1976
2024

About

The Póvoa de Varzim International Music Festival - Costa Verde - Portugal (FIMPV) was created in July 1979 by the local gaming zone concessionaire SOPETE, SA, on the proposal of the pianist Sequeira Costa dated 18 September 1978 and officially confirmed by the company's management on 14 November 1978.

The founding of the FIMPV obeyed four core objectives that were to continue throughout history: presentation of internationally renowned performers and the most relevant Portuguese musicians; launching of young Portuguese interpreters, still unknown to the general public; valorization of the region's architectural monuments as concert spaces; and promotion of the region in Portugal and abroad. Underlying these objectives has been the constant concern for the dissemination of masterpieces of great European music of all times and support for contemporary creation.

The Ministry of Culture / State Secretariat for Culture has provided structural support since 1997. Some national and regional companies also contribute financially under the Patronage Act, albeit on a residual basis. The successor company of SOPETE, now Varzim Sol, SA, concessionaire of the gambling zone of Póvoa de Varzim, abandoned the partnership in early 2006. The FIMPV benefits from the collaboration established with some of the most beautiful religious temples in the region, such as concert spaces, namely the Matriz, Lapa, S. José de Ribamar and Misericórdia Churches (Póvoa de Varzim) and the Romanesque Church of S. Pedro de Rates.

Although located in Póvoa de Varzim, in the first editions its direct influence was felt throughout the North of the country (namely Braga, Viana do Castelo, Porto, Vila do Conde, Ponte de Lima, Amares, Barcelos, Caminha, Valença, Guimarães, Vila Nova de Famalicão and Vila Real), the FIMPV contributed decisively to arouse curiosity and to form an own and renewed public of editing for edition, in an admirable effort of cultural decentralization pioneering at the time.

Throughout its 40 years of existence, the FIMPV has promoted renowned national and foreign artists, revealing young Portuguese talent through partnerships with the RDP Young Musicians Award and the Estoril Music Festival.

highlight names such as
Aldo Ciccolini 1981
Alexander Melnikov 1997, 2000, 2007, 2011, 2017
Alfred Brendel 1983
Amandine Beyer Violin 2002 (debut in Portugal), 2009, 2010, 2012, 2015
Ana Bela Chaves Viola 1979, 2009
Ana Mafalda Castro Harpsichord 1991, 1993, 1994, 1997, 2002, 2006
António Saiote Clarinet 1993, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2008, 2017
Anner Bylsma Cello 1993, 1995
Augustin Dumay Violin 2008
Ballet Gulbenkian 1982, 1994, 1995, 1996
Cantus Kölln 2001 (debut in Portugal)
Carlos Alves Clarinet 1991, 1999, 2016
Concerto Italiano 1994 (debut in Portugal), 1998, 2008
Jorge Matta 1991, 1994, 2007
Michel Corboz 2012, 2015, 2016
David Levine 1983
Fabio Biondi Violin/ and musical direction 1993 (debut in Portugal), 1998, 2006
Fausto Neves Fausto Neves
Gabrieli Consort & Players and Paul McCreesh 1997 (debut in Portugal), 1998, 2000, 2013
Gerardo Ribeiro Violin 1980, 1989, 1993, 1994, 1999
Graindelavoix 2009 (debut in Portugal)
Gustav Leonhardt Harpsichord 2008
Helena Sá e Costa 1981
Hespèrion XXI 2005, 2006
Huelgas Ensemble and Paul van Nevel 1996-1998, 2004, 2012
Iossif Grinman Violin 1994
Isabelle Faust Violin 2007, 2011
Josep Colóm 1997
Miguel Borges Coelho piano 1996, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2013, 2017
Mstislav Rostropovitch Cello 1981
Nelson Freire 2003
Nikolaï Lugansky 2002, 2004, 2007
Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música 2015, 2016, 2017
Orquestra Gulbenkian 1980 - 1986, 1992, 2000, 2015
Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa 1994, 2017
Orquestra Nacional de Espanha 1996
Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa 1994
Paul Tortelier Cello 1981, 1985
Quartetos de Cordas Alban Berg 1999, 2001
Pavel Haas 2011 (debut in Portugal), 2012, 2017
Prázak 1997 (debut in Portugal), 1998, 2000, 2004, 2007
Ardeo 2013 (debut in Portugal) and Ebène (2014)
Pedro Burmester 1983, 1989, 1991, 1993-1995, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2009, 2013
Tom Koopman Harpsichord 1992, 2001
Vadim Repin Violin 1997 (debut in Portugal)
Among many others
Throughout its history, the FIMPV has sought to keep abreast of and sometimes anticipate the aesthetic tendencies of contemporary musical art by providing the most respected mentors of the "historically informed" ancient music and the international exponents of the classical-romantic repertoire and contemporaneity.
It continues to give strong support to the new values of Portuguese creation and interpretation, without neglecting the effort to attract and train new audiences through various complementary activities and parallel manifestations, many of them throughout the year, serving as a result of the resulting synergies regular EMPV, QV and CICPV initiatives.