Collaboration, Vision, and Grit: How Porto PianoFest came to life

Michelle Lynne: Hey everybody, and welcome back to the Fearless Artist Podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Lin, and today I am very thankful to have my friend Muriel Mays on. Muriel, welcome.

Mariel Mayz: Thank you so much for having me.

Michelle Lynne: I’m excited to talk to you today. I’ve been wanting to have you on for a long time because of your amazing career and how you’ve been building so many wonderful different projects. You’re a pianist. You live in New York, and, uh, we just got the chance to hang out in real life a couple of months ago, which was really great. But we know each other from your festival primarily, which is why I specifically invited you on today. So I’d love for you to introduce yourself to our audience and tell us a bit about you.

Mariel Mayz: Thanks. Um, yeah, so I’m Maria. I am a pianist and I’m a composer, and I do a million miscellaneous things in the middle—from teaching, educating, and doing administrative work… and work with festivals, including a festival that, um, my husband and I started together. That’s called Porto Piano Fest, and it takes place in Porto, Portugal.

Michelle Lynne: Cool. Woo. One of the best places to have a festival, I have to say.

Mariel Mayz: We think so.

Michelle Lynne: I know so, ’cause I’ve attended this festival twice and I’ve had the best time both times. I’ve highly enjoyed eating everything there, and, uh, the paste genta—and I didn’t enjoy the steps though. Porto brutal with the stone stairs everywhere.

Mariel Mayz: Very steep.

Michelle Lynne: I remember making these Instagram stories and I was like, huffing and puffing, trying to tell people, like, “Guys, I’ve walked 20,000 steps today and I’m going uphill all the time in Fordo.”

Mariel Mayz: Yes. Yes. And whenever you think, you can basically take all of your directions and say, “Is it uphill or is it downhill?” It’s like, here in New York, we’d say, “Okay, are we going north, south, uptown, downtown?” And it’s like, uphill, downhill.

Michelle Lynne: Oh, that’s so funny. That’s amazing. Yeah, so we actually met in Hi Home, and I think that was maybe five years ago—2016, 2015, something around there. And, uh, then you told me about your festival and that my teacher would be teaching there. That, of course, was like the only selling point I needed, ’cause I just adore Jean with everything. So… mm-hmm. I was like, “No problem.” I was like, “Yeah, sign me up. I’m coming next summer.” So I would love for you to share with us, like, you know, the inception story of Porto Piano Fest. You run it with your husband, as he shared. So, yeah, what led to you guys creating your own festival?

Mariel Mayz: Yeah. So, now, this was about, about 10 years ago. Um, Nuno is his name. Nuno Marcus is our artistic director and I am associate director of the festival. And the festival started at a diner we were sitting down having whatever you eat at diners; it was…

Michelle Lynne: I love this.

Mariel Mayz: Um, and we wanted to combine, really, what we felt was the best of the two musical worlds that we had been living in. So, to give a little bit of context— I mean, I’m from New York. I grew up in the States, I’ve always lived in the US, and I come strictly from this North American music education system. And, hearing Nuno talk at the time—he was not my husband and we were friends—and he would talk about his musical education coming from Europe. He grew up in Portugal, went through the system there in Portugal, and then ended up moving to London and did some studies there as well. And just the differences between both of our education systems, I definitely felt a little bit of FOMO, like, “Oh my gosh, I wish I had so much of that.” But then, at the same time, he was looking at the experiences that happen here in the system, and he was thinking, “Oh wow, this is also really different”—an experience that he was just starting to have because when he came to New York, it was also to study. So we were talking about a place where we could bridge both of these things as best as possible from a pedagogical standpoint, and from just a pianistic standpoint as well. We had been going to different festivals, the two of us in different places, and we recognized the importance of summer festivals and festivals in general…

Michelle Lynne: Hmm. Yeah.

Mariel Mayz: …just as an incubator for meeting people, for just getting to present yourself in a way as a young artist—presenting yourself, um, in a way that’s different from your home context; of course, like meeting the pianists and artists of your own generation, but also of the one above you, the one below you. It’s really a place—these festivals tend to be this unique circle where everybody can just cohabitate and learn together…

Michelle Lynne: Yeah, gather.

Mariel Mayz: …and we think that it’s so, so special, and we’ve always felt this way. And so, of course, when we’re talking all this through, we’re like, “I think we need to start a festival,” which is…

Michelle Lynne: Amazing.

Mariel Mayz: …a bit of a wacky thing to try to do. But, of course, our initial idea was to bring teachers together that we really respected, and then create this community environment with different musicians at different stages, and just have a place where everyone can have lunch together, go to a concert together, practice in the same space. That was really the main idea. It started as only three and a half days—really, barely four days—of a festival, just like a long weekend where we had our guest teachers, we had a couple of concerts by our guest artists, we had a concert by our student participants, and then it was over. We were like, “This is great. We loved this.” And…

Michelle Lynne: It’s like an extended weekend of Piano Fest.

Mariel Mayz: Exactly, an extended weekend. And then, year after year, it started growing into this larger animal that now lasts for almost two weeks. This year will be 12 days of festival from August 1st…

Michelle Lynne: I didn’t know, I didn’t…

Mariel Mayz: …to the 12th.

Michelle Lynne: Okay. Wow.

Mariel Mayz: And each year it feels like it’s really developed naturally and grown in, um, unexpected but very natural ways. So that’s a little bit about how we got this started.

Michelle Lynne: That’s amazing. Thanks for sharing all of that. It’s such a beautiful story—sitting at a diner. I’d love to hear more when you’re talking about the differences that Nuno was recognizing between the New York and the Porto pedagogy, as you’re saying, like, what were those differences?

Mariel Mayz: Well, first was the difference just in systems—like a public system versus a private system was really the main difference. So, for better or for worse—my experience being just within a private music education system, where you have to pay for all your lessons out of pocket, you have to kind of find your own place and opportunity—that’s, that’s where I had come from. But because of that, I wasn’t locked into any sort of system, let’s say, right? So I had my piano lessons growing up and I loved them, but I never thought, like, “Oh, this is going to lead somewhere else,” until much, much later. I didn’t think of it as a career place.

It tends, at least I can speak within the US, there’s a big push for music education, which is great, but music education is not necessarily to become a musician; it’s a way to help you get into, for example, higher education into colleges—a way to make yourself stand out on applications for other things, which is not a bad thing. It’s a great thing…

Michelle Lynne: Right.

Mariel Mayz: …because people recognize the critical thinking skills that you develop learning music—critical thinking skills—and so this extracurricular feeling of music. And so, because of that, I was a little bit all over the place as a pianist growing up. I wouldn’t have even said, “Oh, I’m a pianist.” I would’ve just like…

Michelle Lynne: Right.

Mariel Mayz: …oh, I’m a kid and I play the piano. But it opened a lot of other doors because I wasn’t locked into a particular school. I just had a private teacher. I was taking lessons, I was taking jazz lessons, I was taking, um, improvisation lessons because I liked it. I was accompanying choirs from a very, very young age because my parents recognized, like, “Oh, you should play outside of your lessons. You should do something.” I was playing in a lot of church contexts. So, from a young age, I felt like I was just building myself. I didn’t have other peers or other students around me, um, that were doing the same thing because I wasn’t part of a music school. But because of that, I missed out on a lot of things that happened within the system—for example, that Nuno grew up in, where he had weekly ear training, theory, chamber music. He had a group of colleagues that he grew up with in his music education, which is a beautiful thing, and it’s something I really wish I had. Even just the discipline of practicing in a certain way where you have people around you that are all practicing together—you’re in your conservatory, whatever.

Michelle Lynne: The European conservatory style. Yeah. Yeah.

Mariel Mayz: So, I think that answers your question just a bit about the differences, and it’s not to say that one was necessarily better than the other because we, you know, we grow up the way that we grow up. But, um, it was just interesting to recognize those differences. And even now, looking back, I used to be so jealous—like, I really wish I had that sort of ear training skills. I really wish I was more disciplined when I was younger. I wish I had this or that in more of a strict conservatory setting. But…

Michelle Lynne: Mm-hmm.

Mariel Mayz: …that wasn’t the case. And now that time has passed and I can look back, I can say, “Okay, I’m still also a product of the flexibility that I had.”

Michelle Lynne: Mm-hmm.

Mariel Mayz: And the influences that we’re a little bit more open have certainly come into play in, in my life now, especially with teaching, and especially with this festival and with writing my own music.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah. Composing too—I was gonna say.

Mariel Mayz: Yeah.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah. So how is Porto Piano Fest combining these two? I didn’t know this, by the way. This is like so interesting to me.

Mariel Mayz: Yeah. The first is with the teachers that we bring.

Michelle Lynne: Mm-hmm.

Mariel Mayz: So, we have teachers that are from Europe, but perhaps teach in the States. We have teachers from Canada. We have teachers that are, uh, that studied in the UK but are now in Europe. So we feel like the mixture of our artist faculty brings all that together.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Mariel Mayz: And in terms of atmosphere, that’s also what we try to bring together. We all consider ourselves very serious musicians, but we…

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Mariel Mayz: …don’t want a rigid, competitive, serious (in a negative way) atmosphere for our summer festival. We encourage people to talk about things, to just go have lunch, to express their opinions about concerts and music and where they come from, um, in a more open environment. So that’s how we feel. We do mix things together, and the people that come come from all over, and we think that they feel this family-oriented atmosphere too.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah, I mean, I can definitely attest to that because it is such a family feeling when you come—and it’s very welcoming. You even do, uh, extracurricular activities like you did the wine tour…

Mariel Mayz: Mm-hmm.

Michelle Lynne: …took us to the Taylor’s port and, uh, yeah—we get to the sites here in Porto and, uh, there is a very good, strong sense of community. Also, I think a lot of performing opportunities you guys offer in your festival.

Mariel Mayz: Yeah, exactly. Thanks for mentioning that. So, part of it is also trying to create things that we wish we had, right? And one of the best things: if you see that there’s a gap somewhere, create what you think is missing, right? So in terms of performance opportunities, for guests and participants alike, one of the main missions of our festival is, what we tend to say is, firstly, um, having exclusive concerts. So, for our guest artists—we have different series. We have a master series, we have a new music series, a chamber music series for the guests that come and play concerts. We want to curate something that is specific for our festival. We’re less interested in an artist that’s been touring the same program a hundred times around, and then they’re just one more notch on their tour. We want the artists that come to have an opportunity to maybe revamp what they normally do or to have the opportunity to present something different. Or, if you are very known for playing Bach but you wanna play Debussy in this concert—if this is the place to do it, our festival is the place to do it. It also gives not the highest-named artists that feeling that you have to be in the 1% top artist in the world to perform. At our festival, we are trying to give opportunities to artists that come from all over who are amazing, who are great, who have artistic integrity, um, but they might not be a household name—and that is with us…

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Mariel Mayz: …um, and secondly, on the participant side, giving opportunities for performances. So we do have, um, two different teaching programs. We have a masterclass program, um, but we also have an artist-in-residency program. And our artists in residency tend to be on the verge of expanding their careers—high-level advanced pianists, usually at the end of their schooling—and we give them the opportunity to present full-length recital programs. So it’s about 45 minutes of music for a program, which is rare for a festival, where sometimes you only get to play one piece in a group recital.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Mariel Mayz: For our artists in residency, we have a select group, and they propose programs for our festival, and we give them the opportunity to make their debuts in Porto—sometimes their debut in Europe—with our festival presenting works that they’ve put together specifically for a solo recital program.

Michelle Lynne: That’s amazing. Yeah. I mean, your festival is so multifaceted. I think it’s good to just elaborate a bit because you have artists coming in to give concerts, but then you also have the participants giving concerts, and then the people in the masterclass are also doing an end-of-the-program concert.

Mariel Mayz: Exactly.

Michelle Lynne: So, tons of stuff going on all the time. Um, yeah. I remember Nuno and Laura did a beautiful song recital last summer and it was outside and the sun was setting, and it was just the most stunning atmosphere—like the birds and it was just really cool. You guys are doing really cool, and I think some of your compositions were also performed last summer.

Mariel Mayz: They were. Yeah.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Mariel Mayz: They were. That was a special concert, too, and that was a collaboration between Nuno and a soprano. They’ve been friends for a long time and they’ve been working on this project where they commissioned different composers to write art song based on Portuguese poetry. So it was the first time they were presenting that in Portugal, and it was just an exciting moment for all of us to be there to see it.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah, absolutely. And they also presented in New York, right?

Mariel Mayz: Mm-hmm.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Mariel Mayz: They had done a run in New York and DC before the summer and brought it for a full-evening concert in Porteo.

Michelle Lynne: That’s amazing. So when you started Porto Piano Fest, like, could you imagine it going this direction? How do you feel now that you’ve— I mean, ’cause it’s amazing what you guys are doing.

Mariel Mayz: So, I, I think both Nuno and myself would say, “No, we couldn’t imagine it.” I think it’s, it, it’s, it’s maybe hard to see so far into the future. I think we hoped that it would be successful, and from the beginning it wasn’t so much about, “Let’s make a successful festival.” It was more, “We want to be here and stick around here every year.” And that’s still how we feel about it. Our idea—and we tell people, uh, we tell our supporters, we tell the people in Portugal, and we talk about the festival—is, “We’re here to stay. We’re here.” Like, this is our goal: to be here and every year do something that’s meaningful to the community, meaningful to the local community, but also to our artistic, pianistic, and musical community. So that was always a thought from the beginning, like, “We’re not going anywhere.” Of course, the first year, the second year—everything is like trial and error, an error and ever an error. And even some other friends of ours who run festivals and events like this, they say, “Oh, after year four, it’ll be like clockwork smooth sailing. Oh, after year five, you’ll just know what you’re doing.” But every year we feel like, “Okay, here we go.” It’s always something different—always something new is happening in the world, happening with the structure, happening, um, with the weather. You never know. So it doesn’t feel like we’re, “Okay, just one more year. Let’s do it again.” It never feels like that, and we kind of love that too.

Michelle Lynne: Oh, wow. There’s so much to share here. This is so great. Can you talk a little bit about these errors? Like, what are things that just totally threw you that you didn’t expect would come from organizing these events?

Mariel Mayz: Oh, there are probably, like, in terms of errors, like tedious details that aren’t worth even sharing, but…

Michelle Lynne: But, like, a funny story or anything that…

Mariel Mayz: Yeah, having realistic timelines.

Michelle Lynne: Okay, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah—project…

Mariel Mayz: …project management and planning is not easy.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Mariel Mayz: Sometimes you have to learn how your teammates like to work.

Michelle Lynne: Mm-hmm.

Mariel Mayz: That’s definitely something that takes a lot of time. So, for example, sometimes when we’re working within the team, I’ll get a phone call and it’s our teammate who says, “There’s been something; something is terribly wrong. It’s a disaster, right?”

Michelle Lynne: Okay.

Mariel Mayz: And I’m like, “Oh my gosh, what is it?” But now, after a few years of working together, I know that this team member—it’s like, “Oh, when he says it’s a disaster, it’s because he is stressed, but it’s totally fixable, right?” But if we all have the alarm going off, we’re all gonna panic.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Mariel Mayz: These are things like learning how your team members work, learning how your staff manages stress—something they can’t teach you in a book.

Michelle Lynne: And, per—I mean, I’m sure all the cultural differences are coming into play here too. Like, I know, you know, response times for emails can vary widely from Europeans to New Yorkers, for example—getting things accomplished. You’re saying, uh, planning things in a certain amount of time. Um, how many people are on your staff, by the way?

Mariel Mayz: Yeah. So, we do have three full-time people that are on the team.

Michelle Lynne: Okay.

Mariel Mayz: And then we have our part-time staff that are contracted for specific times during the year.

Michelle Lynne: Okay, okay. Got it.

Mariel Mayz: So…

Michelle Lynne: What’s something that you had to learn or like adjust to with having all of these different cultural personalities, cultural differences on the same team to run the festival?

Mariel Mayz: Yeah, so people work—how people manage stress. Of course, for me, there is a language barrier since Portuguese is not my first language.

Michelle Lynne: I have heard you order perfectly in Portuguese, so I just wanna tell everybody, like, last year at our…

Mariel Mayz: I can order…

Michelle Lynne: …restaurant.

Mariel Mayz: …meal.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah, you did.

Mariel Mayz: So…

Michelle Lynne: Awesome.

Mariel Mayz: Yeah. Ordering at restaurants—I’m a pro.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Mariel Mayz: Food vocabulary—I learned that really quickly.

Michelle Lynne: But you also presented a concert really beautifully too. I heard, but yes.

Mariel Mayz: With the language barrier, of course, at times I am translating directly. I’m translating exactly how people are speaking to me, word for word, and in my head—my English-speaking brain—sometimes it feels very blunt,

Michelle Lynne: Hmm. Okay. In Portuguese.

Mariel Mayz: In Portuguese.

Michelle Lynne: I have that from the Dutch for sure. So, yeah.

Mariel Mayz: And, think, maybe just my way of speaking, or I don’t know if it’s a general way of speaking in the States because people can be very blunt too. But I think I have more disclaimers in my speech.

Michelle Lynne: You are a very sweet-natured person, so that’s probably it. I was surprised when I found out you were a New Yorker, ’cause I’m like, “No way. You’re way too sweet and, like, very nice.” Very diplomatic with all of your answers. And…

Mariel Mayz: Yeah, but everything is a little bit softer.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Mariel Mayz: Sometimes it’s not getting to the point, which I see now with new eyes. Sometimes it’s like avoiding difficult conversations by using some more flowery words, and I’ve had to learn that sometimes I need to be a lot more direct.

Michelle Lynne: Okay.

Mariel Mayz: When I’m translating immediately from Portuguese, sometimes my reaction is like, “Wow, are they very upset or did they really not like that? Or are they upset with me?” And,

Michelle Lynne: Right.

Mariel Mayz: …it’s taken time to not take things personally, to know how that’s how people speak, and it’s okay…

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Mariel Mayz: …and that it’s not always a bad thing to be very direct—even if it’s, it’s sometimes good just to express what I mean from the get-go. So, that was definitely a personal learning curve and something I’m still, still getting used to. I’m translating in my own head.

Michelle Lynne: That’s not easy. I mean, luckily Nuno is Portuguese, so I’m sure you can, you know, run things by him and be like, “Hey, what did that person mean?”

Mariel Mayz: Yeah.

Michelle Lynne: I think one of the challenges I’ve had as a very sensitive, emotional artist, you know, doing business things is understanding that you have to take the emotion out of business sometimes, and it’s just like getting the business thing done. And I’ve had a tendency to be way too emotional about things. So, Deanna and I have had to work through that too, where, you know, she’s like, “This is just business—like, we just have to do this.” And I’m like, “I wanna have like a meltdown or something,” ’cause you know, it’s like. So, yeah—learning to separate those two things and look at the numbers or look at the Excel sheets and just black and white, a little bit of objectivity or distance.

Mariel Mayz: Exactly.

Michelle Lynne: I had to learn that too.

Mariel Mayz: Exactly. And from a performer/artist perspective, it gets really hard to do these sorts of administrative things, because you do feel like, when the guests come, right—when musicians are around, you’re surrounded by musicians that you admire so, so much. I mean, that’s why we bring them for the festival. We admire their artistry so much; we admire them as people. Sometimes it’s really easy to feel less than and to think, “Oh, well, what am I doing? I’m just the organizer here.” Like, I, I don’t have value in the face of all of these great people. Um, so it’s also been a learning experience and really important to be able to say, “I’m doing this, and I’m good at this. And this is just one aspect of my life. And it doesn’t mean that I’m not a good musician,” like, it doesn’t mean I don’t have places to grow. Of course, I’m still learning and still improving as an artist and a musician. But it’s also good to separate yourself and to say, “These people are not judging and looking at my artistic merit and saying, ‘Oh, who’s this? Who’s this girl that’s just organizing?’” You know, I used to think that so much, and now time goes by and I have a little bit more confidence and know that I do this festival. This is something that’s part of our day-to-day work, and I love doing it.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah, yeah. Thank you for sharing that. I’m, I’m emotional ’cause it’s like so close to my heart too—like not being the top 1%. I think, like, we were taught our whole lives that that is what success is: like being that top 1%. And so if you’re not—and so for me, you know, like running The Fearless Artist and coaching musicians—and it is such an easy lie to come in that says, like, “The artistic value”—that’s what you’re saying.

Mariel Mayz: Yeah.

Michelle Lynne: …it doesn’t mean that we’re not a good pianist. We are more than a musician, and this is something that’s so close to my heart, right?

Mariel Mayz: No, no.

Michelle Lynne: But yeah, thanks for sharing that. Yeah, it’s really beautiful and…

Mariel Mayz: Oh, just as a small wake-up call for me, because one of my teachers and mentors comes to the festival, and I admire this person so, so dearly, that sometimes I think, “Oh, they’re not going to like me or respect me as a person because I’m not playing as well as I should.” And we also have to know that for our own teachers and mentors and people that we admire artistically—yeah—they’re gonna acknowledge the places where we need to improve musically. That’s what they’re good at, and that is their…

Michelle Lynne: It’s their job.

Mariel Mayz: That’s their job.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Mariel Mayz: I can’t think—that doesn’t mean that they don’t like me as a person. And so…

Michelle Lynne: …that they are judging you for being less than what you said you should be. Could be.

Mariel Mayz: Exactly. Exactly.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah. I think that’s very, uh, very profound. And also, because they wouldn’t be able to be shining on stage teaching all of these students if nobody was organizing the festival—so the gift of administration. I mean, you could argue these are equally important and necessary gifts. Like, without the capacity for them to be promoted or out there, or meeting people or building the network in the community or the festival—all of the structures that you put into place, the financing—I mean, I don’t even wanna think about how you guys have the fundraise and pull off all of the money on the side of the festival. Without all of that, all of these incredible artists don’t get the chance to be on the stage.

Mariel Mayz: Right.

Michelle Lynne: I mean, I think probably if you ask them, there’s an equal amount of respect and gratitude, but because of how we were brought up with this really high standard in perfectionism and what success means—and, you know, being the number one, uh—I think sometimes that can get twisted.

Mariel Mayz: Yeah, for sure. For sure.

Michelle Lynne: So, when a musician has an idea like, “I wanna start a festival,” is there something that you would suggest to them to start thinking of in advance? Something that maybe you wish you had known sooner, or a small piece of advice for them?

Mariel Mayz: Yes, talk to people. Tell people your ideas. I think we get very afraid that, “Oh, I have this good thing and someone’s gonna steal it, or somebody’s gonna judge me for it, or it’s something I don’t know how to do.” And the best way to conquer that is actually to talk to people about it. Talking—um, our colleagues, other pianists, other musicians, our teachers, our mentors—has been the biggest gift because sometimes they say the smallest thing that you would’ve never thought about.

Michelle Lynne: Hmm.

Mariel Mayz: And that’s what really gets things started. Um, that’s also where people surprise you and help you. What—that’s what we need. These sorts of endeavors, especially something like a festival, a concert series, even just presenting a concert for yourself, is really hard to do alone. Of course, our festival started because Nuno and I were talking about it, and…

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Mariel Mayz: …we approached, you know, a professor about it, and then it spiraled from there. Even, um, one of our core team members in our very first year—he was just a freelance photographer, not just, but he was starting out and trying his hand at freelance photography—and we said, “Okay, well, why don’t you try it here? We don’t know what we’re doing. You kind of know what you’re doing. Let’s all…”

Michelle Lynne: Let’s.

Mariel Mayz: …be, let’s all just be confused and lost together. Um, and it turned into something amazing where now he doesn’t just take photos; he’s really our producer person—the person on the ground, because he lives full-time in Portugal—is really the third arm of the festival that we could not do anything without.

Michelle Lynne: Wow.

Mariel Mayz: Who also is amazing, ’cause he’ll be in the car driving somewhere, listening to Beethoven, and he will call us and we’ll be like, “Hey, so this second movement, what do you guys think about this?” And…

Michelle Lynne: I love that. I didn’t know that about him.

Mariel Mayz: Ten years later, he’s so invested and loves photographing the lessons and concerts because he feels like he knows it. It’s something that he also is totally invested in. It’s an artistic life that he was so far from and now is close to him. So, all to say, talk to people—you never know who’s gonna give you an idea, who’s going to offer support, who’s just gonna say a couple words of encouragement to help you get through your to-do list.

Michelle Lynne: Mm-hmm. We all need that.

Mariel Mayz: It’s—it’s the easiest thing to do, and it doesn’t take anything away from anybody just to say, “Hey, this is my thought. This is what I’m working on right now. This is what I’m doing.” And you’ll be surprised at how they respond.

Michelle Lynne: That’s so beautiful, and I love hearing about how people step into roles—like hearing about Andre’s just evolving into this third arm as you’re saying, and learning new skills. It sounds like you’ve learned so many things, um, evolving over 10 years of learning to run a festival. I think sometimes we don’t realize how much we’ve evolved or had to learn because it’s on the go—like you said, we’re just figuring it out as we go. But we do figure it out. And that’s also the really fun thing. I mean, I had Deanna on the podcast last week ’cause we just had five years of TFA.

Mariel Mayz: Yeah.

Michelle Lynne: And I said, um, thank you. We’re actually really proud. We did nothing to celebrate, but we’re really proud. I said, like, “What’s changed for us?” And she said, “We got smarter.” And I thought that was just such a funny answer because I’m like, “I think that’s true.”

Mariel Mayz: Yeah. Yeah.

Michelle Lynne: And it sounds like you’ve grown so much with communication and organization and handling conflict on teams and cultural differences and articulating yourself and sharing ideas. And then, you know, I know you guys do a ton of brand, uh, sponsorships. Last year I got to ride around in this really nice car with like Porto Piano Fest branded across it—like, so awesome. And I also wanted to touch on how you guys have so many local relationships that you’ve really invested in and built, like the museum, for example, where you guys, uh, host concerts for the participants.

Mariel Mayz: We’re very, very fortunate to have the support of the city of Porto,

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Mariel Mayz: …and so they help us and support us in providing some really beautiful spaces. It’s called the Romantic Museum—one of those spaces where we use the inside of the museum and the outside, where we had an outdoor concert this past year, which was just so amazing.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Mariel Mayz: And you could imagine our stress trying to plan an outdoor concert in August where the weather is questionable. It might be hot, it might be raining.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Mariel Mayz: We are dealing with acoustic instruments. But, um, where, you know, people have these ideas and people say, “No, it’s gonna work. We have to trust our supporters.” And it worked so beautifully.

Michelle Lynne: Wait, do you have like a tent on standby, or what is the plan B?

Mariel Mayz: Yes, we do have a tent for the sun all the time during the day while it’s being tuned. And then, if we needed to move indoors instead of 400 people, it probably would’ve just been 80.

Michelle Lynne: Okay. Got it. Got it, got it.

Mariel Mayz: Yeah. So there’s always an indoor backup, even though it’s much more contained.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Mariel Mayz: Yeah. And so Nuno is our local Portuguese, of course, even though—I feel like it really is my second home. But we love being in Porto… We love the city,

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Mariel Mayz: …we— the people there. We love seeing it change year after year.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Mariel Mayz: And part of what we wanna do is bring beautiful experiences, bring music, bring people together through music and wine—but it’s primarily music—bring people together through these events in this city that we all just love so, so much because we see the potential in the resources that already exist within the city, and we wanna utilize what’s already there. Um, so that’s our idea. And being part of the community as the community evolves too.

Michelle Lynne: That’s really beautiful. I love how you’ve just articulated this so nicely. I didn’t actually know the vision behind the festival and I’ve come twice already, so it’s so nice to hear you explain it so, so beautifully. What’s like one moment that you look back on over the last 10—min, 10 years—and you’re like, “I’m so proud of that.” Like, just one standout moment for you.

Mariel Mayz: I really think it was that outdoor concert this…

Michelle Lynne: Yeah.

Mariel Mayz: …past year. Our team—we stress so much when we have to do outdoor things, and we do a couple during the festival, but this was a new space—in a place that we weren’t sure about. But it’s something that I think we were, we’re all really proud of. It’s not just that people showed up, ’cause that’s also great when people show up…

Michelle Lynne: Yes.

Mariel Mayz: …but the fact that we felt, as a team, very in control of the concert because we had talked about why we were there, what we were doing—we had such a clear idea of, like, “Okay, this is the artist that’s gonna be there. This is the intent of the concert. This is how we’re gonna promote it online. This is how we’re gonna talk about it. And, like, this is contingency plan A, B, and C,” which luckily we didn’t really need to use. Um, but seeing people show up and hearing people talk about it later when the concert’s over—I had somebody mention that concert to me when I was in Portugal a couple of weeks ago.

Michelle Lynne: Oh, wow.

Mariel Mayz: …just bringing it up again. And, uh, this was an all-Bach concert outside, so it’s, it’s like “Summer Stage, but make it Bach,” which people were like, “What are you doing?” But we had this idea—we were like, “We’re just gonna go for it. We’re not gonna be apologetic about it. Yes, we’re gonna have one pianist. He’s only gonna play a Bach program, and it’s gonna be at sunset, and people are gonna like it.” And we just had so much conviction about it that, when it was actually happening, I was kind of emotional, like, “Wow, this is really… like, people are here, and people are enjoying it,” and seeing that the seats were filled—and there were young kids like standing behind the piano because it’s this open outdoor space and fixated on this pianist, not just for two seconds, but for half an hour—standing there, like, really. We have photos of families that were just there, of people standing on walls and sitting on every possible surface—somebody that brought blankets and popcorn and…

Michelle Lynne: That’s amazing.

Mariel Mayz: …it was just such a beautiful thing to think: It’s music that we love and that we are so convinced of—acoustic piano music by Bach, and 400 people from all walks of life, from Porto, from everywhere in the world—tourists, families, young people, our participants, old people—like, everyone’s in this space together. And that’s just what we love seeing so, so, so much. Um, and it really makes all the work worth it when we see people just enjoying what we enjoy so much.

Michelle Lynne: Yeah, it’s incredible what you’re describing, and I think it’s because you’ve managed to bring the music to the people. And I think one of the biggest mistakes in the classical music industry is that we expect people to come to us, and it’s like—we have the high, elevated art and you need to understand it and appreciate it and come into our concert halls. And a lot of people are intimidated to come into those settings. And you brought it to the people, like you bring it outdoors—they’re allowed to be there with their popcorn. I mean, you’re not—you’re kind of breaking a lot of rules with what’s traditional or allowed, but you’re still keeping the integrity of the music and the concert setting. And I think that’s what can make it much more, uh, accessible for people to receive this.

Mariel Mayz: Yeah. Yeah. And as I’ve mentioned, our full-time team—but also our staff members, our part-time team—we’re all different kinds of people, and we always think, like, if we like this, someone else is gonna like this. If not just like myself. Of course, I’m well versed in the classical music world and I like to sit quietly and not talk to anybody—and, um, like, I love that setting too. But…

Michelle Lynne: Lock ourselves in a room for eight hours.

Mariel Mayz: But we have volunteers, for example, who help us out—and they’re surfing on the beach and they still want to come help us usher a concert at the end of their literal surf day in Porto… And we’re like, “Yes, please come,” and bring their friends. And even if they don’t like it, they talk about it. It’s something for people to talk about, something for people to think about. And even if they’re like, “Whoa, I have no idea what just happened,” that was kind of interesting. I sat outside and there was this guy, doing his thing—and you know, that’s how they’ll talk about the piano music. And someone else’s reaction would be like, “Oh no, what do you mean, doing his thing? What do you mean, just piano?” Like, “This was the magnificent composer X, you know?” But we, we like getting that sort of feedback. We love that internally, we feel like our staff and our team are gonna invite their friends, and that’s what, that’s what we want. Um, like, that’s kind of our first testing point.

Michelle Lynne: Hmm.

Mariel Mayz: For when we think about programming and we think about the events and why we do some certain things that we do.

Michelle Lynne: That’s beautiful. Yeah. You guys have created such a beautiful experience and festival, and I’ve just loved hearing you share more in depth about all of the aspects and everything that goes into it. I mean, I think we touched on 10% of what goes into it, so congratulations to you for all of your hard work and what you guys are doing every year. Uh, this year, it’s August 1st through the 12th. And how can people apply? How can they find you? Follow you?

Mariel Mayz: Yes—portopianofest.com. We still have our applications open for our masterclass program and for our auditor program. If you want to come and watch lessons and concerts, but without playing, or if you want to take lessons with our fantastic artist faculty and guest artists, porto-pianofest.com is the place to do it—or on all social media platforms, slash port-piano fest.

Michelle Lynne: Amazing. So, Mariel, at the end of every episode, we ask for an action point. What’s something that someone could do who’s listening to this after this? Hugely inspiring—this is the first time I’ve ever teared up on the podcast, by the way. I’ve been doing this really—like, I’ve, like, I’ve never cried before—so this is deep. I’m very, very privileged to have you. Um, what’s something that someone can do after listening to this episode?

Mariel Mayz: First, as I was saying, talk to people about your dreams and ideas—just one person, tell them what you are thinking. And another thing is to know that everyone is a multifaceted person. So even…

Michelle Lynne: Hmm.

Mariel Mayz: …if you think you are, this doesn’t mean you don’t have the potential to do other things and to explore other areas that you could be great at.

Michelle Lynne: That’s beautiful. Thank you so much. Thanks for sharing that.

Mariel Mayz: Thank you.

Michelle Lynne: For everybody listening, make sure you go follow Porto Piano Fest. And Mariel, it’s been a real pleasure. Thank you for your time.

Mariel Mayz: Thank you, Michelle. This is great.

Michelle Lynne: And everybody listening, be fearless.