Academic Choir of Minho University

The Academic Choir of Minho University is a non-profit association, founded in January of 1989, and recognized as public entity in June of 2004. Throughout the way, it has built its own identity regarding the Portuguese cultural background, putting together the joy of its youth and the charms of the choral music although the epochs, especially of the Portuguese music.

Founded with the purpose of spreading choral and instrumental music and providing a place and opportunity or its members to interact through music, the Academic Choir of Minho University, has carried out more than four hundred concerts. Although the Choir is now composed of around fifty elements, more than six hundred members have been a part of this group.

Favouring the acapella repertoire, from the renaissance to modern times, the have also been occasions where it has been accompanied by a quintet of metals or a quartet of strings. The presence of this group in the musical scenario has been characterized by a view of openness and plurality, having already collaborated with several groups of vast musical areas. The Academic Choir of Minho University commenced its presentation to the outside world participating in a big variety of choir festivals.

It has organized both national and international tours through Brazil (2004); the Madeira archipelago (2006); the Azores archipelago (2009); Algarve (2012); Paris, Basel, Zurich and Luxembourg (2013); Italy (2015); Prague and Berlin (2016); Cape Verde (2017), under a musical and social; and Bulgaria and Romania (2018).

Since 1995 the choir has been launching several CDs: “Vozes e Espaços”, Voices and Spaces, (2001); “Coro Sobre Azul”, Choir on Blue, (2002); “Hino da Universidade”, University’s Hymn, (2002); “Dormindo está o Menino”, The sleeping Baby, (2006); “Homenagem a Fernando C. Lapa”, Homage to Fernando C. Lapa, the first conductor and founder of the Academic Choir of Minho University, (2006); “Na Promessa de uma Canção”, the promise of a song, homage to Rui Paulo Teixeira, former conductor of the choir for more than a decade, (2017).

In the 9th of January of 2019, the Academic Choir of Minho University celebrated its 30th anniversary with the organization of a concert in which participated several international groups the choir had contact with during its many tours around the world. In this event, there were present the Gruppo Polifonico Claudio Monteverdi, a male choral group from Italy; Voces Female Choir, a female choir from Romania, and Kaku Alves, a musician from Cape Verde. As a representation of our University, we also invited 3 cultural groups called: Gatuna, University ‘Tuna’ of Minho and Azeituna.

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