27 Years of Great Music
To all Amigos/as
From Helga Hampton
NEWSLETTER
September 1, 2018
Dear Amigos,
Bye bye summer – welcome new Amigo Season and 2018/19 Membership Year
Today is the end of summer, meteorogically speaking, and I can imagine that many of you are glad for the cooler temperatures, but I hope all of you are looking forward to another season of music at Os Agostos.
First Concerts: We begin with a bang: On September 11th and 13th, 2018 we shall have the privilege of having the Russian pianist, Andrey Gugnin, coming from Moscow, play for us a programme of music by Bach, Beethoven, Schumann and Chopin on the first evening, and on Thursday a totally Russian repertoire of wonderful pieces by Shostakovich, Scriabin, Stravinsky and Balakirev. (These are solo piano performances in amendment of earlier announcements.)
Please make your reservations as usual by sending an email to: reservasconcertos@gmail.com
And, PLEASE REMEMBER: if you have made a reservation and then found that you will not be able to attend, please let Cristina know so that she can give the seats to others. We often have full house audiences and every seat counts. Thank you !
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Annual General Meeting – AGM 2018: In compliance with Portuguese requirements we have to hold an AGM at the beginning of every season, so please come to this meeting on Tuesday, September 11th, 2018 before the first concert. You have all received the AGM Convocations which invite us to assemble at Os Agostos at 17:30 to dispense with our business. This year we have to elect officers, so please come or send me your Proxy (a copy is attached to this mailing.)
Let me mention here, that attendance of the AGM is reserved for ACTIVE MEMBERS, and you have the convenient possibility to pay your membership fee – if you have not done so already – by dispensing with this task directly with our Treasurer, Michael Savage, that afternoon. By the way, our treasurer has come under some criticism for allowing members to forget or delay payment of subscriptions in the past and so please note that if you have not renewed your membership before, or at, the concert you will be asked to pay the guest fee. Michael will be happy to accept your subs on the day!
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New Amigo Members:
Here I would very much like to take the opportunity to welcome in our midst
- Thomas Lowry
- Debbie Simons and Alun Cathcart
- Annelys van der Eijk
- Judith Foy
We look forward to greeting you and welcoming you in our fold at one of the forthcoming concerts.
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Extra Amigo Events:
In addition to free attendance of all 18 concerts (see complete 2018/19 schedule below), your committee is experimenting with a programme of extra events for Amigos and their friends. We depend on your support in order to continue with these events. The next is:
Friday, September 28th, 2018
When we invite you to a Dinner with Fado by InVersus,
the Fadistas of Coimbra
at the “Faz Gostos” Restaurant in the centre of Faro
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Please keep the date free and plan to come to this special evening. Bring family or friends.
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Young Musicians` Sponsorship News with some more dates for your Agendas:
Beatriz Ferreira, MA Mus, RCM and now PhD student at Cardiff University on full scholarship, has made the Piano Concerto by the Portuguese composer Joly Braga Santos her performing speciality and her next performances with the Orquestra Filarmónica Portuguesa will be on
- 20 September 2018 at Teatro Viriato in Viseu
- 27 September 2018 in Viana do Castelo
- 3 November 2018 in Teatro Municipal in Guarda
Tiago Rosario, our present protégé, wrote in June:
“….busy with my finals in Oporto! However, now I have already finished everything, including my final recital, which was very intense and impressed the public and the jury. I played Eurico Carrapatoso’s Four Last Seasons of Lisbon and 3rd sonata by Fernando Lopes-Graça in the first part, two wonderful Portuguese composers and, in the second part, 4’33 by John Cage and the colossal Sonata in B minor by Franz Liszt. It is a good and intense combination of repertoire that I will definitely repeat! I got 19 in 20, which is a very high score in my school!”
More good news from this very dedicated and serious young man – he was accepted for further studies at the Musikhochschule in Muenster, Germany where he will start in October under the guidance of Prof. Heribert Koch. He will be receiving the Amigos de Música purse to help with expenses and tuition. Thank you for your continued contributions to this worthy purpose.
Alissa Firsova, not a protegée of the Amigos, but certainly a very cherished artist – she will be coming to us again in June 2019 with the violinist Daniel Rowland, the leader of the Brodsky Quartet. You might be interested to know that she is playing at the Amsterdam Concertgebow on October 27th, 2018 at 20:15. Let me know if you are interested in attending. She is playing a great programme of music by Chopin, Bartok, Liszt, Beethoven and Mahler`s Adagietto arranged by Alissa Firsova.
Complete Concert Schedule 2018/19
2018
September 11th and 13th, Andrey Gugnin, piano
October 2nd and 3rd (!) Lucy Parham, piano, Dame Harriet Walter and Paul Guy, actors – Chopin Portrait
November 6th and 8th, Charles Owen, piano
December 18th and 20th, Pangea Trio: Bruno Belthoise, piano
Teresa Valente, cello, Adolfo Rascón, violin
2019
February 26th and 28th Stephen Vanhauwaert, piano
March 19th and 21st Jeroen de Groot, violin, Bart van de Roer, piano
(memorial for Joop Carp)
April 16th and 18th Katya Apekisheva, piano
May 14th and 16th, Holger Groschopp, piano, Adele Bitter, cello
May 21st Paul Crossley, 75th Birthday Party, Amigos only
June 11th and 13th Alissa Firsova, piano, Daniel Rowland, violin
Reservations are absolutely necessary: send an email to reservasconcertos@gmail.com or telephone Cristina on: 914 797 980
Hugs,
Helga Hampton
President
ASSOCIAҪÃO DE AMIGOS DE MUSICA at Os Agostos
E-mail: helga.hampton@btinternet.com
www: http://www.amigos-de-musica.org