26 Years of Great Music
From Helga Hampton
30 January 2018
Dear Amigos,
You were greeted and welcomed into the New Year by me with a NEWS FLASH highlighting the International Music Festival in Marvão (FIMM), and let me urge you herewith again to make your reservations there as soon as possible. Go online and see what varied music and great musicians are on offer this summer:
You can find all information on their website:
http://marvaomusic.com/en/programme-5o-festival-internacional-musica-marvao-2018/
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Today I have the privilege of announcing not only the programme selected by our February 2018 artists, as promised, but also of revealing the highlights of all the concerts on offer during the second part of the 2017/18 membership season.
You are aware of the fact that you will be getting two additional concerts annually from this season on. We opened up the month of February, so that your subscription now covers a total of 18 concerts during one membership season instead of the habitual 16 concerts.
And with February 2018 we are making a significant start: By attracting the Leader of the London Symphony Orchestra, Roman Simovic, and the viola principal of the Birmingham SO, Milena Simovic, to play for us on Tuesday, February 20th and Thursday, February 22nd, 2018, I think we are in for some real string treats.
From their programme suggestions you will be able to deduce that we will not have to wake up our piano from its winter hibernation:
There will be two Mozart duos, three Martinu Madrigals and the Handel/Halverson “Passacaglia”, plus on Tuesday the viola solo sonata by Hindemith, on Thursday the violin solo sonata by YsaŸe.
Please, as usual, make your reservations with Cristina as soon as possible, by sending an email to:
March 2018 brings us the great pianist, Piers Lane, and I can already give you an outline of his amazing programme suggestions: Part one is called: “A Night in Vienna” with Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Strauss. Part two is called: “Chopin and the Romantic Russians” with pieces by Glazunov, Chopin, and Rachmaninov. The dates are Tuesday, March 13th and Thursday, 15th, 2018
April 2018 will introduce the French pianist, Hélène Tysman, to the Amigos, and her programme suggestions are equally amazing with great pieces by Bach and Debussy in the first part and Chopin and Ravel in the second on the evenings of Tuesday, April 17th and Thursday, April 19th, 2018
May 2018 we have the pleasure of welcoming two musicians who both were born in St. Petersburg.
The pianist Evgeny Sinaisky has carved a unique niche as a highly sought after chamber musician and pedagogue in Europe, and Kirill Timofeev is a founding member of the “Rastrelli Cello Quartet”. They may be remembered by some Amigos as having come to the Centro Cultural 14 years ago. Programme to be announced for concerts on May 8th and 10th, 2018 at Os Agostos.
June 2018 will close the 2017/18 concert seasons for the Amigos de Musica and it promises to go out with a bang. Istvan Lajko is a Hungarian pianist whose reputation as “an outstanding musician combined with a fascinating personality” precedes him! And I have already had some brief indication of something like this: He sent a programme suggestion at the end of 2017, but recently I received a totally different selection with the remark: “Changed my mind – I think this Mozart, Shostakovich, Medtner, Glinka and Tchaikovsky would suit you better!” So there. Let’s see what we are going to get in the end. Exciting, eh ???
Here is a short summary of the remaining artists and their confirmed dates for 2018:
February 20 & 22: Roman Simovic, violin, & Milena Simovic, viola
March 13 & 15: Piers Lane, piano
April 17 & 19: Hélène Tysman, piano
May 8 & 10: Kirill Timofeev, cello, & Evgeny Sinaiski, piano
June 12 & 14: Istvan Lajko, piano
Let me take this opportunity to tell you that the season 2018/19 is already fully in the bag,
so to speak, and I can promise you a mix of old friends and surprising new world-class artists.
THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS:
More great news to impart is in connection with our main Sponsors:
“QP” (Quinta Properties, SAVILLS) have generously increased their sponsorship by 100%, allowing us to – hopefully – put aside some of our funds, left over after expenses, to dedicate to our Young Portuguese Musicians Sponsorship. Our current protégé, Tiago Rosario, is in the process of selecting and applying to a music conservatory in Europe for his further formation.
We wish him luck in either Brussels, Munich or Basel, places he is honing in on. I shall keep you posted.
QP have kindly produced new “RESERVED” signs for our Os Agostos auditorium – the old ones were becoming a bit over-used. Additional QP support is a 2-page inclusion of an Amigo feature in their annual glossy “The Guide”, with an edition of 15 000 for distribution in the Central Algarve as well as via the SAVILLS offices also in the UK.
“ValVerde Apartments” have been most reliable and generous Amigo benefactors. In February 2018 they have again offered one of their beautiful spacious Apartments to our artists, who intend to make their first-time Algarve visit a much needed holiday relaxation by staying a bit longer.
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“Os Agostos”, never last nor least, but always one of the greatest benefactors as gracious hosts of our concerts and socializing. The inimitable ambiance of their estate and the style in which we are received and treated, is one of the main reasons why our artists love coming back to the Algarve.
“Special Sponsors”: Those Amigos who offer extra attention to our artists by entertaining them for a lunch or dinner. Or those who generously have put at our artists` disposal their guest facilities during their stay in the Algarve. Or those who boost our funding with extra money donations. I would not only like to call “Special Sponsors” – for want of a better term – but also VERY SPECIAL AMIGOS. And they have my special gratitude, because so much that we do would not be possible without this support.
Hugs,
Helga Hampton