The Irish Baroque Orchestra is delighted to announce a new educational partnership with Santa Marcelina Cultura, who deliver some of the most important and wide-ranging music education programmes in Brazil.
This exciting emerging relationship is a collaboration opportunity exploring and celebrating Ireland’s rich cultural heritage in the Latin America region. This sees the IBO sharing in cultural and creative exchange with local stakeholders, through performances, education projects and youth/community-driven activities.
Santa Marcelina Cultura (SMC) was created in 2008 with the mission of educating people for life and for society. It is one of the many organisations belonging to the Santa Marcelina Congregation, created in 1838 in Italy and operating in Albania, Benin, Canada, UK, Mexico, and Switzerland. In Brazil, the Congregation has been working in the areas of education, health care, and arts since 1912. The Santa Marcelina Congregation created the first music college in the country, the Faculdade Santa Marcelina, in 1915.
SMC hold responsibility for managing public music education programs in partnership with the State Secretariat for Culture and Creative Economy. It is currently responsible for the Projeto Guri (“Guri Project”), the Escola de Música de São Paulo – EMESP Tom Jobim (“São Paulo State Music School”), and the Theatro São Pedro (“São Pedro Theatre”).
In the inaugural visit of the partnership a group of IBO musicians will travel to São Paulo in March 2024, to coincide with St Patrick’s Day. There they will undertake work exploring Irish melodies with students on the GURI programme, before working on a programme of Irish heritage repertoire from Dublin’s Golden Age with third-level students at Santa Marcelina Cultura. This culminates in a side by side performance at the Teatro São Pedro in São Paulo on March 17th at 5pm.
The March 2024 visit is generously supported by Culture Ireland, promoting Irish arts worldwide, with additional support from the Consulate General in São Paulo.
Santa Marcelina Cultura Artistic-Pedagogical Director Paulo Zuben appreciates the partnership with the Irish Baroque Orchestra, Culture Ireland, and the Consulate General of Ireland in São Paulo: "The exchange between the Irish Baroque Orchestra, EMESP Tom Jobim, Guri, and Theatro São Pedro enables the meeting of cultures and musical traditions that enriches the education of our students, promoting the sharing of experiences and knowledge that broaden the artistic horizons of everyone involved in the activities".
Commenting on the partnership, Aliye Cornish Moore, CEO, Irish Baroque Orchestra, says “We are hugely excited to be taking a group from the IBO to São Paulo, exploring the richness of Ireland’s cultural heritage with students from beginners to pre-professional level. St Patrick’s Day represents a significant global opportunity for the Irish Baroque Orchestra, with its hallmark focus on Dublin’s sound world in the 18th century. We are extremely grateful to Culture Ireland for support of this project, the Consulate General in Ireland without whom this project would not be taking place, and of course the team at Santa Marcelina Cultura for working with us to get this project off the ground.”