29 MAY to 21 JUNE 2024
Almada, Portugal
Artistic Director: Filipe Pinto-Ribeiro

Capuchos Festival 2024

Welcome to the 2024 edition of the Capuchos Music Festival!

In this year of 2024, in which we celebrate the 50th anniversary of April 25th, the Capuchos Music Festival is inspired by the idea(s) of Freedom throughout the History of Music.

Between May 29 and June 21, the Capuchos Music Festival will bring to Almada nationally and internationally renowned musicians and orchestras for a series of unmissable concerts, at the venue that gives the Festival its name, the Convento dos Capuchos, as well as at the Teatro Municipal Joaquim Benite and, for the first time, at the Auditório Fernando Lopes-Graça.

Renowned artists and ensembles will be present, including, from the outset, the Portuguese premiere of one of the most daring orchestral projects of recent years, the Orquestra Sinfónica de Paris “Consuelo”, which, under the direction of Victor-Julien Laferrière, will open the festival with Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, an indisputable masterpiece and a powerful evocation of the struggle against adversity and the triumph of Freedom.

Also noteworthy are the Portuguese premieres of other ensembles at the forefront of European musical innovation, such as the Paganini Ensemble of Vienna and the Berlin Chamber Orchestra “Metamorphosen”, under the direction of Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt.

Among the prominent international soloists featured in this edition, special attention goes to the legendary pianist Elisabeth Leonskaja, the German violinist Carolin Widmann, the Swiss cellist Christian Poltéra, and the young Ukrainian pianist Roman Fediurko, winner of the prestigious 2023 Horowitz International Competition, who will perform works by Chopin in what will be his debut recital in Portugal.

The national presence will be represented by leading ensembles, including the Renaissance ensemble Arte Minima and the Schostakovich Ensemble, as well as musicians such as the pianist Júlio Resende with his Fado Jazz Ensemble, conductor Martim Sousa Tavares, and violist Sofia Silva Sousa, among many others.

In terms of composition, the highlights include works by Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, Schubert, Chopin, Paganini, and Shostakovich; works by Renaissance composers, such as the Portuguese Pedro de Cristo; and the opera by Philip Glass, "In the Penal Colony", based on the eponymous short story by Franz Kafka.

It is also worth highlighting the world premiere of a new work by the award-winning Portuguese composer, based in New York, Andreia Pinto Correia, as well as the posthumous tribute concert to António Mega Ferreira, one of the most prominent figures in Portuguese culture and thought in the post-25th of April era.

The cycle of the now emblematic Conversas dos Capuchos, curated and moderated by Carlos Vaz Marques, will be dedicated to three literary anniversaries of 2024 – the centenary of the death of Franz Kafka, the centenary of the birth of Sebastião da Gama, and the 500th anniversary of Luís Vaz de Camões – featuring guests such as Alberto Manguel, José Carlos Seabra Pereira, Maria Bochichio, Nuno Amado, José Gardeazabal, and Viriato Soromenho-Marques.

In 2024, in what will be the fourth edition of the Festival de Música dos Capuchos following the 20-year hiatus between 2001 and 2020, a series of educational and awareness-raising activities initiated in the 2023 edition will also take place: pre-concert talks called Prelúdios dos Capuchos, moderated by João Almeida, director of Antena 2; a Visit to the cultural heritage of the Convento dos Capuchos, built in the 16th century; a Walk in the Protected Landscape of the Costa da Caparica Fossil Cliff, where the Convent is located; and the Masterclasses dos Capuchos, open lessons aimed at young musicians and led by professors from the Conservatories of Leipzig, Lucerne, and Helsinki.

In this fiftieth anniversary of April 25th, we celebrate the ideals of Freedom with a program that reaffirms the mission of the Festival de Música dos Capuchos as a leading event on both national and international levels, thus promoting democratic access to culture.

We extend our heartfelt thanks to all who make the realization of the Festival de Música dos Capuchos possible, first and foremost to the Câmara Municipal de Almada and its municipal services, to the Direcção-Geral das Artes, to the patron BPI/Fundação “la Caixa”, to the partners Companhia de Teatro de Almada, Âmbito Cultural do El Corte Inglés, RTP Antena 2, and to His Excellency the President of the Republic for once again granting the High Patronage.

Filipe Pinto-Ribeiro
Capuchos Festival Artistic Director