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Music in the Mountains

How a BU alum founded the Bendada Music Festival and helped revitalize a forgotten Portuguese village

I
t’s a warm July evening here in the village of Bendada—

a tiny enclave of terra-cotta roofs and whitewashed concrete walls in the mountains of northern Portugal—and the residents are gathered at a hilltop cruzeiro for a concert. Beyond, the Portuguese high country stretches for miles to the west, olive groves and farmhouses breaking up the rocky landscape.

Standing in front of the crowd, 18-year-old Duarte Andrade bows feverishly through the fugue from Bach’s Violin Sonata in G minor, a piece he’s been practicing all day. His cousin Inês Andrade looks on, attentive to his technique. She is the reason they are all here. She is the founder of the Bendada Music Festival, which for the past three years has brought aspiring young musicians from the region, as well as from the United States and Europe, to this village for an intense week of instruction and performance.
Watch a short documentary about how the Bendada Music Festival brings this sleepy mountain town to life.

For eight days, the baroque sounds of classical music echo through these hills and bring to life an otherwise sleepy rural village. Modeled on educational summer music programs like the BU Tanglewood Institute, the festival includes private instruction for students ages 8 to 24 in violin, viola, cello, flute, clarinet, guitar, piano, and voice, as well as daily small, often intimate, concerts throughout the area.

Pianist Inês Andrade (CFA’18), who grew up in Lisbon and regularly traveled to Bendada to visit relatives, conceived of the music festival as a Doctor of Musical Arts student at the College of Fine Arts. “I always knew I wanted to do more with music than just perform concerts,” she says. “I wanted to create something that could make an impact on a whole community.”

Bendada Music Festival founder Inês Andrade performs on a black grand piano.Photo taken from behind the piano looking at the performer.
I wanted to create something
that could make an impact on
a whole community.”
INÊS ANDRADE

She enlisted the help of her chamber music group Virtuoso Soloists: pianist Edoardo Carpenedo (CFA’19), who grew up in Venice and likes to wax poetic about the rock-star lifestyle of 19th-century piano virtuoso Franz Liszt; violist Yoni Battat (CFA’15), who is from Connecticut and recently returned from a year in Israel studying and performing Arabic music, Mizrahi Jewish music, and klezmer; and cellist Gracie Keith (CFA’19), who comes from Texas and has even the Portuguese kids saying “y’all” by the end of each festival.

Inês Andrade and her BU colleagues teach the festival courses, along with five instructors from conservatory programs in Portugal and the United States. Most of the students are from Portugal, but this year they also hail from Italy and the United States.

Full color slideshow photo of Dulce Ferreira, a guitar student from Lisbon, Portugal, practices playing a classical guitar in the historic rehearsal space of Sociedade Filarmónica Bendadense.
Full color slideshow photo of Boston University student Edoardo Carpenedo, a Bendada Music Festival co-founder and instructor, leading a piano lesson with a student from Fundão, Portugal.
Full color slideshow photo of an exterior view of the entrance to the Casa Da Musica Da Bendada music school with Bendada Music Festival attendees outside.
Full color slideshow photo of a female Bendada Music Festival student practicing her saxophone on a stairwell in between two buildings while four of her friends listen and watch.
Full color slideshow photo showing a stunning view looking down on the village of Bendada, Portugal from a mountain side vista. Blue skies, green trees, pastures and mountain sides, and the terra-cotta roofs and white buildings of Bendada can be seen.
Full color slideshow photo of Bendada Music Festival founder Ines Andrade leading a piano lesson with a student in the Casa Da Musica Da Bendada concert hall. The student, sitting at a baby grand piano, and teacher are silhouetted against floor to ceiling windows with a vista view of Bendada and the distant Portugal mountains.
Full color slideshow photo of Bendada Music Festival instructors and students eat lunch together at a long common table during a break between lessons.
Full color slideshow photo of Cello instructor and Boston University student Gracie Keith practicing in the office of the Casa Da Musica Da Bendada.
Full color slideshow photo of Cello instructor Gracie Keith leads a chamber music quartet, with students playing two violins and a viola, in playing Beethoven's String Quartet No. 2 in G major.
Full color slideshow photo of Bendada Music Festival Flute instructor Margarida Quitalo her student Beatriz Leal standing side by side in front of granite columns performing on a hilltop overlooking the village of Bendada.
Full color slideshow profile portrait of Francesca Baldo, a violin student from Padua, Italy, holding her violin and bow as she watches her fellow music students perform in Bendada's village square.
Full color slideshow photo of piano student Margarida Pacheco wearing sunglasses, performing on a digital piano for the villagers of Bendada in the coreto, a covered bandstand in the town square.
Full color slideshow photo of Bendada Music Festival students and Bendada villagers gathered sitting and standing in the shade of the coreto bandstand watching a festival performance.
Black and white slideshow navigation image of Dulce Ferreira, a guitar student from Lisbon, Portugal, practices playing a classical guitar in the historic rehearsal space of Sociedade Filarmónica Bendadense.
Black and white slideshow navigation image of Boston University student Edoardo Carpenedo, a Bendada Music Festival co-founder and instructor, leading a piano lesson with a student from Fundão, Portugal.
Black and white slideshow navigation image showing an exterior view of the entrance to the Casa Da Musica Da Bendada music school with Bendada Music Festival attendees outside.
Black and white slideshow navigation image of a female Bendada Music Festival student practicing her saxophone on a stairwell in between two buildings while four of her friends listen and watch.
Black and white slideshow navigation image showing a stunning view looking down on the village of Bendada, Portugal from a mountain side vista.
Black and white slideshow navigation image of Bendada Music Festival founder Ines Andrade leading a piano lesson with a student in the Casa Da Musica Da Bendada concert hall.
Black and white slideshow navigation image of Bendada Music Festival instructors and students eat lunch together at a long common table during a break between lessons.
Black and white slideshow navigation image of Cello instructor and Boston University student Gracie Keith practicing in the office of the Casa Da Musica Da Bendada.
Black and white slideshow navigation image of Cello instructor Gracie Keith leads a chamber music quartet, with students playing two violins and a viola, in playing Beethoven's String Quartet No. 2 in G major.
Black and white slideshow navigation image of Bendada Music Festival Flute instructor Margarida Quitalo her student Beatriz Leal standing side by side in front of granite columns performing on a hilltop overlooking the village of Bendada.
Black and white slideshow navigation image profile portrait of Francesca Baldo, a violin student from Padua, Italy, holding her violin and bow as she watches her fellow music students perform in Bendada's village square.
Black and white slideshow navigation image of piano student Margarida Pacheco wearing sunglasses, performing on a digital piano for the villagers of Bendada in the coreto.
Black and white slideshow navigation image of Bendada Music Festival students and Bendada villagers gathered sitting and standing in the shade of the coreto bandstand watching a festival performance.

Dulce Ferreira, a guitar student from Lisbon, Portugal, practices in the historic rehearsal space of the Filarmónica Bendadense, Bendada’s homegrown wind ensemble, which has been performing regularly since it was founded in 1870. Photo by Devin Hahn

Edoardo Carpenedo (CFA’19), one of the Bendada Music Festival’s founding instructors, leads a lesson in piano with António Antunes, a student from Fundão, Portugal. Photo by Devin Hahn

The Casa da Música da Bendada opened in 2015 with funding from a European Union grant. The music school features soundproof practice rooms, a state-of-the-art concert hall, and other facilities critical to the operation of the Bendada Music Festival. Photo by Devin Hahn

During the week of the festival, music can be heard echoing throughout the nooks and crannies of Bendada as students take every opportunity to practice between lessons and performances. Photo by Jason Kimball

The village of Bendada sits on a hillside in the municipality of Sabugal in Portugal’s mountainous Beira region, several hours’ drive from the major cities of Lisbon and Porto. The Bendada Music Festival is supported by the city council of Sabugal, and has received sponsorships from many nearby cities and private associations. Photo by Devin Hahn

Inês Andrade (CFA’18), founder of the Bendada Music Festival, leads Matilde Vicente in a piano lesson in the Casa da Música’s state-of-the-art concert hall. Photo by Jason Kimball

Village residents help out in any way they can, from hosting students in their homes to cooking meals for the students and staff. Here, students and their instructors eat lunch together during a much-deserved break from lessons. Photo by Devin Hahn

Cello instructor Gracie Keith (CFA’19) grabs a quick practice between lessons in the office of the Casa da Música da Bendada, the base of operations for the Bendada Music Festival. Photo by Jason Kimball

Every student at the festival is placed in a chamber music group to give them the opportunity to play with other musicians. Here, cello instructor Gracie Keith leads Duarte Andrade (violin), Beatriz Tomás (violin), and Ana Sofia Mendes (viola), through the final section of Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 2 in G major. Photo by Devin Hahn

Flute instructor Margarida Quítalo performs with her student Beatriz Leal on the hilltop overlooking the village of Bendada. Festival organizers often bring classical music out of the concert hall and into unexpected locations. Photo by Edoardo Carpenedo

Waiting her turn to take the stage, Francesca Baldo, a violin student from Padua, Italy, looks on as her fellow music students perform in Bendada’s village square. Photo by Edoardo Carpenedo

Margarida Pacheco, a piano student from Fundão, Portugal, performs for the villagers in the coreto, a covered bandstand in Bendada’s town square. Photo by Devin Hahn

Students and villagers mingle in the shade of the coreto, watching one of the many concerts that take place in the village during the week. Photo by Devin Hahn

It may seem extraordinary that students would travel hours from the major coastal cities of Lisbon and Porto to a town so small that it has no supermarket. But Bendada is particuarly well equipped to host a music festival. The village has an active local woodwind ensemble, the Sociedade Filarmónica Bendadense, which first played in 1870. (Inês and Duarte’s great-great-grandparents were among its founding members.) And in 2015, Bendada’s rich musical legacy led to the opening of the Casa da Música da Bendada, a well-appointed music school built with funding from a European Union grant. The building, with its soundproof practice rooms and a modern concert hall overlooking the valley below, is the home base for the Bendada Music Festival.

Throughout the week, the Casa da Música stairwells and the cobbled pathways around the school are full of the sounds of practicing students, from a guitar player quietly strumming the opening chords of Roland Dyens’ Fuoco to a violinist playing Bach to a pair of woodwind students working through Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.

Tara Hagle and Manuel Mesquita in Belmonte Castle - Astor Piazzolla: Histoire du Tango - I. Bordel 1900
Audio — 5 minutes 17 seconds
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“It’s unbelievable how a small mountain village in a remote region has such good conditions to make music,” says Inês Andrade.

Another draw for students is the number of public concerts they perform during the week. “In other festivals, you have just one concert at the very end,” says 18-year-old Catarina Costa, a violin student from Lisbon. “But at Bendada we have concerts every day.” They play in nearby towns and all over Bendada—in the mountains, in the village square, at a retirement home.

policastro-flint
Performance in Malcata
policastro-perdue
Performance in Bendada
policastro-bots
Performance in Belmonte

The villagers are among the festival’s most ardent supporters. They house students for the week, participate in an adult choir that performs alongside the students, and even prepare daily meals for the festival participants. They enjoy the vitality the festival brings to the village. “The older people in the village especially, it’s hard for them to go anywhere else,” Inês Andrade says. “So we try to bring the world to them, even if it’s just for a week.”

“Really,” she says, “the festival could not happen if there weren’t such a welcoming community that was willing to help and collaborate with everything.”

“The village is the hero of the festival,” Carpenedo says. “I think Bendada is the hidden jewel of northern Portugal. You get this sense of authenticity that is both humbling and peaceful to experience.”

Inês Andrade hopes the event will rejuvenate the town and others like it. Over the past generation, Bendada and other small villages of Portugal’s mountainous interior region have suffered crises of depopulation and economic stagnation.

Town native Vítor Andrade is an economics reporter for Expresso, Portugal’s largest newspaper. “When I was a child here,” he says, “Bendada had almost 2,000 people. Now we don’t have 200.”

This year’s festival brought much-needed attention to Bendada. On the fifth day, a crew from SIC Television, Portugal’s major broadcaster, arrived to film a segment for a feature on the importance of music to the country’s small villages. That same day, Ana Mendes Godinho, Portugal’s secretary of state for tourism, came to hear the students perform. She believes cultural events like the Bendada Music Festival are key to improving the area’s economy. “This is an amazing event, because it shows the potential to bring life back to a village that had been abandoned, using music and culture,” Godinho says. “Bendada is a case study that everyone in Portugal should be looking at.”

Inês Andrade belongs to the generation whose parents were born in Bendada, but left to pursue greater economic opportunity elsewhere. “I hope the festival will grow,” she says, “but mainly I hope the festival will help the region grow as well.”

Photo by Edoardo Carpenedo