After a seven-year break, the Algarve’s International Music Festival (FIMA) is returning with a bang in the form of 20 classical music concerts between March and May.
Performers include over 30 national and international solo musicians, orchestras and choirs, and concerts taking place in Faro, Silves, Lagos, Tavira, Loulé, Lagoa, Castro Marim, São Brás de Alportel and Albufeira.
The opening ‘Ode à Alegria’ (Ode to Joy) is scheduled for Saturday, March 18 at Faro’s Teatro das Figuras, courtesy of the Orquestra Clássica do Sul (OCS) led by maestro Rui Pinheiro.
Other performers throughout the festival include the Academy of Ancient Music (UK), Orquestra de Extremadura (Spain), Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa (Portugal), Carion Quintet (Denmark), Jerusalem Quartet (Israel) and the Quarteto de Matosinhos (Portugal).
The OCS will also join other artists and musical groups including the choir Lisboa Cantat, the Companhia de Dança do Algarve as well as the pianists Jean-Bernard Pommier and Constantin Sandu.
A variety of composers, eras and styles will be recreated in the festival. Enthusiasts can look forward to Vivaldi, Bach and Telemann (Baroque); Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven (Classical); Schubert, Brahms, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky (Romantic); and Debussy, Schoenberg, Stravisnky, Prokofiev and Shostakovich (Modernism).
The festival will host other musical events, like the ‘Food Symphony’ “musical dinner” at the Conrad Algarve on March 31, dance performance ‘Matrioska’ by the Companhia de Dança do Algarve on May 7 at the UAlg Gambelas auditorium and a “multimedia concert” by trumpet player Laurent Rossi on May 21 at the Cine Teatro Louletano.
FIMA makes up part of the ‘365 Algarve’ programme, designed to boost the region’s cultural attractions between October and May and help it prove itself as a year-round tourism destination.
Tickets will be sold online at the end of February at FNAC, and at some of the show’s venues.
There will also be a special pass giving a 20% discount to a number of other shows.
More information is available online.
For the full programme, visit www.fima.com.pt
Photo: Orquestra Clássica do Sul
Photo by: JORGE GOMES
