Sete Lágrimas ECMC Filipe Faria (voice and co-artistic director) Sérgio Peixoto (voice and co-artistic director) Pedro Castro (recorders, baroque oboe and da caccia) Sofia Diniz (viola da gamba) Hugo Sanches (vihuela and baroque guitar) Mário Franco (doublebass) Rui Silva (historical percussion) Under the artistic direction of Filipe Faria and Sérgio Peixoto, Sete Lágrimas is one of the most innovative European groups specializing in early and contemporary music, seeking out with each programme a dialogue between the ancestral and the contemporary, and exploring the tenuous boundaries between learned music and the most ancient traditions. Between the dialogue of learned and popular music, of early and contemporary music and of the ancient Portuguese diaspora of the discoveries with the Latin Mediterranean axis, critics have applauded the originality ad the high quality of the group’s conceptual projects as fine examples of the new European early music. Since its foundation in 2000 in Lisbon, the group has worked intensively, giving over 200 concerts, notably in Portugal (Centro Cultural de Belém, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Festival Terras sem Sombra, Encontros de Música Antiga de Loulé, Festival de São Roque, Museu de Aveiro, Festival das Artes de Coimbra, Festival dos Capuchos, Festival Internacional de Música da Madeira, Festival Internacional de Música dos Açores,…), Bulgaria (Sliven), Italy (Ravenna), Malta (Birgu), Spain (Festival de Música Antigua de Gijón, Festival de Música Antigua de Úbeda y Baeza, Museo Nacional de Valladolid, Fundación Juan March de Madrid) and Macau (Macau International Music Festival). In 2007 Sete Lágrimas launched its first disc, for the label MU Records, of European early music by Schütz (1585-1672), Martini (1706-1784) and Corelli (1653-1713), entitled “Lachrimæ #1”. This CD was the first in a series produced in cooperation with the Secretariat of State for Culture of Portugal (formerly the Ministry of Culture), with the Direcção-Geral das Artes and with the Portuguese philanthropic company Delta Cafés, to great success and earning the highest praise in the specialist press, and has resulted in a further six titles: “Kleine Musik” (2008), with the soprano Ana Quintans, an early and contemporary music project dedicated to Heinrich Schütz and which also included the premières of nine works by the British composer Ivan Moody (b. 1964) on the same texts set by Schütz in the 17th century; “Diaspora.pt” (2008), which explores the aesthetic, conceptual and linguistic relations of music from the five continents visited by the Discoveries, by the ancient Portuguese cultural diaspora and language; “Silêncio” (2009), with the soprano Zsuzsi Tóth, a project in which new sacred music was commissioned for the aesthetic and instruments of early music, and which resulted in the premières of works by Ivan Moody, Andrew Smith (b. 1970) and João Madureira (b. 1971); “Pedra Irregular” (2010), with the soprano Mónica Monteiro, dedicated to the birth of the Portuguese baroque and to the work of Almeida (c-1702-1755?), Melgaz (1638-1700), Teixeira (1707-1774) and Seixas (1704-1742); and “Vento” (2010), an EP of the complete “Mass for Pentecost” by João Madureira, written for and premièred by the group in the same year. In 2011 the second volume of the Diapora project, entitled “Terra” was issued, to great acclaim. The group’s recordings have frequently received, since 2008 the highest raiting (5 stars) in the main newspapers and magazines in Portugal (Expresso, Diário de Notícias, Público, Jornal de Letras,…) and has been highlighted on both general and specialist radio stations (RDP Antena 1 and 2, TSF,…) as “Editor’s Choice”. Particularly significant internationally was the review by Robert Levett of “Kleine Musik: in International Record Review. In 2008 and 2011, the two titles in the Diaspora series, “Diaspora.pt” and “Terra” were the top sellers at the shops in the FNAC chain. In 2010, “Diaspora.pt” was chosen for inclusion in the “FNAC Guide to Classical Music” as part of the “Essential Discography”, and the trajectory of Sete Lágrimas was the subject of an article in “Alma Lusitana”.

In 2011 Sete Lágrimas will give the world première of the commission from the writer José Luís Peixoto (b. 1974) winner of, amongst others, the José Saramago Literary Prize, and the composer João Madureira, the work “Lamento”, at the Coimbra Arts Festival, and also “Terra” as part of the season at the Centro Cultural de Belém (CCB), with guests Mayra Andrade (Cape Verde) and António Zambujo (Portugal). The group’s next projects include the launch in 2012 of the CD “En tus brazos una noche”, dedicated to the romances and songs of Manuel Machado (c.1590-1646) and a tour of the Diaspora project to Sweden (Stockholm Early Music Festival), Italy (Festival internazionale W. A. Mozart a Rovereto) and France (Sablé-sur-Sarthe, Festival Baroque de Sablé). In 2011/2012 Sete Lágrimas is an Associate Ensemble of the Centro Cultural de Belém (CCB), and will give three concerts with the overall title “Triptych of the Earth: “Terra”, “Vento” and “Pedra”, as well as a concert as part of the Music Days Festival. Sete Lágrimas is represented by the Arte das Musas agency and its discs published on the MU Records label. Its recording projects and touring seasons have been supported since 2006 by the Secretariat of State for Culture, the Direcção Geral das Artes and Delta Cafés. English translation: Ivan Moody Project financed by: Secretaria de Estado da Cultura/Direcção-Geral das Artes | Support: Delta Cafés | Associate Ensemble Season 2011/2012: CCB – Centro Cultural de Belém (Lisbon/Portugal) | Management: Arte das Musas