On Sunday 27 January, Algarve History Association (AHA) hosted its fifth concert in the 2018/19 season at Quintinha da Música, near Tavira. The Dutch piano soloist Nikola Meeuwsen was making his third visit to our venue, and he is not yet eighteen.
Nikola is a recent prizewinner at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and has as a consequence appeared on Dutch television. He played some of the most testing pieces from the classical repertoire (for example, Chopin´s Ballade no 1, and Schumann´s Toccata, op 7) with exactitude and dexterity. The other items in his programme were Schubert´s Drei Konzertstücke D946, a selection of three months from Tchaikovsky´s The Seasons, and Scriabin´s Piano Sonata no 4. Nikola followed with no less than two encores (the two Poemes from Scriabin´s op 32). Nikola has a busy schedule, as he finishes his schooling and at the same time fits in study at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in the Hague and the Academia Pianistica at Imola in Italy. He is already very accomplished, and without doubt will in due course become an international star on the piano. We are lucky that he chooses to visit us here in the Algarve, and our audience of nearly sixty music lovers enjoyed a recital of the highest class.
AHA uses its resources to sponsor students at the CRAMC (Conservatório Regional do Algarve Maria Campina in Faro) and is keen to strengthen its links there. On this occasion, the Association was able to welcome a number of the current students from CRAMC together with a representative of the Board of Management. These students had recently visited the Netherlands with the CRAMC using some of the sponsorship provided by AHA. They were able to witness piano virtuosity of the highest order, and to set themselves targets for their future development. In sponsoring students at CRAMC, AHA seeks to provide opportunity for advancement to those students who may not otherwise be able to afford it.
As well as running a Classical Concert series, AHA provides monthly presentations in English in both Tavira and Lagoa on subjects relating to Portuguese history and to Portuguese and general cultural topics. Membership is open to all at no charge.
If you would like to be on the AHA mailing list please contact: lynne.algarvehistory@gmail.com
