The “Concert by Laureates of the Young Musicians Prize 2010,” which integrated this year’s Music Season, promoted by the Regional Government of the Azores through the Regional Directorate of Culture, will be broadcast on RTP-2 on January 2, 2011 at 3:30 PM (Azores local time).
Accompanied by the Gulbenkian Orchestra, under the artistic direction of maestro Osvaldo Ferreira, the laureates performed at the Teatro Micaelense on October 2 in a concert that was broadcast live by Antena 2.
The event was also integrated in the celebrations of the Centennial of the Republic in the Azores, which also featured the world premiere of the symphonic work “Centenário da República” (Centennial of the Republic) by Filipe Pires, having been commissioned by the President of the Regional Government of the Azores, through the Regional Directorate of Culture, for this purpose.
Composed during the first half of 2010, this work evokes the various stages which characterised the revolutionary process that lead to the implementation of the Republic in Portugal: the English ultimatum and the subsequent political and social turmoil, the regicide and the proclamation of the Republic (with musical references to the monarchic and republican anthems), and the election of the first Presidents of the Portuguese Republic: Manuel de Arriaga, from Faial, and Teófilo Braga, from São Miguel Island (with references to two popular songs from Faial and São Miguel).
In addition to this world premiere and the concert by laureates, the Gulbenkian Gulbenkian Orchestra played the first movement of a Sonatina for piano (unfinished), written in 1902 by Azorean composer Francisco de Lacerda, with orchestration by Christopher Bochmann, as well as works by Séjourné, Joaquin Rodrigo, Mendelssohn, Arutunian, Rossini and Mahler.
This concert featured laureates Nuno Simões (marimba), Marina Camponês (flute), Marco Carneiro (trumpet), André Gaio Lima (violin) and Susana Milena Ferreira (soprano), who also won the “Maestro Silva Pereira Special Prize,” awarded to best soloist.
The 2010 Music Season is an initiative of the Presidency of the Azores Regional Government carried out by the Regional Directorate of Culture, under the artistic direction of Emanuel Frazão, being co-produced by the Portuguese Musical Youth. Due to the cooperation between RTP, Antena 2, the Regional Government and the Music Department of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the Young Musicians Prize left Mainland Portugal for the first time in 23 years.