Teaching is also a challenge to creativity, in a constant search for new approaches. With teachers from preschool and primary schools in mind, we designed one-day training sessions based on innovative processes that demonstrate how music can be a comprehensive working tool in the classroom. These are artistic and creative proposals that can be replicated within the school context and easily acquire an interdisciplinary character. They involve dynamic practices motivating the school community and encouraging interaction among the students and between the students and the teacher. Along with the educational purpose, Training at Casa da Música allows music teachers and teachers of other subjects the opportunity to enjoy these workshops that contribute to their professional and personal development.

Experimentation and immediate creation validate the intensive courses of Digitópia, the technological and digital platform of Casa da Música. Eminently practical, these courses reflect the opportunities of musical achievement that are now available to most people, relying on processes and languages of creative programming.

Exploring the software at the service of musical performance or building sound narratives and sculptures gives content to these training sessions design for musicians, digital artists, programmers, teachers and other professionals or students interested in electronic music and digital art. In order to celebrate 10 years of Digitópia, this year's program involves partner institutions of Casa da Música in five new proposals conducted by a panel of Portuguese and foreign trainers.

This year the layout of the courses will be different. Two of the proposals will take up only one day (Saturday). The others continue to last a whole weekend, but Saturday’s and Sunday’s sessions are no longer independent, and there is only one ticket for both days.

In its 8th edition, the Open Course on the History of Music develops five new themes throughout the year of 2017.

Paulo Ferreira de Castro takes us on a journey with five giants of British music, exploring the works of Edward Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst, Frederick Delius and Benjamin Britten.

Daniel Moreira devotes the second module to the relationship between music and emotions, showing how, at different times, styles and genres, composers are able to produce a certain expressive effect (anguished, comic or passionate music, for example) from the intrinsic characteristics of music (such as melody, harmony and instrumentation).

William Shakespeare is one of the great figures in the history of literature. He worked at the English court, where he interacted with leading composers from the Elizabethan period. Over time, his works have inspired many composers. From the court theater to the big screen or the concert halls, the Bard has left his mark on our culture. These appropriations of the Shakespearean universe will be the topic developed by João Silva.

Rui Pereira returns to the Open Course on the History of Music to talk about some of the most famous stories of the musical repertoire, covering renowned symphonic poems and exploring the lexicon used to communicate the extramusical ideas through music.

In October, the harpsichordist Fernando Miguel Jalôto closes the course exploring the fascinating subject of the Rhetoric in Baroque music. Designed for audiences with different backgrounds and without a particular knowledge of music, the course provides a general framework on various topics of music history and our culture in a multidisciplinary perspective.

Mondays 17:30-19:15

Auditório Fundação EDP

Individual modules of two sessions: € 20

Individual modules of three sessions: € 28

Individual modules of four sessions: € 35

Entire course: € 90

Eleven editions in consecutive years demonstrate the success and validity of a course that prepares musicians for the implementation and leadership of activities in a community context. In 2016/17 we welcomed new participants, and our records and concept allow us to have some certainties: first, it will be a diverse group with many musical backgrounds; second, we will develop a practical work involving our guest communities, and that translates into an effective reunion and the assimilation of different social and artistic sensibilities; third, innovative musical approaches will be made, conducted by an international team of trainers. But that's not all. In a course characterized by multiculturalism, the participants are also artists, forming an ensemble with a unique identity that will undertake some intense musical and performative experiences. In short, it will be good.

With the duration of one school year, this course comprises three modules that integrate several projects and original productions of the Education Service. Composition, improvisation and the capability of articulating different agents in a community environment are some of the skills developed in a program that will be presented to the public in artistic manifestations with significant social impact. All this is reflected in Sonópolis, the final performance that displays the sound mosaic of the city and brings to the stage the Ensemble of the Training Course for Music Performers and several communities.