“Tangedores” celebrates the living future of the Viola da Terra

There are instruments that do more than produce music. They preserve memory. They carry landscapes within their sound. They become the voice of places long before those places find words for themselves. Few instruments embody this truth more profoundly than the Viola da Terra, whose distinctive strings have echoed across the Azores for centuries, accompanying celebrations, solitude, faith, departures, and homecomings. To hear it played well is not merely to attend a concert; it is to listen to the Atlantic remembering itself.

This summer, the Associação de Juventude Viola da Terra offers precisely such an invitation through “Tangedores,” one of the most original events of its 2026 Viola da Terra Season. More than a performance, it is an encounter between two musicians who have each transformed the instrument in their own distinctive way while remaining deeply faithful to its roots. Evandro Meneses, from Terceira, and Rafael Carvalho, from São Miguel, will share the stage together for the very first time, bringing into dialogue the twelve-string and fifteen-string traditions of the Viola da Terra in a concert that celebrates both heritage and innovation.

The title itself carries quiet poetry. In old Portuguese, tanger means “to play” a musical instrument, and the musician was once known as a tangedor. It is a word that evokes an older relationship between artist and instrument, one based less on performance than on conversation. The musician does not dominate the instrument; he awakens its voice. The Association wisely revives this beautiful expression, reminding audiences that language, like music, carries histories worth preserving.

What makes this collaboration especially compelling is not only the meeting of two accomplished performers, but the convergence of two musical journeys that have helped redefine the possibilities of the Viola da Terra for a new generation. Working across the distance that separates their islands, Meneses and Carvalho have prepared a program that blends traditional instrumental repertoire with original compositions and contemporary works, alternating solo moments that reveal the unique character of each instrument with ensemble performances that demonstrate the remarkable richness created when these two traditions intertwine.

In doing so, the concert reflects one of the Association’s enduring missions: to educate audiences about the extraordinary diversity of the Viola da Terra across all nine islands while encouraging musicians to continue expanding its repertoire beyond purely traditional settings. Tradition, after all, survives not because it remains unchanged, but because each generation discovers new ways to keep it alive without losing its soul.

Evandro Meneses represents one of the most adventurous voices of this new generation. Born in Vila das Lajes on Terceira, his musical education began in childhood and culminated in studies in Classical Guitar and Musical Composition at the Lisbon School of Music. His career has consistently sought to expand the expressive vocabulary of the Viola da Terra. Works such as SOLO9VIOLA, premiered at the Cordas Festival on Pico and later presented internationally, and his more recent Viola Intemporal, which incorporates looping technology and electronic effects, demonstrate an artist who views tradition not as a museum artifact but as a living language capable of embracing contemporary artistic expression.

Alongside him stands Rafael Carvalho, whose contribution has been equally transformative, though shaped by a different path. A native of Ribeira Quente, São Miguel, Carvalho has become one of the most influential educators and ambassadors of the instrument. Beyond recording ten solo albums, he developed one of the most comprehensive teaching methods for the Viola da Terra, authored instructional books, structured the curriculum at the Conservatory of Ponta Delgada, and recently made available online more than five hundred musical scores for students around the world. His work has ensured that the instrument is not only admired but learned, practiced, and passed on to future generations.

Together, these two musicians embody complementary dimensions of cultural continuity: creation and education, innovation and preservation, performance and transmission. One explores new sonic frontiers; the other builds the foundations upon which future musicians may stand. Their collaboration reminds us that cultural heritage flourishes when these different callings meet.

The premiere of “Tangedores” will take place on July 10 at the Centro Social e Paroquial da Ribeira Quente, with a second performance later in July at the Whalers Museum Auditorium on Pico. The choice of venues is itself meaningful. Rather than reserving the music for grand concert halls alone, the performances return the Viola da Terra to communities where its voice has long belonged, allowing audiences to experience not simply a concert, but a shared cultural inheritance.

For the Azorean diaspora, this concert carries an additional resonance. Across North America, Brazil, Bermuda, and beyond, the Viola da Terra remains one of the most recognizable sounds of island identity. Many descendants may not speak Portuguese with the fluency of their grandparents, but they instantly recognize the unmistakable resonance of those paired strings. In every note lives something that survives migration: a cadence of belonging that crosses oceans more easily than words.

Perhaps that is the deepest achievement of “Tangedores.” It reminds us that heritage is never static. It breathes through artists willing to honor what they inherited while imagining what it may yet become. The Viola da Terra has accompanied the Azores through centuries of change. Thanks to musicians like Evandro Meneses and Rafael Carvalho, it continues not only to remember the past but also to compose the future—one string, one island, and one generation at a time.

Based on a story in Atlântico Expresso, Natalino Viveiros, director. Photos from AE.