The Government of the Azores, through the Regional Directorate for Culture, promotes Saturday, April 2, a concert by Lira Açoriana Regional Orchestra on Graciosa Island, which marks the beginning of the Artistic Season 2016.
 
This concert will take place at Santa Cruz da Graciosa Cultural Centre. It culminates with the first 2016 training course of Lira Açoriana Project, which resumed the activity of the Lira Açoriana Regional Orchestra last year on the initiative of the Regional Directorate for Culture.
 
Overall, this training course, which began on March 28, was attended 48 young Azorean musicians and 11 teachers under the artistic direction of maestro Henrique Piloto.
 
This year, the Lira Project will organise a second training course to take place on São Miguel from August 29 to September 4. The event will close with a public presentation concert.
 
The concert that will take place Saturday features pieces representing various periods of music history and the performance of Lira Açoriana will be accompanied by an explanation provided by maestro Henrique Piloto.
 
The Artistic Season 2016, which will be held between April and September, was organised by themes in accordance with artistic genre and its performers.
 
Thus, the projects cover the fields of music, dance, theatre and puppetry, being scheduled in mini-cycles on themed weekends. In the specific case of music, they are organised into chamber music, woodwind groups, orchestras, solo piano, jazz, early music, plucked strings, opera and singing.
 
The programme of the Artistic Season 2016 features a significant number of excellent musicians, dancers and actors, the majority of whom already have solid careers within and outside the Region and will be joined by emerging talents. This initiative aims to promote and disseminates the arts in the Azores, with scheduled performances in all municipalities of the archipelago.
 
The Regional Directorate for Culture informs that this and other events may be consulted in the Cultural Agenda of CulturAçores Portal at the following address: www.culturacores.azores.gov.pt.