Cistermúsica and Gravíssimo! nominated for the Iberian Festival Awards

Alcobaça Festivals are between the nominees for the awards that distinguish best Festivals in Portugal and Spain

Cistermúsica - Alcobaça Music Festival, and Gravíssimo! - Low Brass International Festival and Academy, organized and produced by Banda de Alcobaça/Alcobaça Music Academy have been, for the second consecutive year, nominated in the Iberian Festival Awards 5th edition.

Cistermúsica competes in two categories: Best Small Festival and Best Cultural Programme. The first category is for Festivals with 1500 spectators per day. Here is one of the few Classical Music Festivals in this competition, wich evaluation is carried out by the public until January 7.

On the other hand, a jury will evaluate the Cultural Programme Category, taking into consideration the multidisciplinary character of the Festival Programmation. In 2019 Cistermúsica had several cultural activities supplementing the Main Programme, giving preference to the interaction with the community, as the Music Atelier for Babies, photography workshops, guided tours, talks, and inclusive spectacles.

Gravíssimo! runs for the Best Academic and Young Festival. This category fits perfectly for this Festival, which promotes the interaction between professional musicians and young students and maintains, at the same time, the doors open for the general public, through concerts that explore the versatility of low brass instruments, from chamber music to jazz.

Both Festivals have already announced their dates for 2020, after the publication of the Directorate-General for Arts Public Tender, which has attributed to Banda de Alcobaça / Alcobaça Music Academy Artistic Projects the higher rating in the field of music, establishing once again this institution as “a reference on the national scene”.

In 2020 Cistermúsica will take place from June 26 until July 31, continuing its mission to draw the public at large closer to classical music and celebrating two extraordinary recurrences: 250 years from the Beethoven birth and 500 years from the Circumnavigation. In its turn, Gravíssimo! will take place in the last week of August. The Festival will turn Alcobaça the Low Brass Instruments’ Capital, hosting national and international musicians and amazing concerts.

These two structural artistic activities produced by the Banda de Alcobaça had, in 2019, about 10 thousand spectators, 50 spectacles and hundreds of national and international artists on stage. All winners of the Iberian Festival Awards Winners will be published on next March 14  in Lisbon, on the occasion of the Talkfest - International Music Festival Forum 9h edition.