RUA DA ROSA 145
1200-383 LISBON
Portugal
- Arts
- Democracy and community development
- International/Cultural relations
- Youth and education
Associação Sons da Lusofonia (ASL) is a non‐profit cultural organization working on the intersections of culture, urban life and social communities in Lisbon, Portugal.
With its attitude towards innovative artistic approaches, social issues and cultural work, ASL reflects and challenges the surrounding society.
ASL is a boundary-pushing cultural organization that is working in close cooperation with the municipality of Lisbon to create a better cultural environment for citizens in Lisbon, Portugal and Europe. In all of its activities, ASL is focusing on the interaction between communities, people and arts to promote mutual understanding and collective creation.
ASL works on cultural projects that are dedicated to social and educational community work, based on music and other performing arts like dance or theatre performances. ASL aims at promoting cultural and artistic exchanges between artists from different cultural and genre backgrounds – focussing on the lusophone world that is interconnecting three continents, but also working on innovative influences from other geo-cultural areas.
The association is interested in and dedicated to different aspects of cultural work: ethnomusicology, music education, cultural and technical cooperation, conception and production of books/ CDs/ videos, concert promotion, conception of major cultural events and festivals. With its projects ASL aspires to establish Lisbon as one of the most innovative cultural and artistic hubs where the encounter of different cultural fields creates a unique landscape.
ASL has different fields of action, like research and education, interdisciplinary cooperations, publishing, promoting and production of major cultural events and festivals. Currently there ASL is running three main projects, covering the association’s core activities throughout the year.
Lisboa Mistura – Músicas do Mundo (festival)
Lisboa Mistura is an annual intercultural event. The main music program “Músicas do Mundo” is based on world music and focuses mainly on the exchange between Europe and Africa, perceiving the Mediterranean area as an important bridge between the continents. Lisboa Mistura brings international acts to Lisbon during its two-weeks duration.
Additionally to the main concert program, there are various sub-programmes: “Electrónicas do Mundo” is a new concept including electronic music/ worldtronica in collaboration with local clubs, aiming at including projects that are working on the boarders of traditional rhythms and electronic music from different parts of the world.
The festival’s sub-programme “Festa Intercultural” (engl. intercultural festival) takes place during one day of Lisboa Mistura and is dedicated to the variety of sub-cultures and communities with different cultural backgrounds that live in Lisbon. For the “Festa Intercultural” amateur and semi-professional groups are invited to present their specific cultural traditions in music and dance to the audience. This sub-programme is an example of how Lisboa Mistura is joining and involving several local communities and subcultures with international roots to promote this variety of world cultures that live specifically in the area of Greater Lisbon. By inviting them, Lisboa Mistura is emphazising Lisbon’s unique intercultural spirit of a “cidade-mundo” and is promoting its beauty and rich cultural variety not only to tourists, but also to Lisbon’s own citizens.
The new sub-programme “Cozinhas do Mundo” (engl. Cuisines of the world) is organized in cooperation with a local soup kitchen – during the festival chefs from different parts of the world present their specific culinary preferences to the festival audience.
Lisboa Mistura 2014 included 7 concerts in the main program “Músicas do Mundo” in different venues, 3 club nights in the “Electronicas do Mundo” program, 6 culinary evenings in the “Cozinhas do Mundo” program, the “Festa Intercultural”, 16 presentations with adolescentes from 6 neighborhoods as part of the educational OPA program as well as round table discussions and a 6 weeks artist residency program.
According to the goals of its organizer ASL, the festival Lisboa Mistura is always aiming at pushing awareness of the influence of cultural events and institutions within the local community and wants to establish strong local connections and interactions between Lisboa Mistura and the local urban community. The virtue of cultural work lies not only in presenting innovative artistic work, but also in linking arts with everyday public life through strategies for commitment that emphasizes art's role in urban life and politics. To do so it is crucial to find ways to integrate the festival in the urban communities and adress their specific needs with socially responsive cultural practices.
Festa do Jazz (festival)
The Portuguese national jazz festival Festa do Jazz was established in 2003 and has been dedicated to the Portuguese jazz scene ever since. The festival aims to present a selection of the best established Portuguese jazz musicians on the one hand and wants to support and present Portuguese rising jazz talents on the other – for this purpose Festa do Jazz is organizing a nationwide contest of jazz music schools. Each jazz school is invited to send their best students to the contest to compete in two categories: best jazz ensemble and best instrumentalist. The winners will be chosen by a jury consisting out of jazz professionals (artistic directors, musicians, professors, producers etc.). The best jazz ensemble will be invited to perform again at the next year’s festival edition as part of the main program. This national jazz school contest is the only one of its kind in the world of jazz and it is a unique way of fostering the Portuguese jazz scene, developing its future and create sustainable conditions.
Since the last edition, Festa do Jazz has made further steps towards advanced educational training and developing an international network for Portuguese jazz musicians by establishing international artist residency programs. Two musicians of international reputation were invited to work with Portuguese jazz students. The main goal is to internationalize the Portuguese jazz scene and to bring new energies and influences to the Portuguese jazz. The international residencies has been developed out of the rising awareness to the fact that it is increasingly important to invest in people and artistic exchanges in order to stimulate the growth of the Portuguese art scene.
Festa do Jazz takes place at the São Luiz Theatre in Lisbon in 4 venues of this theatre. During 3 days (Friday to Sunday) there are more than 25 concerts, 2 masterclasses and also a national contest, which includes around 17 bands representing music schools, invited to participate with their best jazz combos. A late night jam-session (00h00 to 02h00) completes the program at the end of each day.
OPA - Oficína Portátil de Artes (education project)
The project OPA - Oficína Portátil de Artes (engl. Mobile Art Workshops) is an education project working on social integration and artistic creation throughout the year. With innovative pedagogical methods, OPA wants to work with young people from neighborhoods in Lisbon’s outskirts and periphery to develop their artistic skills and finally present the results of the artistic process to a big audience in the capital as part of the Lisboa Mistura program.
The main idea is to work on the creation and enhencement of conditions for the integration of young people with entrepreneurial and artistic potencial that are living in neighborhoods at the margins of urban society and are therefore often excluded from opportunities. OPA intends to integrate young people with skills and ambitions in arts and culture by building and promoting a professional network that gives them access to creation and artistic practices that are usually often sealed. By working with adolescents from the outskirts of Lisbon the project aims at encouraging young people to deepen their artistic expertise as well as offering them the opportunity to perform at a big stage in the city centre as part of the festival program. Besides giving them visibility and recognition for their artistic work, OPA is working on providing professional qualification (artistic and management skills) to prepare young artists to work in the cultural sector. OPA is constantly expanding its local actions and promotes training and creation work sessions carried for young artists, together with professional and well known national guest artists. This project growth will culminate with the artistic professional qualification and the biggest possible development of the local potential.
One of the main objectives of ASL is to support exchanges between artists and organizations specially located in the Mediterranean area and to promote the intercultural dialogue in Portugal.
We develop our projects with partners from the local community, local municipality and international organizations based in Lisbon - this creates a strong local network of knowledge that can be an advantage. Being one the most influential music institutions in Portugal, that organizes important events such as Festa do Jazz or Lisboa Mistura, but also educational programs like OPA – Oficina Portátil de Artes, ASL has a strong connection with national and international musicians and other artists that can expand the ALF Network recognition in Portugal. Also our projects aim to create solid links with artists and organization from the Mediterranean area, which is fundamental for the intercultural dialogue and the understanding of different cultures and artistic manifestations.
As a way to develop a strong jazz network ASL is working on the internationalization of the Portuguese jazz scene and intends to strengthen the national jazz scene by giving it new input through internationally successful resident artists and by inviting international jazz critics to the jazz festival Festa do Jazz. Like this the festival wants to address Portuguese, European and international communities.
Festa do Jazz is a member of the European Jazz Network. As such, promoting discussion groups and jazz values on an international level is an important goal of the festival and it aims at establishing networks and encourage the mobility of national jazz musicians. The festival wants to be present in the most important international events of jazz, promoting the Portuguese musicians and work in profitable exchanges trough jazz musicians all over the world.
With the future editions, Festa do Jazz is aiming at establishing the festival as one of Portugal’s biggest international jazz encounters and keep on working on establishing the unique national jazz school contest. One future goal concerning the school contest is to expand it to be an international music school forum by initiating and international music school exchange program (like Erasmus). One main goal will be to keep on internationalizing Festa do Jazz to open up to a global jazz scene and promote Portuguese Jazz as well as bringing international established jazz musicians to Portugal´s capital. Besides being a promotion platform for Portuguese jazz musicians and an initiator for international exchange, Festa do Jazz wants to make a difference by including innovative projects in its program that are unique in Portugal.
As a Lisbon-based organization ASL has a strong awareness of its Mediterranean roots and aims at increasing its Mediterranean network. Being part of the ALF Network will allow us to increase our artistic and cultural connections specifically in the Mediterranean area by getting in touch with other ALF members.
ASL’s activities have always been dedicated to the Mediterranean area as a bridge between Europe and Africa. ASL is working on topics that are relevant to the lusophone world, which is connecting three continents, but also in projects that involve artists from the Maghreb region.
Integrating groups from the Mediterranean area has been a constant to the programmation of different events organized by ASL, a tendency that has been deepend and reinforced by the intercultural event Lisboa Mistura.
We also think that the Mediterranean community will continue to play an important role in the future process of harmonization of this large and diverse cultural region by approaching and uniting different tendencies in culture and society.