Between 13 and 15 October, the UMinho Cultural Council will be organizing the 7th edition of the Autumn Festival, which includes more twenty activities, ranging from music, drama and literature to poetry and guided tours. This initiative aims to display the cultural dynamics on offer in Braga and Guimarães, especially to newcomer students.
The Orchestra of the University of Minho gave the opening concert at the Paço dos Duques de Bragança, in Guimarães. The ceremony also featured a shadow theater called "E assim nasceu Guimarães”, held at the Alberto Sampaio Museum, and a thematic discussion panel, which took place at the Institute of Design, with Angelo Martingo, from the UMinho’s Department of Music, Rodrigo Teodoro, from the Ibero-American Young Musicologists Meeting, and Paulo Pinto, from the Guimarães City Hall. Elsewhere, in Braga, the Lúcio Craveiro da Silva Library hosted the lecture "Literature and World Reading" with writers João Pedro Messeder and Delmer Gonçalves, Carlos Pazos, from UMinho and Renato Epifânio, from the University of Lisbon. There was also a jazz concert by the Iago Fernández quartet at the Nogueira da Silva Museum (MNS). This concert will take place later today at 21.30, at the House Museum of Monção.
At the same time, on the staircases of Braga Parque shopping centre, the Orchestra of the University of Minho will premiere their repertoire of Latin American music within the scope of the Ibero-American Youth Capital 2016. At the same time, the Rectorate building will welcome concerts by Aziza Brahim – an activist who lived in a refugee camp and is one of the most influential composers of the Western Sahara – South African guitarist Derek Gripper and Batida, a Portuguese-Angolan group which mixes kuduro and semba. For those interested, it will also be possible to listen to Aziza Brahim and Batida speaking about the power of music in contemporary society, at 18.00 at the café A Brasileira. Or even attend the one-day International Colloquium dedicated to Maria Ondina Braga, at the MNS.
On Saturday there will be several Afro-Peruvian music workshops, staged poetry and reading sessions on multiculturalism, a unique percussion performance by the Chamber Orchestra Arte Sinfónica and a lecture on the roots and the future of Portuguese music. The Syrian artist Omar Souleyman also takes the stage of the medieval hall of the Rectorate building at 21:30. The evening will end with performances from the Afro-Peruvian project Crocodilo Criollo and Fandango group.
Reconciling cultural heritage with contemporary art
The programme also incorporates guided tours of cultural spaces in Braga and Guimarães, including the MNS, Public Library and the District Archive of Braga, Alto da Cividade Thermae, Biscainhos Museum, D. Diogo de Sousa Museum, Domus Escola Velha da Sé (old Cathedral), Fonte do Ídolo, Tower of Santiago, the Sociedade Martins Sarmento Archaeological Museum, Paço dos Duques and Alberto Sampaio Museum. Registration can be made via the following email at ccultural@reitoria.uminho.pt.
The Autumn Festival combines aspects of proprietary cultural and artistic heritage that are cared and managed by the UMinho, by connecting such heritage with the history of the two cities where it is based and contemporary creation alike. According to Eduarda Keating, the president of the Cultural Council of UMinho, this seventh edition actually shows the growth and maturity of the festival, thanks to the extraordinary diversity of proposals on offer, the times, as well as the themes and partnerships involved, such as the Academic Association of UMinho and RUM, the University’s radio station.
+Info: facebook.com/events/632072780303759, ccultural@reitoria.uminho.pt
www.conselhocultural.uminho.pt,
facebook.com/uminhooficial,
www.rum.pt,
www.aaum.pt
