The event had been dreamed of for a long time, but only now could be realised. The internationalisation of Metropolitana continues to bear fruit. From Thursday to Saturday, four great specialists in metals will gather in Lisbon to “give the world” to the students of Metropolitana.
Trumpet, trombone, horn and tuba. The brass are in force these days at the Metropolitana. The Brass Days 2022 bring together since this Thursday four great international specialists in four masterclasses aimed at students of the Academia Nacional Superior de Orquestra (ANSO), but where students of the Escola Profissional Metropolitana (EPM) can also participate as listeners.
Bruno Nouvion (ex. Prof. CNSMD Paris/Solista Orq. Radio France), Ignácio García (HMT Rostock/Solista Staatskapelle Berlin), Sebastiaan Kemner (Royal Conservatoire De Hague) and Alessandro Fossi (Conservatorio Claudio Monteverdi – Bolzano) are the four teachers who are, throughout these days, “giving a more intensive training to the students”.
“The Brass Days is the culmination of an idea that has been around for a long time, that all of us in the Metals Department of Metropolitana have been thinking about, and that until now was not feasible to implement, also because it was impossible to count on the presence of some of our international partners in the scope of Erasmus”, explains Rui Mirra, professor at ANSO and artistic coordinator of the Brass Days.
Erasmus allows, besides the mobility between students and teachers, this sharing of experiences between several countries. In ANSO we really want to intensify this movement. In this first edition of the Brass Days we managed to gather big international names, great artistic personalities that are being an added value for our students”, underlines the responsible.
The participation of the students “was very satisfactory”. “In addition to the courses dedicated to higher education, we decided to open these masterclasses to vocational education. Therefore, EPM students have been able to attend the classes as listeners.”
After the first two days of masterclasses, the event ends on Saturday at 6pm at the Thalia Theatre with the final concert, which has differences from what is done in this type of organisations. “We wanted to escape a little bit from the usual pattern of these things. Usually, when you have international guests, the final concert is simply a presentation of these artists”, states the person in charge of this Brass Days 2022.
Rui Mirra prefers to value the symbiosis between students and teachers. “We wanted to involve the entire ANSO brass community and, as such, whoever goes to see this concert will have the opportunity to witness all the work that is developed here, namely at chamber level. Almost all our formations will participate in this concert. We will have the largest grouping, which is the Ensemble de Metais da Metropolitana, which will be conducted by Professor Reinaldo Guerreiro”.
Rui Mirra explains that the students “will interpret three works throughout the concert”. “Then, our guest artists will have the opportunity to perform solo with smaller groupings, namely brass quartets and quintets.”
The ANSO lecturer has no doubt that “it will be a very varied concert with lots of energy and a panoply of styles”, which will also allow “demonstrating the capabilities of this family of instruments”.
“Although at a national level our work is already well recognised, abroad this recognition is not yet total, as is natural. Therefore, events like this can allow that. This closer relationship with our partners will give us another type of visibility, but also allow a direct contact of our students with international teachers, in a perspective of continuing their studies”, concludes Rui Mirra.