Terry Costa, the artistic director of MiratecArts and founder of the Cordas Festival, presented the first names for the tenth festival edition at BTL 2025 – Lisbon Tourism Exchange.

The festival’s opening promises a surprise that will be welcomed by the public on the island of Pico. “The name of the artist who will open the festival at the Madalena Auditorium, on World Music Day will be revealed soon, from our island,” promises Terry Costa. Present at BTL, the first confirmed musicians are Marta Pereira da Costa with her Portuguese guitar, who took part in the first festival, and Romeu Bairos, an Azorean musician presenting his first album this year. The artists spoke about their first experiences at the festival.
“I’ve played at the highest point in Portugal at the Cordas Festival,” mentioned Romeu Bairos. At the same time, Marta Pereira da Costa said that her relationship with the festival goes back to its first edition, but even further back because ”it was Terry Costa who presented my first professional concert in Canada, the day I decided I wasn’t going to be an engineer anymore.”

In partnership with the Conservatório Escola das Artes da Madeira and the Xarabanda Association, several musicians from Madeira are making their way to the island of Pico, including Roberto Moniz and Roberto Moritz, who will be performing the traditional instruments of their region for the first time at Cordas. “We can achieve much more in partnership,” admitted Terry Costa before announcing the new programs for the MiratecArts association’s most cherished festival.

New programs for the tenth edition of the festival include Music in the Gardens, which is challenging families in the municipality of Madalena, parish councils, and other public or private entities to propose a garden to host a musician with a cordophone in a route of concerts in natural outdoor spaces. The MiratecArts association also intends to invest in the Cordas Academy, encouraging music conservatories, municipal schools, and classes dedicated to musical art to organize study visits to take part and explore the workshops, masterclasses, and recitals on offer in the festival’s daytime program. The Cordas Bus is another novelty that plans a day trip through the six parishes of the municipality, where the audience gathers on board to meet musicians and their stringed instruments. A conference focused on the cultural music industry and exhibitions alluding to the festival’s theme are part of the artistic program.
From Freguesia das Bandeiras to São Caetano, passing by Moinho do Frade in Criação Velha and MiratecArts Galeria Costa in Candelária, there will be a whiff of world music in all the parishes of the youngest municipality on the island of Pico. From October 1 to 11, 2025, the capital of cordophones is Madalena do Pico, with its epicenter at the Madalena Auditorium Library. In addition to the support of the Madalena Town Council, MiratecArts has private support and is awaiting responses to regional applications to meet the festival’s budget. http://www.festivalcordas.com

From Press Release

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 at California State University, Fresno, PBBI thanks the Luso-American Education Foundation for their support.