The Lisbon Meeting & Orquestra Geração’s 10th anniversary

16/10/2018

It has been a big year for Orquestra Geração, with one of Sistema Europe’s most established members celebrating its 10^th anniversary year.

Over its first ten years, Orquestra Geração has grown to a considerable size and now works with some 1,170 children and their families in Coimbra and in seven municipalities in the metropolitan area of Lisbon. In total, it leads nineteen school orchestras, four composite orchestras made up of children from all of the schools they cater to and a number of ensembles, such as GeraJazz, GeraSopros & GeraCoros.

And, to celebrate the remarkable success of Orquestra Geração’s first decade, a number of events have been held, showcasing the programme's achievements, in particular, the wonderful young musicians who are the most tangible sign of its accomplishments.

The Lisbon Meeting

The year’s biggest event by far has been the Lisbon Meeting. Taking place in July, this saw Orquestra Geração, with the support of the Fundação Gulbenkian, greet fellow Sistema Europe members from Cyprus, England, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Scotland, Spain and Sweden. All these Sistema members enjoyed the hospitality of Orquestra Geração, the company and advice of a series of sponsors and discussions on diverse, highly topical themes, such as upcoming events, community work, work with refugees, other Sistema anniversaries and, of course, ten successful years of Orquestra Geração.

And, this meeting wouldn’t have been a Sistema meeting without music. During the day, the guests from associated Sistema Europe member organisations were fortunate enough to enjoy concerts by Orquestra Geração singers and by a group of young musicians who put on a humorous, narrated musical tour around Europe, featuring the countries of these same guests.

Join a mixed age group of Orquestra Geração musicians on a musical tour of Europe

While, on both evenings, the hosts treated their guests and all in attendance in the Fundação Gulbenkian’s packed 1228-seater Grande Auditório to two fantastic concerts, conducted by José Jesús Olivetti, Ana Filipa Serrão, Helena Lima, Ulysses Ascânio and Juan Carlos Maggiorani. Both the Orquestra Infantil Geração concert on the 7th July and the Orquestra Juvenil Geração concert on the 8th July were incredibly well-received and were rewarded with enthusiastic and heartfelt standing ovations from their delighted audiences.

Watch Orquestra Infantil Geração (start of video) & Orquestra Juvenil Geração (end of video) perform at the Lisbon Meeting

10^th Anniversary Gala Concert

Yet, the anniversary celebrations preceded the Lisbon Meeting and, in May, there was a 10^th anniversary gala concert at the São Luiz Teatro Municipal in Lisbon, with performances by the children and young adults of Gerajazz, the Orquestra Municipal Geração Amadora and the Orquestra Juvenil Geração; which really do now form generational orchestras, with the children having grown up with Orquestra Geração over the course of the last decade.

In addition to the orchestral players and the musicians of Gerajazz, this concert benefitted from conducting by Ulysses Ascânio, Eduardo Lála and Sandra Martins and featured the soloists Catarina Amorim, Pedro Capelão, João Pedro Gonçalves, Juvânia Gomes, Ana Hespanha and Ricardo Toscano.

See Manuel Brito's photo compilation from his years of following Orquestra Geração
Click here if you cannot see the video.

Gustavo Dudamel returns to Orquestra Geração

And, Orquestra Geração’s work hasn’t just been acknowledged within Portugal and Sistema Europe: on the 5^th September, Gustavo Dudamel also visited Orquestra Geração at the Fundação Gulbenkian once more, to see how the organisation has grown, to play with the musicians, to speak to the children and team leaders and, above all, to celebrate the many achievements of their first decade.

Conducting a selection of musicians from the programme, Dudamel spoke of his pride at their development and the experience of seeing so many faces full of happiness and hope, stating his clear belief that “...this is only the beginning” for Orquestra Geração.

Gustavo Dudamel conducts young musicians from Orquestra Geração

Into the next decade and beyond

For those attending the Lisbon Meeting, it was similarly clear just how correct Dudamel's words would turn out to be. In July, we all heard more about Orquestra Geração's ambitious plans for the future, in particular about three new projects which they intend to engage in in the years to come. Going forwards, the programme will continue to carry out all the excellent work it has so far, while also starting to work with younger children (aged 4 to 6) in schools, developing a musical scholarship programme (which enables young musicians to study & contribute to society by working with the elderly) and intervening more in rural areas, so as to bring music to peripheral populations and increase cooperation between these areas and nearby urban centres.

With all of these incredible plans, it is clear that the future is bright for Orquestra Geração and we heartily congratulate them for all that has come, wish them all the very best for what is yet to come and look forward to accompanying them throughout it all as they venture into their next decade.

Having issues playing embedded Facebook videos?