Every Sunday at sunset, the Santa Catarina Fort in Lajes do Pico is the stage for the world music season, Música no Forte. On July 28, it hosts the world premiere of the new musical project built on the mountain island of the Azores, Marcos Fernandez Trio.

Marcos Fernandez Trio explores Latin world music, gypsy-jazz, and original compositions by Galician Marcos Fernandez, who has made his home on the island of Pico for several years. Accompanied by bassist Nuno Mendes and young guitarist Bernardo Alves Macedo, the trio takes the audience through familiar sounds from other eras, sometimes unrecognizable in their arrangements.

Marcos Fernandez graduated from the Conservatorio Superior de Vigo in the 1980s. In the following decade, he obtained a degree in Contemporary Music from the Ateneo Jazz in Madrid, Latin Jazz Orchestration and Arranging from the Instituto Superior de Arte in Cuba with conductor Joaquin Betancourt, and a Master’s Degree in Gypsy Jazz from the Amsterdam Conservatory with Stochelo Rosenberg. His professional career has taken him to stages and studios with Plácido Domingo, Rafael Basurto Lara, César López, and Suzanna Lubrano, among others. As a teacher of modern music, he has led a school studio in Santiago de Compostela and at the Ateneo Jazz in Madrid; he was director of the ESMAT Conservatory in Cape Verde; and he also has a personal project in Gypsy Jazz. Since 2019, he has been living on the island of Pico, where he combines his work as a teacher with live concerts.

Bernardo Alves Macedo is the youngest participant in Música no Forte. He comes from the parish of Piedade do Pico and started learning music with his grandfather at the age of eight. At thirteen, he joined the Chamarritas nights. At fifteen, he is part of the Chamarritas da Silveira Group, the Casa do Povo das Ribeiras Group, and the Amigos das Tradições Group.

Musician, composer, multi-instrumentalist, and best known as a double bass player who collaborates with various musical groups, Nuno Mendes is also a percussionist with the Filarmónica União Ribeirense. He studied Music (Double Bass) at the Hot Clube Luís Villas-Boas Jazz School; Post-Graduation in Musical Sciences – Historical Musicology at the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences – NOVA FCSH; Master’s Degree in Music Teaching – Musical Sciences at the University of Minho.

Música no Forte is a MiratecArts project in partnership with the Municipality of Lajes do Pico and with the support of the Regional Directorate for Culture and the INATEL Foundation. The concerts occur at 7.30pm at the Santa Catarina Fort in Lajes do Pico and are free to attend. The organization urges the public to follow the season on Facebook: musicanoforte, so that they can keep abreast of potential changes and take part in surveys.

From MiratecArts press release, translated by Diniz Borges