On the 22nd and 23rd of September, at 16h30, the Garden and Chalet of the Countess of Edla, in Sintra, will welcome the Voces Caelestes choir in the "Poet's Garden". A total of 16 professional singers will be in action, with the Chalet as their backdrop.

After a hugely successful event in July 2011, acting as the grand opening of the Chalet and Garden of the Countess of Edla and which completely sold out, Parques de Sintra has decided to host two more open-air concerts, inspired by the area’s gardens.
The Voces Caelestes concert, under the direction of Sérgio Fontão, celebrates the choir and chapel music written in the 20th century, but also makes use of the woks of a variety of artists from various ages. The concerts makes for a fantastic collection of musicians and poets from both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, now united by their passion for flowers.
Poets: Jonh Audelay (?-c.1426), Federico García Lorca (1898-1936), Ben Jonson (1572-1637), Robert Herrick (c. 1591-1674), Henry King (1592-1669), Edmund Waller (1606-1687), George Crabbe (1754-1832), Robert Burns (1759-1796), John Clare (1793-1864), Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), Robert Bridges (1844-1930), Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) and Edmund Blunden (1896-1974).
Composers: Dickau, Fine, Lauridsen and Whitacre (USA), Distler (Germany) and Britten, Finzi, Howells, Joubert, Rodney Bennett and Rutter (United Kingdom).
Tickets for the concerts, which will get underway at 16h30, are priced at 3 Euros per person as a supplement to tickets for entry into the Park of Pena and the Chalet of the Countess of Edla. Children under the age of 3 and 6 can enter free of charge.
Voces Caelestes is a vocal group created in 1997 and which is led by Sérgio Fontão. The choir is comprised of some vastly experienced singers – who have mastered arts all the way from medieval to contemporary – who have an extensive collection at their disposal.
The group has performed in various auditoriums, including CCB, Culturgest, F.C.Gulbenkian, S. Luiz Municipal Theatre, The Botanical Garden and National Palace of Ajuda, the Cathedral, Basílica dos Mártires, various Lisbon churches and the Beato Convent. They have also sang in a wealth of music festivals, including the Lisbon International Organ Festival, the Monument Festival, the Arts Festival, the Baixo Alentejo Sacred Music Festival and many others. In August 2006, the group made their international debut at the prestigious International Early Music Festival (Spain). They have also recorded a CD of sacred Alleluia music, with the soprano Teresa Cardoso de Menezes, and have recorded "Te Deum" excerpts by Frei José Marques e Silva for RTP. They have interpreted works by Monteverdi, Bach, Händel, Vivaldi, Haydn, Schubert, Brahms, Debussy, Ravel, Grieg and Lopes-Graça, amongst many others; They have participated in various productions by Tito Celestino da Costa and in the shows "Deus. Pátria. Revolução" (Luís Bragança Gil/Luísa Costa Gomes), "Crioulo - uma ópera cabo-verdiana" (António Tavares/Vasco Martins) and "Le Carnaval et la Folie" (Destouches). As well as dedicating themselves to Portuguese music, the group have also worked in the area of contemporary music. They debuted Street Songs by Steve Martland in Portugal and presented the global debut of the works of Alain Bioteau (Vat 69), Pedro Amaral (The Chess Players) and Pedro Carneiro (. ni mots, ni signes.). The Voces Caelestes choirs have also presented a ‘cappella’ and have worked with various instruments and national and international groupings, including the Camerata Academica Salzburg, the Portuguese Chamber Orchestra and the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra, amongst many others. http://vocescaelestes.blogspot.pt/
Sérgio Fontão leads Voces Caelestes. As a member or director, he has taken part in various concerts across Europe, America, India, Japan and China. He has participated in opera and theatre shows and has made recordings for cinema, radio, television and discos. He was also worked with groups such as the Gulbenkian Choir and the São Carlos National Theatre Choir, amongst others. He has also played the role and Artistic-Organisational Coordinator with the Portuguese Symphonic Orchestra and the São Carlos National Theatre Choir; he was a member of the World Youth Choir Committee and has occupied various other roles in the music world. In 2008 and 2010 he joined the jury of the National Music Competition, promoted by the INATEL Foundation, and in 2011 he was the artistic director of the Concerts to Conversation circuit | Viagens no Tempo | Music Choir (CCB).

Voces Caelestes choir- "The Poet's Garden"
22nd and 23rd of September at 16h30
Garden of the Countess of Edla (open-air), Park of Pena (Sintra)
Classification: M/3
Duration: approx. 70 minutes
Price: 3 Euros supplement on tickets for entry into the Park of Pena and the Chalet of the Countess of Edla (Free for children from the ages of 3 to 6)

Tickets are also available through here, FNAC, Worten, El Corte Inglês, Media Markt, the Lisbon Tourism Offices (Airport and Praça do Comércio), the Sintra Tourism Office, INFO Parques de Sintra and Parques de Sintra ticket offices.
Note: Parques de Sintra reserves the right to cancel or delay the concerts due to weather conditions that do not permit their holding, thereby refunding ticket prices on request.

Booking and information for the public:
+351 21 923 73 00 / animacao.cultural@parquesdesintra.pt / www.facebook.com/parquesdesintra