End of June 2009

Dear Amigos,

We have come to the end of another successful year and it is time to look back and remember the many evenings we have enjoyed at São Lourenço during our Amigos year. We began in September with the flautist Marc Gruwels and friends, followed the next month by a return visit from the delightful Lucy Parham. Then after our AGM in November we were viagra 25mg uk able to hear the progress Joana Ballmann had made during a further year of studies at the conservatoire in Cologne. The concerts continued each month throughout the year and in May the long awaited Sa Chen finally made her debut, far and away exceeding our greatest expectations, and then to end our year in June, we were treated to a pair of superb concerts from the Trio Pangea. All highly satisfactory I hope you will agree and despite a year of unsettling events on the World stage, our small haven of calm and culture has continued to provide us with moments of tranquillity and contentment.

As many of you will remember from my reports to the Annual General Meetings over the last five years, the one recurring topic has always been sponsorship and funding. In the past we have been blessed with generous patrons who have put their hands deep into their pockets and sponsored entire concerts while others have made much appreciated donations, given musicians accommodation and given us help in other ways. The last twelve month has seen catastrophic changes in the world and benefactors have become far more difficult to find. You may also recall me saying that without additional support our membership fee would have to increase. The last rise in our subscription rate was more than twelve years ago and so it will come as no surprise when I ask you to please continue your support of the Amigos but at the higher rate of 150€ per person per annum. That is an increase of 25€ per annum, or to put it another way, the cost of one concert admission.

Next year we shall celebrate twenty years of the Amigos de Música and now is a good time

to look back with pride on the many cultural benefits we have helped to bring, not just to our own lives, but to the quality of life in the Algarve in general. Because of the São Lourenço Cultural Centre and thanks to its close ties to the Amigos, we have been able to bring music to the Algarve from world class musicians who would never have been heard here without our support. For twenty year we have been helping to put the Cultural Centre on the musical map of Portugal. No small achievement for a multinational group of a little over one hundred members with absolutely no help whatsoever from and national of municipal funding.

We have looked back on our past and now it is time to look ahead to our future. We have great things planned, great music to hear and great musicians to play it for us. Only with your continued support and interest can we look forward to more delightful evenings in a wonderful location, accompanied by glorious music.

Kind regards,

Barry