Four musicians. Four countries. Four musical universes. One common language.
Cuarteto Travessia was born in Lisbon’s vibrant music scene, from the meeting of four women musicians from four different countries (Argentina, Italy, Germany and Portugal), each with her own musical universe. All of them have different active projects, and they sought each other out and chose one another to pursue a shared dream: to explore a popular repertoire, mainly Latin American but not only, through the sound of the string quartet.
Laila Prieto (violin), from Argentina, brings the passion for Tango that runs in her blood. Erica Freo (violin), from Italy, has surrendered to the warmth and joy of Brazilian music. Kristina Van de Sand (viola), from Germany, moves between the precision of minimal music and the freedom of improvisation. Mafalda Nascimento (cello), from Portugal, combines the depth of Edwin Gordon’s pedagogy with the serenity of someone who knows how to listen to silence.
From the very start they felt a strong synergy, both in sound (satisfying the longing to play in the timeless string quartet format) and in style (in their choice of repertoire), along with great enthusiasm, which spread through the international community of artists around them: musicians, composers, singers and dancers, united by the pleasure of creating without borders.
And that is precisely what they are delighted to premiere at this show on July 8: their first explorations as a quartet, with a repertoire selected with great care and enthusiasm, and their first collaborations with great musicians and friends who immediately showed a warm eagerness for this partnership. Ariel Rodriguez (composer and pianist, Argentina), Martin Sued (composer and bandoneon player, Argentina), Filipa Biscaia (fado singer, Portugal), Laura Venturini (singer, Italy) and other friends will join them on some pieces to inaugurate this path of taking classical sounds to new places, in this geographical and musical crossing (travessia) that is the foundation and goal of the project.
Come and join this collective celebration!
The direction has been chosen and the path is unfolding: to explore among themselves and collaborate with artists from various fields and countries, in order to break down traditional boundaries and take classical sounds to new places.
