STRING QUINTET

The Toddlers Suite, by Jorge Salgueiro, is a work commissioned for Foco Musical’s music education program. Writing from children’s traditional music themes, for Sting Quintet, it consists of six movements. At each time, the solo instrument is presented and demonstrations of the techniques featured in this piece are made. The quintet is “disassembled” in dialogue with the animator, so that the different functions of each instrument in each of the pieces can be learned: First Violin, Second Violin, Viola, Cello and Doublebass.

WIND QUINTET

Imaginarium, op. 115 by Jorge Salgueiro, is also a work commissioned for Foco Musical’s educational project. Written from traditional motifs from different parts of the globe for Wind Quintet (Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Horn and Bassoon), it consists of five movements. At each movement, the world region to which our “imaginary” refers is presented and demonstrations of the highlighted techniques in this musical piece are made.

METAL GROUP

With similar criteria to those used in the construction of the repertoire of the other Didactic Orchestra Ensembles, this program for Brass Quintet (two Trumpets, French Horn, Trombone and Tuba) bets on the recognition of the so-called Soundtracks from the animation classics with this Animated Suite, ending up with one of the most successful music pieces of the seventh art.

PERCUSSION ENSEMBLE

A Percussion Ensemble is a small music group that is dedicated to the repertoire exclusively written for percussion instruments. They are called percussion instruments because, for the most part, to produce sound they have to be percuted, that is, striked. These can be percuted with the hand, drum sticks or pedals, however, there are many percussion instruments that produce sound when shaken, shaved, pinched or rubbed. The repertoire adopted for the Percussion Ensemble of the Didactic Orchestra of Foco Musical consists of the Children’s Miniatures that Jorge Salgueiro wrote from the children’s traditional Portuguese repertoire. With this quartet, we get to know some of the most used percussion instruments by symphonic orchestras (such as bass drum, timpani, vibraphone, xylophone, glockenspiel…).

COMBO JAZZ

The purpose of this Classroom Concert program is to meet some characteristic elements of jazz music, namely, rhythmic, stylistic, harmonics and improvisation. The selection of musical pieces fell on classic themes of the jazz and blues repertoire, some readapted with titles and texts more desirable for the audience target of the Didactic Orchestra, others with (re)harmonizations and arrangements of themes extracted from the traditional children’s repertoire put in jazz style. This Classroom Concert also foresees, in dialogue with an animator, an audience participation. The formation of this “combo” consists of a classic quintet of this genre: saxophone, electric guitar, electric piano, doublebass and drum set.

VOCAL QUARTET

The Vocal Quartet seeks to materialize and consolidate knowledge concerning to vocal classification, singing techniques and sound production through the voice, opening the way for the discovery of new sounds and new windows on the freedom of creation and interpretation. Always in a perspective of participated music listening in which the score includes, not only a part for the audience to be prepared in the classroom context or in the moment prior to the concert, as well as interaction games in repetition and/or response to materialize in time real. This ensemble is also structured based on the interests of the classroom, essentially promoting the deepening of knowledge, distinction and respective classification of the vocal registers that make up this ensemble (soprano, contralto, tenor and bass) and the most common techniques in vocal interpretation.