Sparks Fly: Music Festival Revitalizes Portuguese Town
Virtuoso Soloists Re-invigorate Rural Portugal Community Through Music, Spark Grant
Spark Volume 3, Issue 2 | by Sydney Narvaez (COM’19)
With the 2017 Spark Grant, six CFA students are bringing their love for classical music to rural Bendada, Portugal.
This year’s Spark Grant winners, Inês Andrade (DMA, Piano Performance CFA’18), Edoardo Carpenedo (DMA, Piano Performance CFA’19), Gracie Keith (DMA, String Performance CFA’18), Yoni Avi Battat (MM, String Performance CFA’15), Ivana Jasova (DMA, String Performance CFA’15) and Lucio Maestro (MM, CFA’16), also known as the Virtuoso Solosists, used their prize to help bring to life the second Bendada Music Festival.
The group formed in 2014 in New York City after “realizing a collective dream to commission, record, and perform classical and contemporary music on the international stage.” They have performed extensively around the United States and in other countries.
Ensemble member Inês Andrade founded the Bendada Music Festival in 2016 in hopes to “revitalize rural areas in the Portuguese countryside, particularly in the mountain region around Bendada. Our mission is to bring back life and strengthen the community bonds through the power of music.”
Andrade’s father’s entire family was born in the rural Portugal town. The community has undergone changes and has been suffering from underdevelopment and depopulation, with most of the population emigrating to a different country or moving to a big city on the west coast of Portugal. Continuing at this rate, Bendada will be a deserted village in just a few decades.
A few years ago, Andrade presented a solo recital in a music school located near the Serra de Nossa Senhora do Castelo (Nossa Senhora do Castelo Mountain) in Bendada. She described being “absolutely mesmerized by the warm reception of the audience to all the musical events, as well as by the great work the music school was doing with all their students.” The event inspired the idea for the Bendada Music Festival.
The festival takes place over the course of eight days. It includes voice lessons and masterclasses in piano, violin, viola, cello, clarinet, flute, brass, guitar, voice, and choir. The organizers invite students to participate and perform in concerts that take place in recital halls and various cultural locations, as well as outdoor activities aimed at exploring the city’s culture and history. With more than 60 participants, the second edition of the festival received more than double the number of students who participated in the first.
Virtuoso Solosists’ time at Boston University has helped their success with the festival. Andrade and Carpenedo took a Cultural Entrepreneurship course with Professor Wendy Grossman from the Arts Administration program through the Metropolitan College. Because of this program, Professor Grossman’s insight and mentorship played an important role in their success as artists and festival organizers. They believe one of the best aspects of the doctoral program offered through CFA is the opportunity to take courses outside of the School of Music.
The ensemble expressed their gratitude for the support and encouragement from the BU CFA community. This unique project promoted collaborations between BU graduate students, alumni, and faculty, providing an enriching professional experience with real-life applications of the entrepreneurial values that they learned during their time at CFA.
They are planning next year’s festival, where they will continue giving Bendada’s eager music students “the opportunity to continue their musical studies during the summer, giving them a chance to share meaningful experiences with other young musicians from the rest of the country and abroad, as well as to promote this region in the interior of Portugal that has been suffering from lack of opportunities, cultural activities and even attention from the Portuguese government for its development.”
What is the Spark Grant?
The Spark Grant empowers graduate students outside of the classroom by supporting their efforts to fund a project that activates and engages the community. In the spring, finalists pitch their ideas to their peers. One project winner receives a $1,000 grant to kick-start their project or launch a fully-realized artistic collaboration. Learn more at bu.edu/cfa/spark-grant.