University of São Paulo: USP Philharmonic participates in music festival in Minas Gerais
Between the 25th and 28th of August, the cities of São João del-Rei, Prados, Tiradentes and Resende Costa in Minas Gerais will host the Brazilian Music Festival on the Bicentennial of Independence , an event comprising a series of masterclassesand concerts that will feature the participation of local musicians and the USP Philharmonic. Promoted in a partnership between the orchestra and the National System of Social Orchestras (Sinos), with the Research Center in Music Performance Sciences at USP (NAP-Cipem) and with the Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences and Letters of Ribeirão Preto (FFCLRP) from USP, the event will focus on the context of Brazil’s 200 years of independence, with a repertoire that includes works from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries by various authors. Sinos is a partnership between the National Arts Foundation (Funarte) and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ).
The festival’s activities begin this Thursday, the 25th, with a rehearsal for choir and orchestra, which will bring together all the musicians participating in the event at the José Maria Xavier Conservatory, in São João del-Rei. The program, which will be presented in the following days in Prados (26th), Resende Costa (27th), Tiradentes (27th) and São João del-Rei (28th), is the result of research and editorial work by NAP-Cipem, coordinated by maestro Rubens Russomanno Ricciardi, in partnership with Sinos. The initiative, which includes the edition and availability of scores through the Repertório Sinos, aims to expand the didactic repertoire to be presented by the orchestras of social projects in Brazil.
Almost the entire repertoire revolves around works from the 18th and 19th centuries and folk songs from the early 20th century, in the context of the bicentennial of the Independence of Brazil, by anonymous authors and two of the biggest names in 18th century Minas Gerais music, Manuel Dias de Oliveira and José Joaquim Emerico Lobo de Mesquita. The exceptions are the Europeans Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) and Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805), from whom compositions will be presented that signal their approach to their Brazilian contemporaries.
The event stands out for the inclusion of local musicians from São João del-Rei, Prados, Tiradentes and Resende Costa, who will not only participate in the masterclasses , but also perform in concerts with the USP Philharmonic, as instrumentalists and singers.
Founded in February 2011, USP Filarmônica is formed by USP scholarship students. Linked to the FFCLRP, it maintains an artistic schedule of symphonic concerts and opera performances in Ribeirão Preto and São Carlos, in addition to special performances in other cities. Rubens Russomanno Ricciardi (orchestra director and principal conductor) and José Gustavo Julião Camargo (assistant conductor) have been acting in the artistic direction since its foundation. More information about the orchestra is available at this link .