, yet it all hinges on your continued support. Thank you !
Hugs to all,
Helga Hampton