Once upon a time the Portuguese Guitar...
The Portuguese guitar is a unique instrument rarely heard outside its traditional role in fado music. It is nevertheless a fantastic instrument and some of its practitioners have gained for themselves the legitimate status of virtuoso players. Coimbra,
Capital Nacional da Cultura 2003 is a rare opportunity to contribute to the renaissance of the instrument. We have therefore designed an event which will hopefully help set this desideratum in motion for which I invited Paulo Soares, member of the Coimbra's new breed of guitarists, teacher and probably the greatest guitar player Coimbra has today.
Paulo called it the I Festival da Guitarra de Coimbra and set it to be a series of master classes and concerts. Guest guitarists and lecturers, including a few international players, were invited to participate. The series started on February with Portuguese guitar player Pedro Caldeira Cabral, followed by António Chainho and Artur Caldeira (have a look at pictures of some of the workshops on your left) and went on every month throughout the year. On September 25 took place one of the best and most significant concerts of the series, a tribute to composer and guitarist Octávio Sérgio played by a fabulous Paulo Soares!
The Festival ended with a special concert on December 4th. It included a commission to Portuguese composer Fernando Lapa of a piece for Portuguese Guitar and chamber orchestra and Terje Rypdal, the great Norwegian electric guitarist and composer who played three of his pieces for electric guitar and chamber orchestra. Interestingly enough, the Portuguese guitar and the electric guitar are not that far apart. The pragamtics and economics of both instruments share a lot of common ground and this concert was intended to symbolize this.
The Portuguese Guitar also "visited" the Coimbra schools. Paulo Soares and his friends are seen here explaining how to play the instrument at the D. Maria School.
Finally we produced a record called "Guitarra Diversa" (cover bellow), curated and produced by Paulo Vaz de Carvalho, which contains fine new music for the Portugueses Guitar, performed by the best players of this unique and highly distinctive instrument..
