Major Projects
You may click on the icons of FEMUSC and PRIMA for more information and photos.
FEMUSC - Santa Catarina Music Festival is an ongoing two-week music festival held in January in the city of Jaraguá do Sul, Brazil. It consists of several separate Programs with distinct curriculum and pre-requisites for admission, focusing on Advanced orchestral, Intermediate orchestral, String Quartet, Opera, Voice, Orchestral Conducting, Children and Adolescent courses. 200 performances open to the public each season, to an in-person audience of 65,000. Over 10,000 students from over 40 countries served. Stellar faculty represent major international music institutions and orchestras. Alex Klein founded FEMUSC in 2006 and remains its Artistic Director to this day.
PRIMA - Program of Social Inclusion through Music and the Arts is a vision of the Brazilian State of Paraiba and its Governor Ricardo Coutinho, with the aim of implementing a Venezuelan "El Sistema"-inspired orchestral program in the most at-risk communities, initially in 8 cities and since expanded to many more. PRIMA has created dozens of new orchestras and ensembles in Paraiba, assisted in the university education and access of numerous students who otherwise might not meet such access, and remains the largest social program in the state of Paraiba. Alex Klein founded PRIMA in 2012 and was its General Director until mid-2016 when he returned to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. PRIMA has continued to blossom after his departure.
Oferenda Musical (Musical Offering), the São Paulo International Music Festival existed between 2008 and 2010, presenting chamber music concerts at Theatro São Pedro featuring Brazil's foremost chamber musicians and renowned international guests. Alex Klein was its founder and Artistic Director for all three seasons when Oferenda Musical existed. This project was fully funded by the Government of the State of São Paulo, being also victim of budget cuts by the same entity. A discontinued project, within the context of a developing country, is not a failed concept as it remains a seed and example for further development in the future. As such, a sort-term project like this is a significant and memorable part of development.
MIMU - International Musical Moment of Uberlandia was a two-week music festival held in the city of Uberlandia, Brazil in 2011. The aim of this festival was to create a new event similar in scope to FEMUSC. It attracted hundreds of students from Brazil and abroad, as well as the same caliber of faculty members as FEMUSC. This festival was short lived due to lack of local funding. Alex Klein was the founder and Artistic Director of MIMU. As with the Oferenda Musical above, within the context of a new democracy and its ups-and-downs in the support of arts and culture, a successful discontinued project remains a seed and example for further development in the future and does its part in its promotion.