A harp concert, with harpist Helena Madeira, will take place on Easter Sunday, April 4th, at 16 pm, from the Igreja da Misericórdia in Lagoa, with online transmission only.
Inserted in the program of Semana Santa Lagoa'2021 and in the first edition of the Algarve Harpa Festival, the concert is organized by Ideias do Levante – Associação Cultural de Lagoa, in partnership with the Municipality of Lagoa and with the support of Santa Casa da Misericórdia local.
The harpist will interpret various sacred/religious themes by Alfonso X (1221-1284), D. Dinis (1291-1325), John Newton (1725-1807), Teodoro Cottrau (1827-1879), among others.
This online event is free to participate and recommended for ages 6+. The concert will be broadcast via Facebook page of the Municipality of Lagoa.
The Algarve Harp Festival is produced by Ideias do Levante, in partnership with several municipalities in the Algarve. In each edition, the collection of donations is proposed to help non-profit institutions in the Algarve in the area of social and human support.
This year, the funds collected revert to the benefit of Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lagoa and SOS Oncológico, a non-profit association, with a regional scope, which aims to support cancer patients and caregivers.
The first edition of the festival will take place from April to October, via online and/or in person, in various municipalities in the Algarve, with concerts and/or workshops being planned in Albufeira, Lagoa, Loulé, among others.
Harpist Helena Madeira (Lisbon, 1981) has a degree in Anthropology and Italian Language, having started the study of lyrical singing with Fernando Serafim at Juventude Musical Portuguesa in 2004, attending, from 2007 on, the course of Singing and Harp at the National Conservatory.
Despite having studied at the Hot Club Jazz School in Lisbon, Helena Madeira defines herself mostly as self-taught and in a constant search for techniques and influences.
He participated in seminars on Singing with Lúcia Lemos, Claire Honigsbaum, Cathérine Rey, Meredith Monk and Jill Purce (London), and on Harp, at the International Harp Festival in Edinburgh since 2009, dedicating himself to the study of Music Therapy ever since.
She recorded her first album in 2004 as a singer in the band Dazkarieh and, from 2006 to 2014, was the vocalist for the world music band MU, with whom she recorded the album Casanostra in 2008 (Carlos Paredes Award 2009) and Leafs That Burn in 2012.
They performed live in Spain, London, Sweden, Romania, Malaysia and India. At the end of 2014 he presented his first solo album From the voice of the baobab, album that led her to play in Spain, Brazil and Cape Verde, and in February 2020 she returned with Divergent Scenario, to the roots of Portuguese music, where the harp assumes itself as the sovereign queen in musical composition.
In addition to her work as a composer, she was invited to various musical partnerships, namely, alongside pianist Artur Guimarães, and singer Sofia Escobar, in 2016, at the Hotel Ritz, in Lisbon.
The Misericórdia Church, in Lagoa, where the Easter Sunday harp concert will take place, was presumably built between 1521 and 1525.
Having as patron Nossa Senhora da Visitação, it is located in the heart of the urban fabric. The façade, rebuilt after the damage caused by the 1755 earthquake, has a scalloped pediment framed by two voluminous pinnacles, with a shield surmounted by a royal crown in relief at the centre, which replaced the more ornate one.
Its interior, with a rectangular plan and wooden and tiled roof in place of the original vault, is decorated with XNUMXth century tile panels and a frieze of flowered crocuses framed by baroque foliage.
In the chancel, you can see an exquisite altarpiece in gilded woodwork, a work from the end of the XNUMXth century, where a beautiful image of the Crucified Lord is framed.
Also noteworthy are the images, placed in niches painted in red, of S. João Baptista and Santa Isabel, Queen of Portugal, both from the XNUMXth century. Among other aspects of the history of Misericórdia de Lagoa, it is worth mentioning the existence of an ancient alley.
Solidarity Concert:
This concert in Lagoa aims not only to promote the repertoire around the harp, but also the religious/architectural heritage of the Municipality of Lagoa and raise funds for the Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Lagoa, through transfer to IBAN PT50 0045 7060 4000 7642 2115 1
More information, by clicking here.
Throughout the festival, there is a fundraising campaign for SOS Oncológico.
Donations can be made by bank transfer to IBAN PT50 0045 7060 4026 3428 0357 3
More information about SOS Oncology by clicking here.
Discover the entire musical program of Semana Santa Lagoa'2021:
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