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5 Cultural Suggestions: Martim Sousa Tavares

Once a week, UMBIGO invites one person to share their 5 cultural suggestions. What can we do at home? From a book to a podcast, album or film: here are recommendations from artists, curators, gallery owners, cultural activists, friends.

We will share what makes us better, to remain united and positive.

Umbigo has been publishing this section since the beginning of the pandemic.

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Theatre

Maratona de Manifestos [Manifest Marathon]
Isabel Costa / Os Possessos
Teatro Municipal do Porto

Considering how much we have missed the privilege of going to the theatre, I choose a show that is part of FITEI, proposed by Os Possessos, that seeks the intimacy between artists and audience, which I think is so missed and craved after a harsh lockdown.

Music

Maratonas com orquestra de bolso
Orquestra Sem Fronteiras

Still about marathons, because endurance in arts is something beautiful, and because we are absolutely eager, I suggest catching Orquestra Sem Fronteiras on a tour that will last four consecutive weekends, in several villages of the region of Beira Interior, playing music by the Finnish composer E. Rautavaara. A local premiere, but also a national one. A programme that could have happened in any city in the country, but that we prefer to take to the villages, decentralizing the access to culture.

Book

Dobra
Adília Lopes
Assírio & Alvim

I recently ordered many books by Adília Lopes from Poetria, to support the network of independent booksellers, but also to start entering the fascinating world of our poet, in preparation for creative work with music and theatre next year. [Portuguese only]

Film

Burnt By The Sun
Nikita Mikhalkov
1994

As I have recently been preparing concerts with Russian music, I have fallen in love with Russian culture and language. I even decided to make a screening of this film, after the rehearsals with the orchestra, for all the musicians to have access to fundamental aspects of 20th century Russian identity. This allows a deeper interpretation of the repertoires. It’s a wonderful film, full of the tragic beauty that art can create from dreadful events, like those that happened in the USSR in the last century.

Art

Collections du Louvre

Considering the recent news that the Louvre Museum has made its collection fully available online, almost one million works, we continue to see some positive effects of COVID-19 as an accelerator of the transition to digital. This change does not mean a replacement of physical reality, but a complement. In that sense, it is an extraordinarily rich resource, which shows everyone what actually belongs to everyone.

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Martim Sousa Tavares is the founder and director of Orquestra Sem Fronteiras, coordinator of educational projects of Movimento Patrimonial pela Música Portuguesa, author of the weekly programme A Lira de Orfeu on Antena 2, artistic director of the cycle A Boca do Lobo, with monthly classical music concerts at Lux Frágil in Lisbon, programming consultant of the candidacy programme of Aveiro’s candidacy to European Capital of Culture in 2027. Martim Sousa Tavares is trained in Musical Sciences and Orchestra Direction in Lisbon, Milan and Chicago. He concluded the course with academic honours and with Fulbright and Eckstein Foundation scholarships.

He has worked with orchestras from seven countries, promoting a plural repertoire with the world premiere of contemporary works rescued from ancient music.

He is an active voice in the dissemination of classical music, regenerating and multiplying approaches and contacts with this art form. He has participated as a speaker in different contexts, including the cycle Ouvidos para a Música, conceived by him for Temporada de Música in S. Roque, TedX Aveiro, Nova SBE University, among others.

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