Country representing: Portugal
Number of performers in the whole group: 30
Group website: https://www.divocanto.pt/coro
Competitions Participating In: Mixed Choirs, Open Choirs
Biography:
Coral Divo Canto is an amateur mixed choir, consisting of about 40 elements without any age limit, which is part of the homonymous Cultural Association.
History
The choirs activity began on April 2nd 2003, having appeared for the first time in concert on April 24, 2004 composed of about 35 elements, some of which remain to this day. Its first conductor was Nuno António Campos.
It has a very eclectic repertoire, which includes classical, contemporary, traditional Portuguese, sacred and profane compositions. Of these, the opera “Orfeo ed Euridice” by C.W. Gluck, presented in 2014 and the Messe brève by Leo Delibes, presented in 2023, should be highlighted.
The Choir has performed in concerts numerous times in the Iberian Peninsula, having performed in 2018 a series of concerts in Switzerland and in 2023 in France. In 2023 they were live on Portuguese public television (RTP1) on two occasions, representing the municipality of Penacova.
Most recently, they went to London at the invitation of the Diaspora for Portugal Without Fire – UK and The Anglo-Portuguese Society, already in 2024. Having performed for more than an hour at Actors Church – St Paul’s Church, Covent Garden and participated in the celebratory mass of the 300th anniversary of the Portuguese Embassy in London, together with the resident choir, at the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, Warwick Street.
Activities
The Divo Canto Choir has done an important job of raising awareness of the people of the municipality of Penacova for choral music, frequently performing concerts in different parishes of this municipality, of which the project “6 months, 6 cantos” carried out in the year 2023.
As a cultural promoter of the municipality, it annually organizes its Anniversary Concert, the Penacova Choir Meeting and a Christmas Concert to which it invites national and foreign choirs.
Coral Divo Canto has already had the opportunity to work with several artistic directions, namely with Maestro Gonçalo Rocha and Prof. Celestino Maria Ortet. It has been conducted since 2009 by Maestro Pedro André Rodrigues.
