XXXVIII MADEIRA MUSIC FESTIVAL - MARCH 2025

With a history of excellence dating back to 1959, after a nine-year hiatus, the “Madeira Music Festival” was reactivated in March 2024 by the Associação Notas e Sinfonia Atlânticas, with the Orquestra Clássica da Madeira, under the artistic direction of the violinist Norberto Gomes.

1959 was the year in which the Madeira Music Festival's first version was inaugurated on the initiative of Luiz Peter Clode, founder of the Madeira Concert Society, organised through the Madeira Academy of Music and Fine Arts. Since 2024, this Festival has had the following main sponsors: the High Patronage of His Excellency the President of the Portuguese Republic, the seal of approval of the Regional Secretariat for Tourism and Culture and the support of the "La Caixa" Foundation of International Portugues Bank.

The Festival's programme is centred on the following three aims: a comprehensive, integral and revealing Festival. The Festival will feature brilliant orchestral works from the past and present, interpretations of various musical registers, as well as new compositions being premiered. There will be four weekends (8, 9, 14, 15, 16, 21, 22, 23, 28 and 29 March) full of various musical proposals involving other artistic languages, with renowned national and international artists and promising young people at the start of their careers. During the festival, works will be performed for the first time ever; free masterclasses will be offered for Conservatoire students, students from other music schools and other interested parties; curators associated with this Festival will be involved, specialising in the area of our region's built heritage and movable cultural assets (painting and sculpture); and users from social institutions and young people from CEPAM's artistic education will be invited free of charge.

Designing a project of this scale and significance for our Audience (visitors and residents) involves focusing our artistic purpose on the impact it will have on our listeners. That's why we consider the scope of the Festival to be extremely important, highlighting the beauty that musical art can have in each person's life.