Portuguese music festival brings sounds of tradition, experimentation to Toronto
A Portuguese music festival is kicking off in Toronto on Friday, with performers bringing with them the sounds of tradition and experimentation.
The Why Portugal concert series is bringing 10 Portuguese artists to Toronto’s Lighthouse ArtSpace venue on Feb. 14, 17, 22, 25 and 26.
Performers will be flying in from the country to visit Ontario’s diaspora community, which according to 2021 census figures, is upwards of 300,000.
Joao Diogo Leitao is excited to bring his traditional Portuguese guitar music to the city.
“That’s important for Portuguese musicians because we can actually reach people that are part of our culture in different regions of the world,” he told CBC Toronto. “At the same time, I think that the music we will be presenting during this festival [will] really surprise the Canadian community.”
‘Like every region has its own specific acoustic guitar’
According to the Consulate General of Portugal in Toronto, the Portuguese immigrant population in Canada grew exponentially after 1953, with many looking to escape António de Oliveira Salazar’s dictatorship.
Artist Joana Alegre says political tensions severely influenced the arts, but that the country’s heritage has now become far more interconnected with traditional music.
“During the dictatorship, we were a bit censored from that Celtic heritage and we were a bit reduced,” she said.
Alegre says her lyrics are influenced by her family and the experiences they provided her with as a child.
“During Christmas time, I would listen to my father reading his poetry and my uncle playing the Portuguese guitar,” she said. “I think I’m embedded with that…it’s a very Portuguese sensitivity.”
Much like Alegre, Leitao has been involved with music since he was just 10 years old, but found his love for the instrument viola braguesa on a hitchhiking trip across Europe.
“[Despite] the small geographic size [of Portugal], there’s a really big diversity of traditional instruments…and it’s almost like every region has its own specific acoustic guitar,” says Leitao.
Music a way of ‘connecting to the people’
While Leitao keeps his melodies traditional, musician Vasco Ribeiro Casais takes an unconventional approach to his works, mixing electronic tunes with unique instruments and the voices of elderly Portuguese individuals.
“The main thing I do is I go through Portugal from north to south and also the islands. And I record people singing, playing instruments, doing crafts,” he said.
Casais is looking forward to bringing his experimental music to the Portuguese diaspora in Toronto, especially immigrants who are far from home.
“You miss your roots and then you feel homesick…and the music is a way of communicating that and connecting to the people again,” he said.
He hopes to deliver a unique experience to those attending, especially as the world faces what he calls a “dark time.”
“I want to deliver a message that we are a result of cultures crossing and melting and blending with each other,” he said.
Similar to Casais, Bicho Carpinteiro band members Rui Rodrigues and Diogo Esparteiro take classic Portuguese instruments and mix them with modern methods.
“Our style is augmented tradition, because we grab the tradition with respect, but we try to augment it to add another [element] that [it] normally doesn’t have,” Rodrigues said.
The concert series is all about internationalizing artists and making them known to audiences worldwide, festival coordinator Neil Leyton says.
“I hope that [people] are amazed by what they hear in the sense of it being different,” Leyton says. “It’s a very modern take on tradition.”
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