Belo Horizonte to Hastings – the beautiful horizon

Hastings Philharmonic Choir is counting its lucky stars that its popular Brazillian music director from Belo Horizonte, Márcio da Silva, has chosen to settle in St Leonards with his lovely wife, Aysen and their two young children. This opens up an exciting new ‘beautiful horizon’ of possibilities for developing the choir’s abilities and ambitions over time; what is more Márcio will also play a part in the cultural regeneration of Hastings through music, writes Chris Cormack.

Márcio will already bring more visitors to Hastings in the low season with his Opera Academy planned for early April 2016 – the course allows advanced opera student singers to prepare and participate in a fully staged production of Le Nozze di Figaro by Mozart (in Italian) with orchestra and harpsichord. The production shows at St Mary in the Castle on 9/10 April 2016.

Márcio’s opera academy courses have run successfully at Woodhouse Opera in Surrey  with well received performances of Rameau’s Les Indes Galantes (2014) and Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea.

The next production in February 2016 at Woodhouse Copse will cover Armide by Jean-Baptiste Lully performed in French. The baroque music specialist Stephanie Gurga will assist Márcio. 

Márcio, barely over thirty, has an incredible wealth of experience in musical performance accumulated since his early teens in the Phoenix Boys Choir in the USA, leading to setting up and conducting his first choir at age 15. At the same time he has studied and qualified in some of Europe’s most prestigious music schools; in Toulouse, France, Freiburg, Germany and most recently at the Royal College of Music in London. All the while Márcio has conducted and performed in many countries all over Europe.

Aysen, his wife, is a virtuoso in the violin and works all over Europe too – she is a favourite of several orchestras as a soloist in her Bulgarian and Turkish home territory. Aysen’s brother, Özcan Ulucan,  will be performing Vivaldi’s  Four Seasons at the Philharmonic Choir’s next concert on Saturday 14 November. Aysen’s sister is a pianist; and the three siblings are well known in Turkey for their musical performances as the Ulucan trio. With the promise of prospering international careers, a convenient link to Gatwick is useful for the couple. Marcio and Aysen often perform together; they performed Brahms’ difficult but popular violin concerto both in Hastings and Adana, Turkey to great acclaim. Marcio has answered a few questions posed by this HOT reporter:

What made you wish to move to St Leonards?

St Leonards offers a better lifestyle than London for my growing family (Marcio was recently blessed with a daughter following soon after the birth of his son). I am very excited with the things we have accomplished with the Hastings Philharmonic Choir and believe there is huge artistic potential in the region. Hastings seemed like the best choice.

What is your greatest passion, conducting a choir, conducting an orchestra or directing an opera? What special talents are needed for the respective activities (how do these activities compare)?

I can’t really say I prefer one over the other. I feel like I need them all to feel complete as a producing artist. At Woodhouse Opera I have had the chance to direct and conduct over 14 operas in the space of four years an incredible and rare opportunity both to direct and conduct operas. With my two choral societies, Grange choral society in Christchurch and of course the Hastings Philharmonic Choir, I have been able to do great music and, most importantly, I am seeing the result of my work and the change I am being able to create in how the choir sounds and how we approach music together. It is also refreshing to see how our audience keeps growing together with the interest from people in singing with us.

Did you first start conducting with a choir?  It already seems you know intimately so many choral pieces – is this because you are now conducting most pieces for the second or third time round or is it a result of meticulous preparation?

I started conducting at 15 with my vocal ensemble in Brazil which was very active rehearsing three times a week so I have spent most of my life conducting and working with people. Obviously the fact that I am also a singer helps in knowing a good part of the repertoire since I have sung it. However for me what makes it easy for me to approach any piece of music is not so much if I know it in advance or not. It is in fact the knowledge of style. For our coming concert of the three Vivaldi choral pieces only the Gloria is not new to me, but my deep understanding and appreciation of Vivaldi means that the preparation and teaching of pieces like the Credo and the Magnificat is straightforward. I am fortunate to have been taught by specialists in many different areas of music which has made my music education really complete.

Does your busy schedule still allow much time for performing nowadays – would you be sorry if you could not keep up your singing as a soloist too?

Finding time to sing isn’t easy but I have been trying to dedicate more time to it since it is a huge part of who I am. Teaching singing has also become a passion for me and moving to Hastings might also make that easier.

Would you like your children to enter a career in music? How does Aysen see her career developing from a Hastings base?  (an opportunity to mention your and her future plans if you want).

Aysen and I think that they should decide what they want to do with their lives however we both agree that learning music should be part of any person’s life since it develops a level of discipline, focus as well as sensibility that very few activities do. Aysen’s career is now mainly focused in Turkey where she is invited by a number of orchestras for concerts as a soloist. This year we performed together the Brahms Violin concerto in Adana, which we had already performed together in Hastings. Here she hopes she will be able to form a small violin class. She comes from a family of extremely gifted musicians. Her brother, Özcan Ulucan, will be performing the Four Seasons with us on 14 November. Her sister is a pianist and together they from the Ulucan trio which is well known in Turkey.

Márcio da Silva conducts the Hastings Philharmonic Choir and Ensemble OrQuesta in a performance of Vivaldi’s Magnificat, Credo and Gloria, featuring also the Four Seasons with world-class violinist –  Özcan Ulucan – on Saturday 14 November in St Clements Church, Swan Terrace/High St, Hastings TN34 3ES. Tickets £15 (£13 for concessions and £3 for young people under 17 years) – a £1.50 booking fee applies.

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