The Setúbal Music Festival, now in its 9th edition, continues as it began by drawing international artists, from Portugal and overseas, together with almost 1,500 local young people each year in making music, enriching the cultural life of the region and enhancing the wellbeing of its communities. The programme has once again been inspired by the topical theme of Home, with its rich resonance and diversity of overtones for Setúbal and the world over.

Guest artists include the delightful jazz singer Beatriz Nunes, renowned choral director Paulo Lourenço, the Portuguese Symphony Orchestra and their maestrina Joana Carneiro, in a programme of Gustav Mahler, and award-winning young violinist André Gaio Pereira, all sharing their skills and platforms with local groups. André also directs the Festival Camerata, which once a year brings home again some of Setúbal’s most gifted young professional musicians, from far and wide, to play together and inspire future generations to follow in their footsteps.
Musicians from the UK include the remarkable Clarence Adoo, who was paralysed in a road accident and now plays instruments specially invented for him, the trombonist John Kenny (complete with carnyx – an ancient Celtic war-horn), trumpeter Torbjorn Hultmark and singer/composer Merit Ariane, all returning to Setúbal as artists-inresidence, sprinkling stardust in various Festival concerts and performing together with our socially inclusive and artistically adventurous Youth Ensemble in a special composition by Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian.
Creative learning and participation for local young people have always been a central purpose of the Festival and provided its sure foundations. School-children are visiting care homes for the elderly in an inter-generational exchange of reminiscences, stories and ideas for the creation of new songs: their performances of this and the fruits of other communal collaborations provide some of the Festival’s most moving and memorable moments.

We proudly present our second international Symposium on Music, Health & Wellbeing, now extended to two days of presentations and conversations with leading experts and practitioners from home and abroad. The subject matter is huge, diverse and touching all areas of human existence: it is of global importance and very close to home. Originating from the Festival and sharing many of its natural threads, the Symposium is fully woven into the fabric of this current programme.

We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the initiative and support of the Helen Hamlyn Trust, to the Municipality of Setúbal and to the many local partners, institutions and individuals, whose contributions of money, time and effort make it all happen. Visitors to the Festival can enjoy performances and presentations in several of Setúbal’s beautiful and historic buildings and public spaces. We invite you to experience the unique personality of this city and feel at home in the welcoming diversity of its artistic offerings.