As part of the project to record all the motets by the Portuguese composer Vicento Lusitano, the Arte Minima ensemble, founded in 2011 by the researcher Pedro Sousa Silva, presents ‘The Secret Music of Vicente Lusitano – the motets in 6 and 8 parts’. The concert will occur on July 19 at 10 pm in the Igreja Matriz of Vila do Conde.

Nearby, in Porto, the group has been developing the ‘In Memoriam Sonorum’ project, a series of artistic mini-residencies. The aim is to explore the content of two Renaissance manuscripts from the Monastery of São Bento da Vitória, the local of this second event. The weekend of July 13-14 will be followed by the next two, July 20-21 and 27-28. Admission is free between 8 pm and midnight on Saturday and 3 pm to 7 pm on Sunday.

More than just concerts, these initiatives are a guided tour of the music of the past. The goal is to invite the general public to follow the group’s work, ask questions, and interact with the musicians. It is an opportunity to hear forgotten works from the past for the first time in modern times in an informed and contextualised way.

The projects have the support of DRCN, the GDA Foundation, DGArtes, CESEM, ESMAE-IPP, the Polytechnic Institute of Porto, PORTIC – Porto Research, Technology & Innovation Centre, DRCN and Antena 2. In 2023, the group won tenders from the Criatório (Porto City Council), Caixa Cultura (CGD), and GDA Foundation programmes for projects in 2024.