Victor Castro — A Classical Guitar Echoing the Sounds of the Atlantic
Victor Castro is one of the best classical guitar players of Portugal and surely the best one in the Azores. His latest album is out now and his most mature work so far. “Açor” is a profound and rich revisiting of the music of the islands, the echoes of Victor’s roots as an artist and as a classical guitar player.
Born in the archipelago of the Azores — in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, between Europe and America —, Victor Castro discovered his interest in classical guitar while growing up in his hometown Angra do Heroísmo, in Terceira island.
He attended Classical Guitar studies at the Regional Conservatory of Angra do Heroísmo, from where he graduated after having studied with masters like the renowned Azorean guitar player Carlos Batista Ávila and the North-Americans Steven Rings, Timothy Johnson, Miles D. Barford and Eddy Goldz. He would later be a teacher at the same Regional Conservatory for eight years.
Victor Castro’s first album was entitled Victor Castro interpreta (Victor Castro interprets) and came out in 1999, under the seal of Emiliano Toste Productions. In it, Victor interprets works by composers such as Paulo Bellinatti, Mertz, Albéniz, Nikita Koshkin and Augustin Barrios. This made him one of the first Portuguese classical guitar players to record a music album.
Two years later, his second album came out. It was entitled Tradição Livre (Loose Tradition) — a reference to the free interpretations that Victor Castro composed for erudite guitar, inspired by a set of traditional songs from the island of Terceira. Published under the same seal as the first album, Tradição Livre raised the public’s awareness for Victor’s originality in the compositions and his flawless guitar playing technique.
Both albums established Victor Castro as a musical promise in the world of classical guitar players in Portugal. Albeit young, Victor was able to confirm the public’s expectations and reveal himself as one of the best Portuguese classical guitar players.
In 2005, Victor Castro paid homage to Carlos Paredes — considered by most people to be the greatest Portuguese Guitar player of all times. Together with Paulo Cunha, a fellow Azorean guitar player, the duo performed under the show Tributo a Carlos Paredes (Carlos Paredes Tribute), which led to many concerts and invitations for shows outside the archipelago and mainland Portugal.
Victor Castro moved to São Luís do Maranhão, Brazil, in order to perfect his guitar playing technique and developed different musical projects. He was a teacher and coordinator for the Classical Guitar course at the Music School of the State of Maranhão, and a Classical Guitar teacher at the State University of Maranhão.
Aside from his teachings, Victor Castro performed solo in many of the country’s main cities — such as São Paulo, Santa Catarina, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, Amazonas, and many others. He also performed with the Chamber Orchestra of the Music School of the State of Maranhão, in the Arthur Azevedo Theatre, in August 2007.
His classical performances and his mastery of the classical guitar earned him the Raphael Rabelo Award for two times at the National Guitar Festival of Piauí, in February 2008 and 2009. He was also invited to play at the 4th and 5th editions of the Guitar Week Festival.
Photo by Miguel Rolo
The following year, in 2010, Victor Castro was given the “2009 Talent Award” by the Secretary of State for the Portuguese Communities, in an official ceremony in Lisbon. This award is intended to award Portuguese emigrants living in foreign countries that have excelled in cultural areas such as music.
In 2012, and together with the Symphonic Orchestra of Brazil, Victor Castro premiered the play “Suite Maranhense” by the composer Ubitaran Sousa, born in the State of Maranhão, to celebrate the 400 years of the city of São Luís — State of Maranhão. Throughout his career, he has also premiered works by composers such as Timothy Johnson, Antero Ávila and Thomas Kupsch.
In 2018, and through a crowdfunding campaign, Victor Castro gathered more than enough backers for the production of his latest work: Açor. The title of the album is a reference to the bird of prey Açor (Accipiter gentilis) that the first settlers thought they had spotted living in the islands, upon their first arrival in the archipelago. However, the birds they thought were Accipiter gentilis were in fact just Common buzzards (Buteo buteo). Nevertheless, the name Açores remained until today in the designation of the Archipelago of the Azores (Açores).
Açor pays tribute to a range of Azorean musicians that have enhanced the original music in the Azores throughout the years, such as Aníbal Raposo, Luís Alberto Bettencourt, Carlos Batista Ávila, Luís Gil Bettencourt, José Medeiros and Antero Ávila. These are some of the names that contributed greatly to the building of the contemporary sound landscape of the Azores today and Victor Castro isn’t shy to reinvent their creations.
There are also original songs, written by Victor Castro, like “Variações sobre um tema da ilha do Corvo” (Variations on a song from the island of Corvo), “Estudo Insular” (Island study) and “Leonor”, which is dedicated to the guitar player’s daughter living in Terceira island. These original compositions confirm the originality of Victor Castro’s classical guitar moods and sounds.
Highlights for the compositions around two traditional songs from the islands. The first one, “Meu Bem”, is dedicated to the composer and guitar player Leo Brouwer, responsible for harmonizing pieces in the popular Cuban songbook; and the second one, “Doce Esperança”, with a sophisticated harmonization of the melodic line that doesn’t lose the song’s inherent melancholy, dedicated to Miguel Llobet and his Canções Catalanas.
Here it is, “Doce Esperança”, a traditional theme from the folklore of the island of Terceira, performed by Victor Castro at Quinta do Martelo for the www.youtube.com/madeinazores channel:
From the range of Azorean musicians that Victor Castro pays tribute in Açor, there is Luís Gil Bettencourt, born in the island of Terceira in 1956. Luís Bettencourt is responsible for many well-known songs from the Azorean contemporary soundscape from the 1980’s that are still remembered today. The classical guitar player chose three songs for his homage: “Dreams”, “Searching” and “Tema de Amor” (Love Theme).
The songs “Dreams” and “Searching” are both from Luís Gil Bettencourt’s album “Empty Space”, recorded in 1985. “Tema de Amor” was the result of a poem written by António Sousa and a love scene from Azorean tv series “Xailes Negros”, directed by José de Medeiros for the Regional Television — RTP/Açores, and appears in the musical compilation CD “7 Anos de Música”.
“Searching”, by Luís Gil Bettencourt, is a song about Emigration and Victor Castro describes it as “…having a harmonic pedal that appears simultaneously at the beginning of the song suggests a falling tear, reflecting the feelings involved between those who emigrate and those who stay on the island.”
Here it is, “Searching”, by Luís Gil Bettencourt, performed by Victor Castro at Quinta do Martelo for the www.youtube.com/madeinazores channel:
Victor Castro’s album “Açor” will soon be available at our online store www.madeinazores.eu
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