Concert Proceeds to Support UMass Lowell’s Portuguese Center
09/24/2015
Media contacts: Nancy Cicco, 978-934-4944 or Nancy_Cicco@uml.edu and Christine Gillette, 978-934-2209 or Christine_Gillette@uml.edu
LOWELL, Mass. – In an evening filled with folk songs and musical virtuosity, Portuguese fado singer Ana Laíns will perform in concert at UMass Lowell to benefit the university’s Saab-Pedroso Center for Portuguese Culture and Research.
Emerging in the 19th century as a distinctly Portuguese art form, fado music captures the everyday life and aspirations of working-class people and their love of the sea. Laíns – named a best female singer in Portugal’s Grande Noite de Fado, the country’s top musical competition – will appear in Lowell as part of her first U.S. tour. She will be joined on stage by singer Pedro Galveias and musicians Sandro Costa and Tô Neto.
“Sounds of Portugal: An Evening of Fado with Ana Laíns and Guests” will be held on Friday, Oct. 23 at 7 p.m. in Durgin Concert Hall, located at 35 Wilder St. on UMass Lowell’s South Campus. A pre-concert reception with the artists will be held at 5:30 p.m. in the atrium of the Health and Social Sciences Building, 113 Wilder St.
Tickets, which are $30 per person for the concert only or $100 per person for the reception and the show, are available at www.alumni.uml.edu/fado or by calling 978-934-5199. Concert tickets will be sold at the door the night of the event. Free parking convenient to both the reception and the concert venue is available in the Wilder Lot at the intersection of Wilder and Broadway streets.
Event proceeds will support programs available to students and the public through UMass Lowell’s Saab-Pedroso Center for Portuguese Culture and Research, which promotes the study of the language, literature and cultures of the Portuguese-speaking world, comprised of 230 million people in eight countries on four continents. The center is named in honor of Mark and Elisia Saab of Lowell and Luis Pedroso of Hampton, N.H., whose generosity helped launch the initiative.
The center organizes events and programs for the campus and the public, conducts research related to the history and experience of Portuguese-speaking people and promotes the economic and civic advancement of Portuguese-American communities, particularly those in the Merrimack Valley and throughout Massachusetts. Part of UMass Lowell’s College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, the center is directed by Frank Sousa, professor of Portuguese in UMass Lowell’s Department of Cultural Studies.
The event is part of UMass Lowell Chancellor Jacquie Moloney’s First 90 initiative (#First90), which is using the first 90 days of her administration to advance programs important to the second phase of the university’s strategic plan, “UMass Lowell 2020.”
The fado concert is also part of UMass Lowell’s River Hawk Homecoming, which will be held Friday, Oct. 23 and Saturday, Oct. 24. The show is presented by the Saab-Pedroso Center, the College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, and the Office of Advancement, in partnership with the Portuguese/American Cultural Exchange (PACE).
The event is also one of a handful of programs that complement the exhibit “The Lure of the Spindle: The Portuguese in Early 20th Century Lowell,” which traces the lives and impact of immigrants who worked in the city’s textile mills more than 100 years ago. The exhibit runs through Tuesday, Dec. 1 at the Boott Cotton Mills Museum, 115 John St., Lowell. The “Lure of the Spindle” and the following related programs, also to be held at the museum, are open to the public and admission is free:
- “Portuguese-Americans in a New England Mill Town,” Tuesday, Sept. 29 at 5:30 p.m. Author George Monteiro will reflect on his upbringing and the lives of laborers in his family from Valley Falls, R.I.
- “Growing Up Portuguese in Lowell,” Tuesday, Nov. 10 at 5:30 p.m. Five Portuguese-Americans whose roots in the city stretch back to the early 20th century will share their family stories.
UMass Lowell is a national research university located on a high-energy campus in the heart of a global community. The university offers its 17,500 students bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in business, education, engineering, fine arts, health, humanities, sciences and social sciences. UMass Lowell delivers high-quality educational programs, vigorous hands-on learning and personal attention from leading faculty and staff, all of which prepare graduates to be ready for work, for life and for all the world offers. www.uml.edu