THE INTERNATIONAL community gathered recently to see the duo of Stephanie Duarte and Jackie Correia play at the Cascais Cultural Centre. Stephanie on viola and Jackie on piano opened the evening’s performance with Vivaldi’s Sonata in E minor, followed by Fantasie by Fauré, an Evening at the Village by Bartòk and Meditation by Massenet. The high point of the concert was one of Gershwin’s best, The Three Preludes.
The Resident spoke to the duo and learned that they had been practising for the concert since September, around their busy schedules as music teachers and administrators of the International Music Centre (IMC).
The IMC was founded in 1992 at St Dominic’s International School in Parede and its main purpose is to enable children to experience music and develop their own technical and musical skills. IMC’s first concert away from home was held in the Algarve in 1994 and this marked the start of a fruitful period of collaboration between students from Lisbon and the Algarve. The tradition of exchange and combined concerts continues today. The IMC also toured Rome in 1998.
Funds raised from concerts enable young musicians to bring their musical talents to a wider audience and give them a greater opportunity to share their enjoyment of music with others. B.H.
