XII INTERNATIONAL VOICE COMPETITION and FESTIVAL City of Trujillo 2008 | |
For several years ILAMS has been associated with the Trujillo International Singing Competition, offering a London debut recital to the First Prize winner of each year.
RULES AND REGULATIONS
OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
The Center of Cultural Promotion and the Municipality of the Province of Trujillo announce the 12nd International Singing Competition City of Trujillo, a unique event in Latin America, which will be held from 29th October to 8th November 2008 in Trujillo, Peru, with the aim to promote young singers who wish to exhibit their artistic and vocal merits, and also to contribute to their discovery and international recognition. The Festival also aims to increase the interest in Classical Singing and Music especially in Latin America.
For more information, please refer to:
CENTRO DE PROMOCIÓN CULTURAL TRUJILLO
X CONCURSO Y FESTIVAL INTERNACIONAL DE CANTO LIRICO
Fernando de Montesinos 220 Urb. El Sol
Trujillo-Perú (this is also the POSTAL ADDRESS OF THE COMPETITION)
Email: cantolirico@ceprocut.org
WEBSITE: www.concursotrujillo.org (see our LINKS site)
Telefax: +51-044-299751 | |
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Death of Brazilian singer and guitarist Olga Praguer Coelho | |
Guitarist Fabio Zanon writes from Sao Paulo, Brazil:
I am sad to report the death of Brazilian singer and guitarist Olga Praguer Coelho on February 25 in Rio de Janeiro. She would have been 99 in August.
Usually labelled as a folkloric singer, Olga was one of the most important Brazilian artists of the 20th century; actually I find incorrect to confine her art to the realms of folk music as she was actually a fully trained lyric singer and an far above the average classical guitarist. Born in Manaus in 1909 and raised in Salvador, her family moved to Rio in 1923, where she started to learn the guitar and to educate her voice. She made her first recordings in 1930 and soon became a radio celebrity; a few years later she started to perform accompanying herself on the guitar with astonishing skill.
After her triumph at a congress of folk music in Berlin, the Brazilian government chose her as an official cultural ambassador and, together with her husband, the poet Gaspar Coelho, she travelled extensively and became an international celebrity. The critic of the New York Times said she was by far the best folk singer he had ever heard. On the top of that she had a charming and extroverted personality, sense of humour and personal magnetism, and was blessed with a privileged vocal condition and tremendous good looks.
From 1944 she left her husband and started a relationship with Andres Segovia, which was to last for over a decade. She went to live with him in New York, from where she continued to develop her international career. Segovia wrote several arrangements for her, which gave her opportunity to display serious skills as a guitarist.
Her career lasted until the 70s, when she came back to Brazil to live in an apartment block built on the site of her family residence. As she grew older, she also fell in relative obscurity.
Olga used to perform on a Hauser I guitar believed to be a sister of Segovia's celebrated instrument. She is frequently mentioned as the very first guitarist to give a concert on nylon strings. She was a larger than life character and met literally every important international artist between 1930 and 70. Her source of anecdotes was inexhaustible. She flew to the Berlin Olympic Games in 1936 on board of a Zeppelin; she performed for Mussolini and was friends with Roosevelt, she was a neighbour of Horowitz and had fun with Salvador Dali; Villa Lobos wrote the arrangement of his own Bachianas no.5 for her the request of Segovia and Bartok was on the front row to see her in Budapest. She was also a staunch supporter of young artists and one would be surprised to learn of the helping hand she offered to some of the greatest artists of today.
As a personal recollection, she came to one of my last concerts in Rio and, in spite of being almost blind, acted as someone 40 years younger. Very coquettish, she said Andres would have loved my playing but would have disapproved of the faces I pulled while playing!
Everybody who attended her concerts will comment on her seductive presentation. Anyone who came close to her will have dozens of anecdotes to tell. If there is a heaven, the angels with have more fun from now on.
Her recordings are very rare now, and as far as I can tell they have never been transfered onto CD, but one can hear two tracks on one of my radio programmes, which can be downloaded from this site: http://vcfz.blogspot.com/2006/11/46-mulheres-e-o-violo-ii.html
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NEW PUBLICATIONS (March 2008) | |
ILAMS IS DELIGHTED TO ANNOUNCE TWO NEW PUBLICATIONS:
(1) THE LAST JOURNEY OF ENRIQUE GRANADOS, by David Walton
David Walton, an expert in all things "Granados" and "Maritimes", explores to the last detail, the great Spanish composer's death, drowned with his wife in the English Channel, when the boat when which they was traveling, during World War I, was torpedoed.
This erudite essay, comes translated into both,
Spanish - by Clara Walton and
Catalan - by Helena Massip.
(2) THE ENIGMA OF ATLANTIDA, by Andrés Ruíz Tarazona
Another enlightened study, this time by the famous Spanish musicologist, who brings out, in all detail, the mystery surrounding ATLANTIDA, the Masterpiece Falla never managed to complete.
Included in the publication is the English translation by Helen Glaisher-Hernández and Ruíz Tarazona's original Spanish.
If you want to acquire these two wonderful editions, we kindly ask you for a bit of patience. We are in the process of uploading prices and ways of payment for the UK, Europe and rest of the world and they will SOON appear hereby below.
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Spain meeting (February 2008) | |
By an extraordinary coincidence, our chairman, Alberto Portugheis, in Madrid for two concerts, met in the streets of the Spanish capital with Spanish composer Mercedes Zavala, a friend of Alberto's. However, Mercedes was accompanied by a bearded man Alberto didn't know. He was happily surprised, when Mercedes introduced the two men. The bearded man was none other than composer and pianist Juan María Solare, who Alberto had already engaged to play a concert for our Society later this year (October,10th, 2008). This meeting by chance was captured in the picture attached below.
Alberto was in Madrid to present the music of Alberto Ginastera, Spanish composer Elena Romero and her composition teacher, Joaquín Turina.
It is in the ILAMS' future plans to present Elena Romero's music to the British public.
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