The revolution operated in Portugal by OPGBAC – Associação Cultural de Plectro with regard to plucked string music is something unavoidable. The Plectro International Music Festival is one of our biggest bets, as it allows the public to have contact with the best that is done worldwide in this area.
History
In the first year Festival Internacional de Música de Plectro (2012), it was possible to bring to Portugal perhaps the most renowned baroque plectrum music group, the Artemandoline Barroque Ensemble, where on a rainy October night an attendance of around 500 people was obtained.
A segunda edição do Festival, em 2013, realizou-se durante todos os fins-de-semana do mês de Outubro. Sempre aos Domingos às 18h, em 4 auditórios do Município da Maia, que receberam 4 reputados grupos de renome mundial.
In 2016, with the Association based in Rio Tinto, the Festival Internacional de Plectro “Concelho de Gondomar“, which took place between the 8th and 10th of July in various spaces in the municipality of Gondomar, with concerts, workshops, masterclasses and conferences.
Its 4th edition took place in Gondomar on September 23, 2017, and was full of novelties that made it possible to adapt the FIMP to the dynamic culture of Gondomar.
Because we believe that the FIMP has enormous potential due to the unique characteristics that set it apart, being the only Plectrum Music festival in the country, we wanted to associate it with the brand “Gondomar é D’ouro”. By associating the FIMP with a strong and internationally recognized brand such as Gondomar, we believe that Gondomar will also become the Music Capital of Plectro.
This year's edition also featured the debut of a new format: 5 practically consecutive events, in 5 different locations held within a 7-hour interval. This new format of the FIMP suited itself quite well because, in this edition, it was included in the Festivities of Gondomar, and allowed to print an extraordinary cultural dynamic by offering a heterogeneous program in places as different as the Main Hall of the City Council, the extraordinary outdoor amphitheater at Largo do Souto, the modern Municipal Auditorium, the welcoming Passeio 25 de Abril, and the historic and beautiful Casa Branca de Gramido. All events were free to the public. This edition also debuted the Street Animation component. In the middle of the Passeio 25 de Abril, a Roda de Choro was formed, with free and informal participation, which welcomed musicians from Portugal and Brazil. This activity took place at the end of the afternoon and enlivened those who passed by, including
public and artists participating in the festival.
This edition then had the participation of the groups Guitarcelo Trio, Os Lusíadas, Choro das 3 (Brazil) and Júlio Pereira.
With the huge success of the 2017 Edition of the Plectrum International Music Festival, we have a duty to raise the bar. We are aware of the worldwide impact that we brought to the Municipality of Gondomar that we intend to improve in the 2018 edition. With the experience gained in the previous year, the format of this event was optimized together with the Municipality of Gondomar, in order to guarantee a better quality in its implementation and contribute positively to the consolidation of this festival.
In this edition, the characteristics of the festival format were maintained: 4 consecutive events, in 4 different locations, but close to a central point, held between 3 pm and 10 pm throughout the same day. The heterogeneous program proposed by the Artistic Direction of the festival was distributed by the Terrace of the Municipal Library of Gondomar Camilo de Oliveira: Amadeu Magalhães (PT), in the hall of the Municipal Library of Gondomar Camilo de Oliveira: Orquesta de Plectro Y Guitarra “Cuerda para rat” ( ES), in the Municipal Auditorium: Pedro Caldeira Cabral (PT), and in the White House of Gramido: Quatuor à Plectres de France (FR).
The music festival returns to the North
Near Porto, the municipality of Gondomar will once again host the "VI Plectrum International Music Festival" over the weekend of October 12th and 13th, and ends on the 18th. There will be five concerts in three days music party background.
“A very well-stocked lineup, with music for all tastes”, is how its artistic director, António de Sousa Vieira, defines the festival. On the 12th, there will be music throughout the afternoon from Brazil (“Choro das Três”), classical music by two of the most virtuous European guitarists (“Duo Kontaxakis-Ivanovic ”), baroque music by a specialist group from Luxembourg (Artemandoline Baroque Ensemble) and even the exotic art of the great Japanese virtuoso Yasunobu Inuoe on the 13th. only on the 18th, with a concert by the Orquestra Portuguesa de Guitarras e Mandolins, conducted by the Japanese maestro, in a program entitled “Oriente & Oeste”, with a program that aims to unite the two worlds, especially in New Year of celebration of the voyage of Fernão de Magalhães.
In the words of the artistic director, António Vieira, it is “a truly eclectic festival, which has grown year by year, with more support, visibility and projection, and this is the most ambitious of all editions”. A unique festival in Portugal, which wants to promote plectrum music, but which wants to offer, above all, “spectacles of great musical quality, through these groups coming from the four corners of the world, which will fill Gondomar with pride”, adds the director. artistic.
This festival is organized by the Associação de Plectro in conjunction with the City Council of Gondomar and, this year, the 6th edition of the Festival has “the greatest support ever from the cultural sector, whose support and trust we can only praise and thank ”, insists on pointing out António Viera, who ends up leaving the invitation: “Come all afternoon and watch this music marathon”.
With free entry to all concerts, this festival aims to attract all audiences who enjoy good music to Gondomar. For those who don't have the opportunity to travel to Gondomar on the 18th, you are invited to attend the same concert at the Museu da Música, em Lisboa no dia 19, at 18h00.
