From August 4 to 13, the Ethno Portugal residency took place in Arraiolos, a meeting with 31 young musicians from 14 different nationalities: India, Turkey, Italy, Israel, Ukraine, Portugal, France, Korea, Denmark, Belgium, Brazil, New Zealand, Germany and Algeria.
Ethno is a program run by Jeunesses Musicales International (JMI) and in Portugal is produced by Associação PédeXumbo. It's a unique program aimed at young musicians who want to explore folk and traditional music. The 10-day artistic residency began last Friday in the village of Arraiolos and offers participating musicians the opportunity to learn and teach, in an individual and personalized way, music from different cultures around the world, sharing what they learn with different audiences and keeping musical traditions alive and fresh.
Juan de la Fuente, Teresa Campos, Denys Stetsenko, Tiago Candal and Inês Lapa were once again the musical mentors for this edition. They accompanied the orchestra in the preparation of the repertoire and three final concerts, which happened from the 10th to the 12th of August in Arraiolos, Fundão and Arganil, respectively.
Ethno Portugal is produced by PédeXumbo, which is one of the members of Anna Lindh Foundation's Portuguese Network. PédeXumbo has been promoting traditional music and dance since 1998. A professional team is dedicated to the recovery of these cultural practices, through recordings, co-productions, artistic creation, research, training of trainers and informal teaching for all ages. More than perpetuating relics, PédeXumbo aims to revive social habits of living music, reproducing traditional dances participated in by new generations who drink from old practices.
