My father was born in Bendada, and all of my family from my father's side is from there.
Unfortunately many people like my dad and my grandparents, they moved away from
the village because there was not many opportunities for them.
So although I didn't grow up there, and I was not born there, I always had this wish
of helping them somehow.
And the best way to do that was through music because music is important for me and it is
also really important for this entire community.
We are really happy for the third edition of the Bendada Music Festival and it's really
nice to see a lot of familiar faces here, people that already came last year and two
years ago.
We also have a lot of new students this year coming from Italy, we have Anna and Francesca there
and then we have some students coming from the states.
We have JJ and Marco.
Bendada has a really long and incredible musical heritage.
The village has a band that was founded 150 years ago, and my great great grandfather
was one of the founding members of this ensemble.
It's unbelievable how such a small place has such good conditions to make music and
I saw the potential that the village had for something like this.
My name is Antonio and we'll begin to warm up our voice, okay?
I'd like to begin this one in "O"...and [choir begins to sing].
Very good, yeah.
The Bendada music festival is a week long project that happens once a year.
We have students ages 8-24 for the whole week to collaborate, to receive lessons, and they
have the opportunity to participate in concerts almost everyday.
It doesn't matter how old you are, where you come from, the main goal is that everybody
is learning and is collaborating with each other so we feel like having a choir lesson
would be a great way.
And that's how our mornings start.
Then from there, all the students go to their private lessons spread out by instruments
in the different rooms.
Are you ready?
I am ready.
Let's go![Piano plays] I have an amazing group of faculty working with me.
There is Edoardo Carpenedo, piano teacher.
Samuel, who teaches clarinet.
Yoni, who is our viola teacher.
Antonio who is a singer and he teaches the voice students.
There's our violin teacher, Erica, she lives in chicago.
We have Margarida and Diogo they teach flute and guitar.
And then we also have Gracie, who is our cello teacher.
Most of them are BU students and alumni and we started the festival together.
It's great to play concerts, but I also look for opportunity where my music can make
an impact, in a broader sense, So when Ines invited the ensemble group to be a part of
the festival, we were extremely excited.
It has been a great learning experience for all of us organizing such a big project.
The first year we were worried that it could be overwhelming for the local community.
Just the idea of having people outside coming and staying on the village and experiencing the village.
But there is this energy that you can feel in the people that they want and they're
willing to share everything they have with you.
So we are very thankful to share our music with the local community.
This year for the first time we were hosting almost all of our students in the village.
Everyone in the village has been amazing because they open their houses and they offer all
their free rooms and free space they have to house students and they really enjoy having
all these people around.
Even if they don't speak the same language, that's not a problem.
We're both from Chicago so everyday I, like, wake up and I look out the window I'm like
oh my god, because there's just like hills and, like, it's so beautiful.
It's really nice to be somewhere where music is, like, one of the most appreciated things.
In Chicago, if you played violin randomly in the middle of the street it would be like
--weird--yeah weird, kind of.
Right?
But here it's, not normal, but people appreciate it and they want to listen to you.
This village has always been a musical village since, like, years ago, like, the older people in the village say that.
They say that they don't know a time where it wasn't like this.
Teaching in our music festival is always a very fulfilling experience.
Part of the reason being because the students already arrive really well prepared.
So you work on on very exciting musical aspects and you can really make music and bring out
the emotion that the music is trying to convey.
You're just polishing and helping the student find his or her own voice.
This is one of the first important cadences that we have here, right?
I completely agree with the crescendo there.
The one thing that i will do a bit differently than other composers: I will do the crescendo
in steps, instead of a big crescendo, so make me hear that.
So the form of the composition is going to be easier for and audience to follow along,
okay?
Can we just go from there one more time?
Uuh, maybe---maybe from there.
Okay 3? Yes.
We have concerts to prepare everyday, it's like we never stop.
We always have something new to show to the people.
So the teachers always want to make things sound good, but they also want us to have
fun, so the classes are relaxed, but at the same time intense.
We, as musicians, what we usual do is we work for something.
So to have like "Oh, you're gonna have a concert tomorrow," we work for that.
And our working becomes much - not faster - but more intelligent and I think that's good
for me and for all the other students.
I'm Anna, I'm playing Bach and Dante from the second sonata for violin solo.
As musicians we usually play in concert halls and classrooms and it's so fun to be able
to play on top of the mountain or in the retirement house.
All the classrooms have like this familiar environment we stand so close to the people
that are playing.
We get along with them; it's like the people who are rehearsing next to you
is playing there and then you go and then you say, okay, well done, It's like
we all belong together.
From a teacher perspective seeing how much the students during improve in the festival
is really wonderful.
You can see how the concerts boost their confidence and also, you know, the same time we hope
to stimulate the sense of cultural appreciation, I will say, for the local community.
Traveling to the historic location and venues of the region.
Here is basically where the country was born.
A lot of villages along the country are where we came from our roots, so I think it's
really important that people get to know them.
If you go back, 50, 60 years ago, most the population was living in a village like this.
So it's great to have that feeling again.
And we think it's really important to share with them the problems that have been going
on in these villages that are so close to their cities because we don't want the festival
just to be an event for Bendada, but we want it to be an event for the whole region.
What is changing in portugal is this capacity to take the best assets that Portugal has
and this is culture, this is heritage, this is this peaceful mindset, and to give life
to the interior of Portugal, and involve the local population in this movement.
I promise, Bendada, I am part of you and I will be here next year.
Since the festival started 3 years ago, we feel like the village has been having much
more exposure than before.
People ask me how the festival is helping the region and I think, of course, the festival
is not the solution, it's not the only thing that has to be done, but it was an important
starting point to promote the region and to bring more people.
I think one of the things that has to happen is that, younger people move back or the ones
that already live there don't move away to bigger cities.
Having more opportunities in the village brings people and makes people stay there.
Many houses have been restored.
The streets of Bendada have all been fixed.
Changes are happening and people are happy to have these changed happening.
Every summer when we get to the last day, we are exhausted, but at the same time we
are energized for the following year.
Everybody is excited, you know like,it's the last day and they're are already asking
what are we going to do next year.
So I really hope it will grow, and I've been learning so much with the festival; it
has been an incredible experience.
It's not always easy, but it's--it's always worth it.