Portuguese Chamber Orchestra
| Orquestra de Câmara Portuguesa | |
|---|---|
| Orchestra | |
 | |
| Founded | 2007 |
| Concert hall | Centro Cultural de Belém |
| Principal conductor | Pedro Carneiro |
| Website | http://ocp.org.pt |
The Portuguese Chamber Orchestra (OCP) was founded on July 5, 2007 and had its premiere appearance on September 13, 2007, with the opening concert of the 2007/2008 season at the Grand Auditorium of Centro Cultural de Belém, in Lisbon. The programme included the overture of "Der Schauspieldirektor" KV 486,W.A.Mozart; Symphony nr 6 in C Major, D 589, F.Schubert; Ballet suite "Pulcinella", I.Stravinsky. The head office of OCP is in Oeiras, Portugal.
Biography
The artistic direction is assured by Pedro Carneiro, who leads this latest and most virtuous generation of instrumentalists. The Centro Cultural de Belém (CCB) hosted OCP, first as Associate Orchestra, and since 2008 as Orchestra in Residence. OCP performed the opening season concert at CCB in 2007/08 and 2010/11. Their presence at the annual music festival “Music Days in Belém” has been constant, making room for new soloists and conductors such as Pedro Amaral, Pedro Neves, Luís Carvalho, Alberto Roque and Jose Gomes. OCP has worked with composers Emmanuel Nunes and Sofia Gubaidulina and also played with renowned soloists Jorge Moyano, Cristina Ortiz, Sergio Tiempo, Gary Hoffman, Filipe Pinto-Ribeiro, Carlos Alves, Heinrich Schiff, Antonio Rosado, among others. The first international concert of OCP took place at the 2010 City of London Festival, and received 4 stars from The Times:
“(...) That was a highlight of the festival's first evening, but not the only one. Earlier we had heard undeconstructed Chopin: his Second Piano Concerto characterfully played by Cristina Ortiz with the Portuguese Chamber Orchestra. (...) as well as a white-knuckle ride through Beethoven's First Symphony under Pedro Carneiro's flamboyant direction.” The Times 23 Jun 2010.
OCP opened the first Arts Festival of Coimbra, in 2009, and since then has played concerts in the cities of Almada, Castelo Branco, Vila Viçosa, in the festivals of Alcobaça, Leiria and Paços de Brandão, at the Christmas concerts in Lisbon and at the "Festival ao Largo" from the TNSC. In 2013, OCP was the orchestra chosen by the DGPC to take part in the "Network of Concerts 2013 – Classical Music" tour, with presentations in Convent of Christ (Tomar), Jerónimos Monastery, Batalha Monastery and Alcobaça Monastery.
Active citizenship
The vision of OCP is to become one of the best orchestras in the world, asserting itself as a social project with cultural credibility and relevance, a project that is born of a genuine desire for proactive citizenship. OCP has several projects of Social Action: O meu amigo toca na OCP, OCPsolidária, OCPzero and OCPdois.
Sponsors or supporters
Linklaters Portugal was the first private sponsor of OCP, supporting the launch of OCPzero in 2010. OCPzero is formed of music students from all over the country, which is the first step towards becoming a Youth Orchestra of Portugal. In this sense, the European European Federation of National Youth Orchestras (EFNYO), based in Vienna, Austria, welcomed OCPzero as a member, in its dimension as a Youth Orchestra of Portugal. The application of OCPzero was approved unanimously at EFNYO General Assembly in May 2013, in Bucharest. By the end of 2012, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (FCG) joined OCP sponsoring the project OCPsolidary at Cercioeiras. This programme started as an OCP’s initiative on a voluntary basis offered to Cercioeiras in 2009. With the support of FCG a new phase was launched in February 2013 by establishing a thorough and systematic programme that will now take place over the next three years. Within the sector partnership, in 2011, the consultant Everis Portugal SA joined OCP for the development of a strategic management plan and support in the development of a new site. In 2013, PwC began as auditor of OCP and the Municipality of Oeiras became an institutional partner by providing a space for the headquarters of OCP in the former elementary school in Algés.
External links
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