Music, Culture and Knowledge

The importance of the twelfth edition of the Madeira International Organ Festival cannot be overemphasized. It attests to the vitality of a classical music Festival with its own merit and programmatic consistency, testimony of the public responsibility in promoting coherent projects, with a positive impact on the conservation, valorisation and dissemination of heritage in the Autonomous Region of Madeira, in the field of organ building.

The Festival consists of ten consecutive days (something rare nowadays) with unique concerts in the churches and convents of Madeira, celebrating an artistic and cultural heritage with unique features, presenting historically informed concerts accessible to the general public, with varied repertoires, the result of the diversity and characteristics of the Region’s organ heritage.

The Madeira International Organ Festival is an undeniable touristic and cultural attraction of national and international reference, for its exemplary involvement with the community, the distinctive quality of its programme and the context provided for knowledge based on music and cultural heritage. Music, like science, questions, listens and silences. At this Festival we don’t just try to listen to the sound of the organs. More than just about listening, it is, above all, about providing qualified listening experiences, learning through listening, listening to discover other worlds and other musics - following, in fact, the theme of the 2023 edition “the organ and other music”.

It is, therefore, interculturality, diversity and knowledge that we talk about, when we talk about the 12th Madeira International Organ Festival, a true «ocean of sonorities» with organists and artistic ensembles from Portugal, Spain, Italy, Brazil and Uruguay.

I thank, in a very grateful way, the collaboration that has been maintained with the Diocese of Funchal and the total availability of all the Churches involved, as well as I also recognise the dedication and competence of Professor João Vaz, artistic director of the Festival, who for more than a decade has made much of his time and knowledge available, contributing to the privileged place that the Madeira International Organ Festival occupies today in the national and European musical panorama.

EDUARDO JESUS
REGIONAL SECRETARY FOR TOURISM AND CULTURE

The organ and other musics

Created in 2010 and operating uninterruptedly since then (with the exception of the period dominated by the pandemic), the Madeira International Organ Festival reaches its twelfth edition this year. The inclusion, from now on, of the adjective “international” in its designation is not intended to reflect any change in the orientation followed over the past years, on the contrary, it highlights something that has always been present from the beginning. In fact, throughout all previous editions, internationality became evident, both due to the different nationalities of the performers and the variety of origins of the repertoire presented. Furthermore – and perhaps more important than that – the international nature of the festival is evident, right from the start, in the instruments themselves: open to multiple influences, given its geographical situation, Madeira reflects this openness to the world in its organ heritage, revealing Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and English characteristics.

The theme of this edition of the Madeira International Organ Festival is «the organ and other musics». Although intended for centuries to accompany the liturgy, the organ (both the music written for it and the instrument itself) has always tried to approach other instruments and other music. Indeed, if the 19th-century Romantic organ tried to imitate the sound of a symphonic orchestra, the Renaissance organ sought to imitate vocal polyphony or the dances of minstrels, and the colonial organ absorbed the influences of the New World. This search for «other music» has led, over the centuries, to the production of a sometimes surprising repertoire that helps to underline the richness and unique character of the «king of instruments». It is this diversity that this edition of the Madeira International Organ Festival intends to bring to the audience.

A wide range of artists and ensembles, from Portugal, Spain, Italy, Brazil and Uruguay, present music permeated by the most varied influences – from dance to opera, from vocal polyphony to chamber music, from the archaic sounds of Codex Faenza to the porteño flavour from the music of Astor Piazolla. Once again, the main protagonists of the festival are the organs – historic and contemporary – of Madeira.

JOÃO VAZ
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

A music itinerary to discover some of the most emblematic historical organs in Madeira.
From October 13th to 22nd, 10 concerts in 8 churches, all with free entry.
Madeira International Organ Festival, an ocean of sounds.