Upcoming Event: 🎶 Celebrating Portugal At Folk Alliance International’s Annual Conference

Tuesday, 04 February 2025 06:50.PM
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- FAI 2025’s Country Focus - Portugal features six Official Artist Showcases, a panel on Portuguese regional chordophone instruments, and Private Showcases from four additional Portuguese artists. -

FAI 2025’s Country Focus - Portugal features six Official Artist Showcases, a panel on Portuguese regional chordophone instruments, and Private Showcases from four additional Portuguese artists.

Portugal best known as the home of fado, also boasts a rich folk roots tradition that is currently producing exciting interpretations of the genre from electro folk and rock, pop and alternative indie. The nation’s musical diversity which reaches through and beyond regional music traditions has been selected as Folk Alliance International’s (FIA) Country Focus program. Celebrating exemplary regions where folk music is incubated and exported at the highest level, FAI is the leading and largest nonprofit dedicated to serving, strengthening, and engaging the global folk music community through preservation, promotion, and presentation. The thirty-seventh annual conference takes place at the Sheraton Hotel from February 19-23, 2025, in Montreal, Quebec.

Presented in collaboration with Why Portugal, FIA’s Portugal Country Focus will present a deeper look at some of Portugal’s musical traditions as they are practiced by contemporary artists, with six Official Artist Showcases, a panel on Portuguese regional chordophone instruments, and Private Showcases from five additional Portuguese artists.

The Mais 5 Showcase Room will also feature the music of Portugal’s renowned singer-songwriter JOSÉ AFONSO and the vinyl LP re-issues of his recorded works on the Mais 5 label. There will also be information about the WANDERER SONGS project including a documentary and concert film from the residency in the Açores in April 2024, that celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution.

The not to be missed panel entitled “Lusitanian Chordophones: Portuguese folk traditions on the brink of extinction” tells the history – and the quasi-disappearance – of Portuguese folk music, particularly the medieval instruments, Portuguese violas including the Amarantina, Beiroa, Braguesa, Campaniça, Terceira and Toeira which all have different strings, and different tunings, and. The session will be moderated by Nuno Saraiva (Lusitanian Music Publishing) with panelists to include Vasco Ribeiro Casais (OMIRI), António Bexiga (RAIA), Marta Pereira da Costa, and João Morais (O Gajo).

Performers hosting official showcases include:

"one of the most exciting live groups in Portuguese music" (in Blitz), RETIMBRAR. The collective features vigorous movement, performed by an eight-piece orchestra that focuses on the use of Portuguese drums and rhythms that pave the way to a repertoire of original pieces rooted in the diversity of the national folklore and its chanting traditions - a new sound they like to name as TugaBeat. Their latest album was in the spotlight of Songlines magazine, World Music Charts Europe and Transglobal World Music Chart.

Portuguese Swedish Chordophone Collective, LUSITANIAN GHOSTS use ancient Portuguese folk instruments, the Violas Amarantina, Braguesa, Campaniça, Terceira, to write contemporary songs written from a humanist singer-songwriter perspective. Lusitanian Ghosts have performed at venues and festivals in Portugal, Germany, Sweden and Finland, releasing three critically acclaimed albums in the last 6 years. A digital compilation for the Canadian and US markets, "Chordophone Rock n Roll" will be released on February 19th with a new single “On and On” available worldwide on February 14, 2025.

A compellingly original artist, OMIRI takes samples of traditional songs and original video footage captured across Portugal and performs by mixing the sound and video of said performances. These performances are transfixing and mix already-forgotten musical practices, making them permeable and accessible to the culture of our day, synchronizing forms and music of Portuguese rural tradition with the language of the urban culture.

Having studied classical music and jazz in Portugal, the United States, and Italy, JOANA ALEGRE has built a strong career including singing on Portugal’s The Voice and semi-finalist status in the International Song Contest. She is currently promoting her third studio album ''LUAS'', featuring the singles 'Nó', 'Ciclotímica',- nominated for "Song Of The Year" 2023 at the International Portuguese Music Award, 'Rosa Carne', ‘Copo Cheio’, ‘Lógica Astral’ and ‘Desdita’, with a baroque pop and electronic sound, mixing her Portuguese roots with dreamlike epic spaces and atmospheres.

Guitarist and composer, JOÃO DIOGO LEITÃO challenges tradition and aesthetic barriers through an innovative approach to one of the most fascinating traditional Portuguese instruments, the “viola braguesa.” The resulting music is haunting and exists in a genre somewhere between folk music and atmospheric classical expressions.

Fado guitar virtuoso MARTA PEREIRA DA COSTA’s introduction to the Portuguese guitar came through Carlos Gonçalves, guitarist for Amália Rodrigues. A storied career has followed including a key role in"A Música e a Guitarra - Clube de Fado," (Best Album of 2005 by Songlines magazine), global tours, and NPR’s prestigious Tiny Desk Concert.

Portugal’s private showcases will feature a WHY Portugal room as well as a Lusitanian / Mais 5 label room, featuring the six official showcase artists plus another five private showcase artists:

RAIA is the innovative solo project of Portuguese musician António Bexiga, also known as Tó-Zé Bexiga. This project is a captivating exploration of the viola campaniça, a traditional Portuguese string instrument, blending its rich heritage with modern experimental sounds and electronic influences. António, hailing from the Alentejo region, draws inspiration from the cultural tapestry of the Raia, the borderland between Portugal and Spain. His music is a fusion of traditional Iberian roots and contemporary styles, creating a unique soundscape that resonates with audiences. António's performances often include live loops and percussions, sometimes accompanied by live illustrations, adding a visual dimension to his auditory art. A new video/single will be released this month, and a brand-new album is slated for a Spring 2025 release.

BICHO CARPINTEIRO is a collaboration between two Lisbon based musicians who have origins in the Beira Baixa and Ribatejo regions. They play two almost extinct traditional guitars: Viola Beiroa and Viola Toeira, mixing them with beats, synthesizers and voice samples taken from collections made by Michel Giacometti and Ernesto Veiga de Oliveira in rural Portugal in the 60s. With their debut album just released, they perform live with a show worthy of any dance club, where lights and video contribute to the amplification of their artistic vision which speak deeply with the Portuguese identity.

O GAJO was born in Lisbon in the spring of 2016 by guitarist João Morais as a means of exploring and re-inventing the potential of the viola campaniça guitar. His innovative work has earned a coveted “INATEL Award” at the Iberian Festival Awards in 2024 for innovation in Portuguese Popular Music and invitations to perform across Europea including at EUROSONIC (Netherlands), REEPERBAHN (Germany) in 2019, Festival IMATERIAL and WOMEX in 2021, at MUMI (Spain) in 2023 and on stages throughout Finland, Macau and Poland, and more recently two concert tours in Brazil. A new album “Trovoada is expected in March 2025 featuring band performances with percussion, bass, accordions, voice, cavaquinho and bagpipes.

LAVOISIER is a Portuguese Folk duo influenced by the whole world of sensations that music can bring along, and while sharing the same spirit of the Tropicalistas, Michel Giacometti and Fernando Lopes Graça, they head towards their own musical expression, with no fears and no preconceptions about anything. All that and a great passion of the songs of José Afonso, as witnessed via their participation in the Wanderer Songs collective.

Singer, songwriter, guitarist, producer and avid student of folk music traditions, PS LUCAS has been refining the art of making songs for some time, from electro-folklore extravaganza O Experimentar to being the younger half of the Medeiros / Lucas duo and now a key member of the Wanderer Songs collective. "In Between", the solo debut, carried the echoes of the modern age masters of songwriting - from Cohen to Callahan, from Drake to Brassens - but with a signature very much of his own. The newly released Villains & Chieftains is yet another quiet revolution, and one that keeps stirring the hearts of its listeners.

Folk Alliance International (FAI), the premier global nonprofit dedicated to folk music features a dynamic lineup of over 300 panels, roundtables, discussions, film screenings, Official Showcase performances, meet-ups, and more. With over 175 Official Showcases and 125 additional events, the 2025 conference promises to be one of the most robust and diverse gatherings in FAI’s history.

The Portugal Country mission is presented in partnership with Why Portugal with the support of Dgartes and Fundação GDA via its International Showcase Program. WHY Portugal is supported by Fundação GDA and Audiogest.

SOURCE: STARVOX Entertainment

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