The ninth edition of the Cordas Festival ended last Sunday with a trip to the mountain island. Using Helena Amaral’s Stone Smiles Route, the artist, musician M-PEX, composer of the sculpture project’s musical theme, and MiratecArts’ artistic director Terry Costa visited various places where the works of art are located, creating impromptu cultural moments. The team is preparing for the tenth edition after providing 43 events in the municipality, including the epicenter at the Madalena Library Auditorium. During the festival’s final days, Terry Costa unveiled some of the plans for 2025.

The educational programs Cordas nas Escolas, Cordas para Bebés, Cordas no Museu, recitals and concerts at the festival’s epicenter, the Biblioteca Auditório da Madalena, and classical meetings at the Igreja Matriz de Santa Maria Madalena, are some of the plans that we intend to continue developing for the future. Returning to the Gruta das Torres, continuing the partnership with the Pico Wine Museum and the Cella Bar Lounge, and adding more programming at the MiratecArts Galeria Costa are also part of the plans. A new section, Music in the Gardens, which already has a painting by Carlos Farinha as its promotional image, is being planned to debut in the tenth edition. 

Música nos Jardins (Music in the Gardens) challenges families in the municipality of Madalena, parish councils, and other public or private entities to propose a garden to host a musician with a chordophone in a series of concerts in beautiful open-air spaces. From Freguesia das Bandeiras to São Caetano, proposals are welcome through the various MiratecArts channels.

Another section of the plans for the tenth festival is the Cordas Academy, which encourages music conservatories, municipal schools, and classes dedicated to musical art to organize study visits to take part in and explore the range of workshops and masterclasses offered every day.

A conference focused on and for the cultural music industry, exhibitions alluding to the festival’s theme, and the “Cordas Bus” are all new features planned for our country’s biggest celebration of chordophones.

“Cordas is a special festival,” admits Terry Costa, ”an educational cultural offer that connects traditions with the best of today’s cordophone world. Cordas is ours and there is no festival in the world like it. It’s produced on the island of Pico, with Portugal’s highest mountain as the main stage and the creativity of our people as the headliner.”

Mark your calendar. From October 1 to 12, 2025, Madalena do Pico is the capital of cordophones. festivalcordas.com

Translated to English as a community outreach program from the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures Department (MCLL) as part of Bruma Publication and ADMA (Azores-Diaspora Media Alliance) at California State University, Fresno, PBBI thanks the Luso-American Education Foundation for sponsoring FILAMENTOS.