pixel NOVA Choir presents concert "Magnum Mysterium" | Universidade NOVA de Lisboa

NOVA Choir presents concert "Magnum Mysterium"

9 December 2022
Local: 
Auditorium of the Rectory of NOVA University Lisbon

It starts at 9 pm and admission is free.

 

The recital will be based on the motets "O Magnum Mysterium" by Tomás Luís de Victoria (1548-1611) and Francis Poulenc (1899-1963), two composers, the first Iberian and the second French, separated by almost four centuries.

Each of these compositions opens the door to two distinct panels, in which works of aesthetic and periodic approaches to the first will be interpreted, under the theme of the crib and adoration of the child born. Some of the pieces are accompanied by organs.

The concert ends with a third piece dedicated to traditional Portuguese Christmas music.

Besides motets by Tomás Luís de Victoria and Francis Poulenc, the Nova Choir interprets in this recital composers such as Georg Friedrich Händel, Johan Sebastian Bach, Max Reger, Gustav Holst, Camille Saint-Saëns, Hector Berlioz, Otto Olson, Mário de Sampayo-Ribeiro and Fernando Lopes-Graça.

Created in 1988, and directed for 30 years, until the end of 2019, by conductor João Valeriano, the Coro da Nova has made it its mission to promote and divulge European and universal music, which it has done throughout its 34 years of life, including in its repertoire a wide range of symphonic choral works from the baroque and classical repertoires, polyphony from the 16th and 17th centuries, as well as popular music harmonised by Portuguese and foreign composers.

Diogo Gonçalves, conductor of the Choir of the New since October 2021, is also the conductor of the "New Youth Choir" since 2019. Flautist, with a degree in Music - Transversal Flute, and a master's degree in Teaching Musical Education in Primary Education, regularly performs in concert as a solo instrumentalist, or in chamber groups. He taught Music and Transversal Flute at the Salesianos de Lisboa school and was the pedagogical director of the music school "Musicentro" between 2010 and 2014.

Nicholas McNair, living in Portugal since 1980, is a pianist, organist, piano improvisation teacher at Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa since 1987 and composer, and has collaborated over the years with the Coro da Nova in numerous concerts.

Two other dates are planned: Saturday, 10th December, at Sé de Lisboa, 6 pm; and Sunday, 11th December, at Igreja Santo António de Lisboa, 6.30 pm.