A new season for the Orquestra Clássica do Sul

By ANA TAVARES news@algarveresident.com

Orquestra do Algarve, which was recently renamed Orquestra Clássica do Sul (OCS) in a bid to broaden its horizons on the European music scene, presented its programme for the 2013-2014 season in Lisbon, at the Vila Galé Ópera hotel, on September 30.

With a budget of little more than €1 million, the OCS unveiled its plans to develop a string of new projects, which will now cover not only the Algarve but also other Portuguese southern regions, including the Alentejo and the Setúbal peninsula. With the change of name, the popular orchestra also took a step further towards internationalisation and will expand to the south of Spain, more precisely to Andalusia.

The orchestra’s maestro and artistic director Cesário Costa, who attended the press conference alongside administrator José Carlos Ferreira, president of the board Maria Cabral, associate maestro John Avery and the national general director of Arts Samuel Rego, said that the new programme followed three main goals – to turn the OCS into a dynamic cultural agent, to present new comprehensive formats and to establish new partnerships with several cultural entities.

To fulfil these goals, the maestro introduced a few new additions to the OCS team: well-known Portuguese music composer António Pinho Vargas – who was supposed to attend the conference but could not make it due to illness – will be collaborating as associate composer, as well as coordinating a workshop for young composers.

“I am very happy to have these people with such experience and know-how working with me,” said Cesário Costa.

In addition to the composer, the orchestra will also feature three new ambassadors who will help develop new projects and work alongside the OCS’s 31 musicians: Portuguese singer António Zambujo, who is expected to perform with the orchestra at a special summer concert; poet Nuno Júdice, whose work will be the basis for some of the OCS’s performances; and Andalusian writer José Trillo.

Describing his musicians as “young and energetic”, the maestro revealed that part of the orchestra’s new programme is dedicated to discovering new talents, with the organisation of an international competition for young maestros, a competition for music students of the regions covered by the OCS to find new soloists, and a workshop for new composers.

Maintaining its focus on children and families, the orchestra will also keep organising some of its classic events, such as the promenade and educational concerts. Another regular OCS event that will return in the new season is the Music in the Monuments concert series, which will once again see special performances taking place at some of the Algarve’s historic landmarks.

And, in an effort to promote its work beyond the Portuguese borders, the orchestra will also perform a string of chamber music concerts in foreign consulates based in the Algarve, as well as a tour in Angola with the help of the country’s consulate in the Algarve: “We are trying to reach a much wider foreign audience,” stressed the OCS maestro, adding that recovering the work of Portuguese composers is also a priority.

With president of the board Maria Cabral assuring that most of the orchestra’s staff issues were fully solved and that the orchestra is starting the new season with a clean slate, the OCS’s artistic director reckoned that this is a “realistic programme”.

At the end of the conference, associate maestro John Avery also highlighted that the change of name will truly allow the orchestra to expand its work: “It is not like buying at Modelo and Continente, where the only thing that changes is the bag,” he joked, adding that “Portugal should be proud to support this project”, a view shared by the general director of Arts Samuel Rego. “Mayors in these councils are lucky to count on the OCS’s professionalism and work,” he said.

The opening concert for the new season will take place today (Friday, October 4) at Igreja do Carmo church in Tavira, at 9.30pm, with a performance including the opera ‘L’oro non compra amore’, written by Marcos Portugal in 1804, and Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, amongst other works.