Since 2021, the Festival has offered unforgettable concerts, sold out by an enthusiastic, multigenerational audience, featuring some of the finest international orchestras—from Vienna, Paris, Saint Petersburg, and Venice—renowned figures of the global music scene such as Anna Samuil, Gérard Caussé, Diana Tischenko, Mario Hossen, Pascal Moraguès, and Victor Julien-Laferrière, among others, as well as unmissable national artists like António Victorino d’Almeida, Pedro Caldeira Cabral, and Sete Lágrimas, alongside some of the greatest talents of the emerging generation.

Between 27 September and 11 October, Bragança once again becomes the epicenter of classical music with the 5th Bragança Classic Fest, nationally and internationally recognized as a landmark cultural event, celebrating musical excellence in community and contributing to the vitality and development of a unique region, full of charm and potential.

One of the major highlights of this edition is the decentralization of the program within the Municipality of Bragança: the Opening Concert will take place at the Basilica of Santo Cristo de Outeiro, a national monument since 1927 and the only basilica located in a Portuguese village. On 27 September, the prestigious ensemble Arte Minima, under the direction of Pedro Sousa Silva, will present the program The Golden Age of Portuguese Music, dedicated to composers of the 16th and 17th centuries.

Also for the first time, the Teatro Municipal de Bragança will host three major orchestral concerts. Two of them will be performed by the Orquestra Sinfónica do Principado das Astúrias (OSPA), returning to the Festival after the great success achieved in 2023. Under the direction of its principal conductor, Nuno Coelho, OSPA will be the protagonist of the World Music Day Concert on 1 October, featuring the Overture to Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute and Beethoven’s famous “Eroica” Symphony, thus continuing the complete cycle of symphonies by the “genius of Bonn” initiated in the Festival’s 3rd edition. On 2 October, the program will present two masterpieces of Musical Romanticism: Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony and Beethoven’s Triple Concerto.

Another highly anticipated moment is the concert on 11 October by the Orquestra Philharmonia Frankfurt, performing in Portugal for the first time, under the direction of conductor Juri Gilbo and featuring soloist Vladislav Lavrik, one of the leading trumpeters of today, also making his debut in our country – thus closing the Festival on a high note.

Among the outstanding musicians of this edition are the Swiss violinist Esther Hoppe, who will perform on her 1722 Stradivarius “De Ahna” violin, the Norwegian violist Lars Anders Tomter, and the Swiss cellist Christian Poltéra, who will take centre stage in the concert by the renowned DSCH Schostakovich Ensemble on 4 October.

The Festival further strengthens the dialogue between Music and Heritage—a defining hallmark of the Classic Fest since its first edition—with three concerts at the Church of São Francisco: on 3 October, the Ensemble L’Amoureux Empire (1st Prize in Baroque Music at the Prémio Jovens Músicos 2024) presents a programme dedicated to the Italian Baroque repertoire; on 9 October, the Quartz Quintet, led by the Bragança-born violinist David Seixas, offers a musical journey from Piazzolla to the 21st century; and on 10 October, the Juventus Ensemble unveils a programme featuring two masterpieces of chamber music, Dvořák’s “American” Quartet and Schumann’s Piano Quintet.

In parallel, the Bragança Classic Fest continues to develop its educational axis, promoting masterclasses at the Bragança Conservatory of Music and Dance and open rehearsals at the Municipal Theatre, aimed at musicians and students from the region.