Invited by the Consulate General of Portugal in Barcelona and the Conservatori Liceu within the commemorations of the Day of Portugal, Camões and Portuguese Communities, Marta Pereira da Costa presents her Portuguese guitar in an intimate concert, accompanied by António Pinto.
Historically, the Portuguese guitar has always been associated with man, as a musician, and linked mainly to fado, as a language. The project of the artist Marta Pereira da Costa breaks with these roots and presents the Portuguese guitar as a voice. Live, the Portuguese guitar goes through the most traditional sonorities such as fado and Portuguese music, but follows different paths such as jazz, Cape Verdean mornas, Brazilian chorinho or world music in general. Some of the new songs that will be part of the next album to be released in the second half of this year will also be shared.
MARTA PEREIRA DA COSTA
Marta Pereira da Costa is the first woman to play professionally the Portuguese Guitar in Fado, worldwide. The Portuguese Guitar is closely associated with Fado, and Marta, without forgetting the roots and tradition, takes risks with new sounds and seeks to give voice to her instrument in the world of Jazz, World Music and Portuguese Music.
She begins her musical training on the piano at the age of 4; she studies 2 years of classical guitar at the age of 8; at 18 she leaves the piano and starts playing the Portuguese guitar with Carlos Gonçalves, Amália Rodrigues’ guitarist.
She graduated in Civil Engineering and, after practicing for 8 years, in 2012 she leaves the activity and dedicates herself exclusively to music and Portuguese guitar thus starting her solo career.
In 2014 she is distinguished by the Amália Rodrigues Foundation with the “Instrumentalist Award” for her work. In 2016 she releases with Warner Music Portugal her debut album, which features the participation of well-known names of the world music scene, such as bassist Richard Bona, or of the Portuguese music scene, such as Dulce Pontes, Camané or Rui Veloso.
He has performed numerous concerts in Brazil, United States, Canada, Switzerland, Spain, Holland, France, Italy, Slovenia, Romania, Tunisia, Israel, etc., surprising and conquering the public wherever he goes. It is worth mentioning the following concerts: Teatro Tivoli (Lisbon, Portugal), Teatro Braga (Braga, Portugal), NOS Alive (Lisbon), São João do Porto (Portugal), MIMO Festival (São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Amarante), Festival de la Guitarra (Córdoba, Spain), Real Teatro Santa Cecilia (Palermo, Italy), SXSW Festival (Austin, Texas), Lincoln Center (New York), Kennedy Center (Washington, DC), Sala Radio (Bucharest), Recanati Auditorium (TelAviv), among others.
Live, being an instrumental concert, Pereira manages to surprise and captivate an audience that follows her and her Portuguese guitar in a journey through different sounds and atmospheres, in a performance marked by sensitivity and delicacy, but also intense, strong and dynamic. She gives her best in intimate concerts as well as she surprises with her energy and energy in open air concerts for large audiences.
Innovation, side by side, creating a new path for the Portuguese Guitar. Each performance is always a unique, unforgettable and unrepeatable moment. On stage she adds what cannot be recorded: the heart of the woman who has made the guitar an extension of her soul.
In January 2022 Marta represented Portugal at the Expo Dubai, in March she was present in Dakar at the World Water Forum, where she returned in June for Portugal Day, in April she performed with Toquinho, great name of Brazilian music, in São Paulo, in May she was invited as a soloist to a Portuguese guitar concert with the Orquestra de Jazz do Centro. This was followed by 5 concerts in Tel Aviv, Israel, 2 in Lima, Peru, she performed at the New York Guitar Festival and did a 7 concert tour from coast to coast, passing through the National Gallery and the mythical Blues Alley in Washington DC to Hawaii. In Portugal he has performed concerts from north to south: Giacometti Festival -where he did an artistic residency and a concert with an Alentejo singing group-, Sons do Património Festival, Património a Norte and several private and institutional events. She accompanied the President of the Republic on his state visit to Ireland, where she also performed.
Marta Pereira da Costa has been praised by the whole Fado universe, but also outside it, by several personalities who recognize her enormous courage, effort and courage to dedicate herself to a demanding, difficult and hard instrument, and to an art that fascinates her.