University of São Paulo: Festival will show the different ways of making choral music
15 groups that currently form the USP Coral (Coralusp) and specially invited choir groups will perform at the 13th edition of the Coralusp Festival , which starts this Sunday, the 25th, at 11 am, and runs until the following Saturday, the 1st of October. The presentations will take place at the Camargo Guarnieri Amphitheater, at Cidade Universitária, in São Paulo, with free admission. The closing concert, on the 1st, at 7:30 pm, will be at Centro Cultural Municipal Olido, in downtown São Paulo, also free of charge. Among the invited groups are the Youth Choir from Instituto Baccarelli, from the community of Heliópolis, in São Paulo, and VocalDante, a youth group from Colégio Dante Alighieri, a traditional teaching institution in São Paulo. The repertoire includes various rhythms, from classical and popular to jazz.
The opening of the festival, this Sunday at 11 am, will have the participation of the Meraki Youth Choir, formed by students from Colégio Fênix and the Espaço Cultural de Artes de São Caetano do Sul (SP), from the Youth Choir of the Municipal School of Music of São Paulo and the Vocal Group of the Escola de Música do Parque do Ibirapuera, also from São Paulo. On the same day, at 5 pm, the presentations will be by the groups Yayá and Lapa, from Coralusp, and the independent vocal group Trato no Tom.
From Monday to Friday, concert times will be at 8:30 pm. On Monday, the 26th, the event features Coral Gogós, Coral Cantando no Quintal and Coro da Vila, formerly Coral Fundap. On Tuesday, the 27th, it will be the turn of the Feminino group from Coralusp, the Coro Masculino de Alumínio (SP) and the Youth Choir of Instituto Baccarelli. On Wednesday, the 28th, three groups from Coralusp will sing at the festival, 12 in Ponto, XI de Agosto and Todo Canto. The groups Zimana and Sul Fiato, from Coralusp, and the independent collective Coro Mosaico will perform on Thursday, the 29th. On Friday, the 30th, the participation of the Sestina group from Coralusp and the youth group from Colégio Dante Alighieri.
At the end of the festival, on Saturday, October 1st, there will be presentations by the groups Jupará, Azul and Andante do Coralusp, at 18:00, and the groups Feminino and Sul Fiato, at 19:30.
“The 13th Coralusp Festival will show different ways of making a choir”, says the artistic director of Coralusp, conductor Eduardo Fernandes. “We will have independent, youth, university and adult choirs. The festival will be very democratic in that sense, because it caters to different types of groups in a very free way.”
Fernandes highlights the expectation between conductors and choristers, about to perform live. “It is a challenging time, because the choirs were very unrehearsed during the pandemic. It’s almost a reconstruction, a starting over. On the other hand, it is a celebration of life, encounter, friendship, companionship and solidarity. The festival celebrates this, with all these voices meeting. And that instigates all of us, singers and conductors”, celebrates Fernandes. “Choir singing was one of the activities most affected in the covid-19 pandemic because it presupposes living together, with people singing together. Now is the time to reorganize ourselves and get back to making music close by.”