Until July 19, the event in the district of Aveiro and the Metropolitan Area of Porto will feature Portuguese soloists such as Pedro Burmester. The festival offers free entry concerts or performances priced between 5 and 15 euros, allowing the audience to closely engage with different musical genres through a “meticulous selection of performers and repertoires.”
The analysis by Alexandre Santos, coordinator of the event organized by the Academia de Espinho, highlights FIME as an “unquestionable reference in the landscape of specialty music festivals in Portugal,” due not only to the “excellence” of its protagonists but also to the “innovation in various programmatic segments—including the introduction of jazz in classical music festivals, concerts specially designed for younger audiences, and projects created specifically for the festival with resident structures.”
American artist Al Di Meola is one of the highlights of the 2025 edition. On June 21, he will bring the national debut of the album “Twentyfour” to Espinho, recorded during the COVID-19 lockdown and now set to be heard in an acoustic version.
From Benin, singer Angélique Kidjo will perform on July 19, also debuting with the Orquestra Clássica de Espinho (OCE), in what Alexandre Santos describes as a symphonic concert intertwining “emblematic African songs into a rhapsody with arrangements by Derrick Hodge.”
Swedish clarinetist Martin Fröst will take the stage on June 27 with violinist Daniel Rowland and the Camerata OCE, presenting works by Kurt Atterberg, Brahms, Bartók, Göran Fröst, Osvaldo Golijov, and Aaron Copland, revisiting the music of nomadic peoples from Hungary, Romanian traditions, and the Jewish folk registry of Central Europe.
Another headliner is American saxophonist Joshua Redman, who will make his first appearance in Portugal with a big band on June 16, a municipal holiday, featuring the Espinho Jazz Orchestra. The concert program describes Redman as an “heir to the exploratory tradition of jazz,” attributing “impeccable technique and remarkable stylistic plasticity” to his groups that transformed the genre since the 1990s.
The stages of FIME will also host performers such as the collective Ars Ad Hoc with a chamber music recital dedicated to modernisms; Lea Desandre and Thomas Dunford with French songs from the reign of Louis XIV to the late 20th century; the Spanish group Anacronía with baroque music from the Bach family; and the Orquestra da Academia Barroca de Ambronay with violinist Amandine Beyer to explore works by Italian Baroque composers like Vivaldi and Albinoni.
Portuguese pianist Pedro Burmester is also part of the 2025 lineup, evoking the Romanticism of Schubert with violinist Pedro Meireles and cellist Filipe Quaresma on July 4. This is followed on July 11 by the quartet of American drummer Makaya McCraven, whom Alexandre Santos identifies as “a rising name in the music scene” for his unique style blending jazz, traditional music, and pop-rock.
The 51st FIME will feature two other premieres in Portugal: on July 12, Leticia Moreno & Friends will connect both sides of the Atlantic with sounds spanning from Bach to Vivaldi, Villa-Lobos, and Piazzolla. The following day, the British quartet Kismet will bring together Dave Holland’s double bass, Chris Potter’s saxophone, Kevin Eubanks’ guitar, and Obed Calvaire’s drums for a “dazzling” performance exploring “uncharted territories of improvisation.”
For younger audiences, FIME reserves two “junior concerts”: on June 8, “A Journey Through Jazz” by Gunther Schuller will be performed by the Orquestra Clássica de Espinho and the FIMEnsemble, repeated with narration and humor a week later at the Porto Coliseum. On June 22, the collective Coloquio 6 from Spain and the Netherlands will accompany Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” with a film by musician and visual artist Dax Niesten.
