On Thursday, the Igreja da Sé received hundreds of children from the 4th year of schools in the municipality of Faro, to attend an educational concert, as part of the Algarve Organ Festival.
For many it was the first time, marked by enthusiasm, joy, excitement, attention and curiosity to see and hear «one of the oldest organs in the country», which has 300 years of history. All accompanied by adventures from various characters, to the sound of organist André Ferreira.
"For me. It's always a great joy to play this instrument. It is very special, not only in the Algarve region, I believe even in our country, and its state of conservation allows the adventure of playing this organ to be a very pleasant trip. Therefore, I always feel great enthusiasm when I have the opportunity to be here», says the musician.
According to André Ferreira, there is a responsibility mixed with joy when participating in this festival. Therefore, he considers it important for the public to discover the different sounds that these instruments are capable of transmitting. Nowadays, organs are rare and a large part of the public, especially younger people, are unaware of their sound.
The idea of this initiative is to bring children closer to organ music, making it known through concerts, a concern that was not present in the first editions of the festival and which is a concept that is intended to continue into the future.
For Paulo Silva, teacher at the EB 1 school in Marchil, this is not his debut in listening to the organ, but he always finds it interesting to attend a concert of this kind, «because it is an unusual instrument, at an architectural and engineering level» .
Carolina, António, Débora, David and Laura are some of the names of the children who attended the educational concert for the first time and found the play very interesting, highlighting their love of the music that accompanied the characters.
Organist André Ferreira argues that the Algarve needs its own space to learn this type of instruments.
«There is still a next step left in the Algarve, a place where you can learn to play the organ. To encourage taste, activities like these are important. The key is to find a place where they can learn», he concludes.
entering the last week of the Algarve Organ Festival, the Church of Santiago de Tavira hosts, on the 24th of November, Samuel Pinto presents an improvisation concert on the keyboard, with liturgical and children's themes.
Photos: Cátia Rodrigues | Sul Informação
Note: Cátia Rodrigues is a finalist for the Master's in Communication and Digital Media at the University of Algarve and is doing her internship at Sul Informação.
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