Lagoa Piano Festival showcases local Jazz Pianist Alexandre Dahmen

Alexandre Dahmen jazz pianist Algarve, Portugal

Alexandre Dahmen will perform a solo jazz concert this May 15 at the Lagoa Piano Festival

The Lagoa Piano Festival continues to bring exceptional pianists to the city, this time featuring local jazz pianist and teacher Alexandre Dahmen for the second concert of this year’s festival.

Alexandre Dahmen will perform a solo piano concert at Mexilhoeira da Carregação Church, on Sunday, May 15 at 6.30pm, presenting a combination of jazz staples as well as his own compositions.

His music goes beyond the standard jazz scope, expressing a strong impressionist and minimalistic influence on his work from the modal, polyrhythmic music and also the intense Cuban music. Dahmen’s solo concert will bring exceptional musical diversity for the public to experience.

The programme for the concert will be the following:

Over the rainbow | Harold Arlen
Skylark | Hoagy Carmichael
What a Wonderful World | Bob Thiele e George David Weiss
Balada no1 | Alexandre Dahmen
A child is born | Thad Jones
Blame it on my Youth | Oscar Levant
Sede ao Sol | Alexandre Dahmen
Bolero | Alexandre Dahmen

Alexandre Dahmen

Born in 1985, Dahmen started playing the piano when he was only 6 years old, having studied at the Calouste Gulbenkian Conservatory. At age 15, he decided to study jazz with Manuel Beleza, at a time when he also started a progressive rock band called “Cão da Laura”, whilst playing for Braga’s Jazz Orchestra. Later, Dahmen started his studies at ESMAE (Porto’s prestigious music school), where he played the piano with Pedro Guedes, Carlos Azevedo and Telmo Marques.

Throughout his career, he has participated in numerous workshops with prestigious musicians such as Aaron Goldberg, Mark Turner, Joseph Martin, Marc Miralta, Jason Lindner, Bill McHenry, Omer Avital, Daniel Freedman, Alexis Cuadrado, Alan Ferber, John Ellis, Mark Ferber, Brad Shepik, David Binney, Ben Monder, Scott Colley, Adam Cruz, Jacob Sacks and Dan Weiss, among others.

In 2005, he participated in the 4th Jazz Festival of São Luiz, in Lisbon, as part of the ESMAE’s Combo (group of jazz musicians), where he won the top award of that year.
Dahmen also studied at the Lemmens Institute (Belgium) with Ron Van Rossum, and, in 2008, he finished his Bachelor’s Degree in Jazz.

Piano Festival 2022

The festival brings not only four concerts by talented pianists and musicians to Lagoa, but also musical performances by pianist Shaine Nazareth at local nursing homes; piano workshops at local schools led by Teresa Gentil; and a concert featuring students from Lagoa’s Art Conservatory.

The event is organised by Artis XXI under the artistic direction of pianist Jeferson Mello.

Entrance is free. Save your free seat: +351 928 059 612 or [email protected]

Algarve shines among the best ..