Drumming

Drumming - Percussion group was founded in Oporto in 1999. The group has been synthesizing the evolution of erudite percussion in Portugal and in western culture. It has rapidly earned the public and the critic's sympathy and today it is a reference in the Portuguese musical life, performing in the main concert halls of Portugal: Centro Cultural de Belém, Gulbenkian Foundation, Culturgest, Teatro Camões, Teatro Rivoli, Teatro Nacional de S. João, Fundação de Serralves, etc., as well as in Spain, Belgian, France, Germany, Brazil, etc. Resident group for musical programming in Porto 2001 - European Cultural Capital, it has contributed to promote great contemporary plays, also creating its own repertoire, encouraging dozens of national and international composers to write plays for the group, exploring the most diversified, various and imaginative forms and ways of expressing percussion, earning progressively several publics in that area, which has never been heard before. Under the direction of Miquel Bernat, percussionist and pedagogue of international prestige, funding member of Ictus Ensemble from Brussels and collaborator of the Contemporary Dancing Company Rosas from Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, Drumming distinguishes itself for its singular programming, which sums up the experiences of the director's professional life, with the variety, diversity of styles and formation of its members. Drumming explores musical areas such as: contemporary music, rock-jazz-world Music, music for theatre scenes, opera and ballet dance. The group's activity goes also through collaboration with other groupings like the Gulbenkian Orchestra, Oporto National Orchestra, Remix Ensemble, Quarteto Montagnana and solo players like the singer Maria João or the violoncellist Ivan Moniguetti, among others. Drumming - percussion group tries to maintain a stylish and thematic coherency, going through sound innovation and the poetics of the musical show as a total and unique scenic moment. (text by Drumming)

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Discography

Sérgio Azevedo

Photo: Carlos Mateus de Lima

Composer Sérgio Azevedo was born in Coimbra in 1968. He studied composition at the Academia de Amadores de Música (Lisbon) with composer Fernando Lopes-Graça and finished his studies of composition at the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa, with Christopher Bochmann (a disciple of Nadia Boulanger) and Constança Capdeville. He followed several seminars at IRCAM and other institutions and worked in short periods with composers like Emmanuel Nunes (at the Gulbenkian Foundation), Tristan Murail, Phillipe Manoury, Jorge Peixinho, Louis Andriessen and Simon Bainbridge. He won several prizes of composition, in Portugal and abroad (like the United Nations Prize), and his works have been played and commissioned regularly in several countries (Spain, France, UK, Austria, Germany, Bulgaria, Brazil, Canada, USA, etc) by prestigious ensembles, soloists and conductors (Luca Pfaff, Pascal Roffé, Jürgen Bruns, Nikolai Lalov, Bruno Belthoise, Artur Pizarro, António Rosado, Miguel Borges Coelho, Anne Kaasa, Jose Ramon Encinar, Galliard Ensemble, Remix Ensemble, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Kammersymphonie Berlin, etc), some of them being available in commercial CDs. He works frequently with schools and students, composing a great deal of didactic pieces, ranging from piano solo to small ensembles and school orchestras. He’s also a prolific writer on music, with two books published, Inventing Sounds (Caminho 1999) and Olga Prats - Um Piano Singular (Bizâncio 2007) and several articles. He also contributes to the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and works for other prestigious magazines and CD labels. In 1993 he was appointed teacher of composition at the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa. He was also author of broadcastings at RDP - Antena 2 since 1993 and member of the CESEM, Center for Aesthetic and Music Studies between 1993 and 2007. In 2007 he began his doctorate degree at Universidade do Minho with Elisa Lessa and Christopher Bochmann. His music is published by AVA - Editions (www.editions-ava.com). (adapted from text by Sérgio Azevedo)

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Other pages:

http://www.classical-composers.org/comp/azevedo
http://www.composers21.com/compdocs/azevedos.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A9rgio_Azevedo

Ludovice Ensemble

Ludovice Ensemble is a Portuguese Early Music group focused on the research and performance of Baroque Chamber Music. It aims at a passionate and intense, but still stylistically accurate approach of varied repertoires, from French 17th century Ballet and Sacred Music, to German Sonatas and Italian Secular Cantatas. Their performances are inflamed by a Mediterranean-flavored sense of Drama and Rhetorical deliver, most appropriated to the Baroque cultural inheritance they revive. Created in 2004 by the harpsichord and organ player Miguel Jalôto and the traverso player Joana Amorim, the Ludovice Ensemble, besides its regular instrumental core (traverso, 1 or 2 violins, gamba or cello, harpsichord/organ) works regularly with guest extraordinary artists, like singers Orlanda Velez Isidro and Hugo Oliveira, and the French Baroque Dancer/Mime/Puppeteer Akiko Veaux. Ludovice Ensemble performed already in most of the major music festivals in Portugal, like "Festa da Música" - Lisbon (CCB), Mafra, Leiria, Alcobaça (Cistermusica), Loulé (Encontros de Música Antiga), Évora (Encontros do Espírito Santo), Baixo Alentejo (Terras sem Sombra), Viana do Castelo (Ciclo de Música Sacra) and many other concerts in cities like Lisbon (Calouste Gulbenkian Museum), Porto, Vila Nova de Gaia and Évora. The high scholar- and musicianship of Ludovice Ensemble performances is already recognized in Portuguese Musical Circle, and the group intends soon to present their work to a larger public, through CD recordings and concerts abroad. (adapted from text by Ludovice Ensemble)

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Rui Penha

Composer and conductor Rui Penha was born in Oporto. At the age of six he started studying piano and harpsichord. In 2006, he graduated in Music Education and Composition from the University of Aveiro, where he studied under Sara Carvalho and João Pedro Oliveira. He has also studied with Emmanuel Nunes, Brian Ferneyhough, Helmut Lachenmann and Louis Andriessen, among others, participating actively in Workshops and Master Classes. In 2007, he began his doctoral research under João Pedro Oliveira. He studied conducting with Ralph Allwood, Mike Brewer, Péter Erdei and Jean-Sébastien Béreau, among others. He is the conductor of the contemporary ensemble Momentum Ensemble, with whom he has premiered and recorded works of some of Portugal's foremost composers. He is also an interpreter of live electroacoustic music, both as a soloist and in chamber music. He was awarded some prizes, including the 1st prize in the Prémio Nacional de Composição Jorge Peixinho and an honorable mention in the Música Viva competition. He was selected twice for the Gulbenkian Orchestra Workshop for Young Composers and for the Young Composers' Meeting 2007(Netherlands). He has composed music for cinema, tv, radio and interactive installations. He’s been invited as a speaker in conferences and as active participant in international symposiums, being also a programmer of musical software. He was awarded a mention for the whole of the pedagogical work in the Lomus 2008 - International Music Software Contest. His works have been played in several countries, by some foremost groups as the Arditti Quartet, Gulbenkian Orchestra and Orkest ‘de ereprijs’ and soloists as Pedro Carneiro and Adam Wodnicki. Some of his works have been published, both in scores and CDs. He teaches at the Department of Communication and Art of the University of Aveiro and he is also a consultant of the Education Service at Casa da Música (Oporto).(adapted from text by Rui Penha)

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Jaime Reis

Photo: Ana Lima

Composer Jaime Reis started studying music at five, in Seia, with ethnomusicologist António Tilly. He started composing at 12, studying at Conservatório de Música in Seia and Viseu. Between 17 and 22, he concluded a music teaching degree in the University of Aveiro, where he studied composition and electronic music with Isabel Soveral and João Pedro Oliveira. He finished a doctoral course in Social Sciences in Universidade Nova de Lisboa, where he's pursuing doctoral studies in Musicology with Professors Salwa Castelo-Branco and Emmanuel Nunes, whose composition seminars he attends regularly, namely those of Gulbenkian Foundation. He also attended Stockhausen’s summer courses (Kürten). He was given a mention on the 1st and 2nd Jorge Peixinho Contest, he was selected thrice for the Gulbenkian Workshop for Young Composers, his music was selected to be presented at the ICMC 2005 (Barcelona). Besides his activity as a composer, he is artistic directot of festivals Days of Portuguese Music in Krakow and Days of Electroacoustic Music, in Portugal. Conferences: University of Aveiro, Music Academy in Krakow and Darmstadt Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik, among others; sonorization of documentaries and multimedia presentations; research fellow for the Portuguese Music Information Centre and for INET (Ethnomusicology Institute – Universidade Nova de Lisboa), where he develops studies about Portuguese music; he teaches and is co-director of Conservatório de Música in Seia. His music has been presented, among others, in Portugal (Festival Música Viva and Festival de Música de Aveiro), in Poland, Turkey, France, Austria (Hörfest 05, Graz), where he was invited composer to premiere is piece Lysozyme Synthesis, and Belgium (Ghent), where he premiere his piece Density Study, commissioned by Logos Foundation. In 2006/2007 he was composer in residence at Laboratory of Electroacoustic Creation (Miso Music, Portugal) and at Visby International Centre for Composers (2007). (adapted from text by Jaime Reis)

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Quarteto Lopes-Graça

Quarteto Lopes-Graça was formed within the Lisbon National Conservatory School of Music and is created by musicians with outstanding solo and chamber careers, teachers of that institution: Luís Pacheco Cunha and Anne Victorino d'Almeida, violins; Isabel Pimentel, viola; Catherine Stryncks, cello. This project intends to bestow the Conservatory, likewise many of its fellow-schools in the world, with a reference group in the strings’ area, capable of developing a permanent teaching activity (quartet master-classes) as well as promoting the school, both in Portugal and abroad. The ensemble performed in Lisbon’s Centro Cultural de Belém as well as in the Festival “In search of a lost Concert House”, in Lisbon. It performed twice in “La Folle Journée” (Nantes, 2005 and 2006) and in many other venues around the anniversaries of Lopes-Graça and Mozart. It pays a very special attention to the repertoire by contemporary Portuguese composers, having given a few world premieres of such works. Its first CD includes major creations by Lopes-Graça and António Victorino d’Almeida. It privileges the staging of Portuguese composers' works, considering the relative wealth of international level creations for string quartet by composers such as Santos Pinto, Viana of Mota, Cláudio Carneiro, Luís de Freitas Branco, Frederico de Freitas, Joly Braga Santos, Fernando Lopes-Graça or the more recent António Victorino d’Almeida, Luís Tinoco, Amílcar Vasques Dias (work dedicated to this quartet). Nevertheless, it remains deeply involved in the rendering of the great classical works such as the ones created by Haydn, Mozart, Cherubini, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky or Shostakovich. (adapted from text by Quarteto Lopes-Graça)

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António de Sousa Dias

Composer António de Sousa Dias, born in Lisbon in 1959, completed his Superior Course in Composition at the Lisbon National Conservatoire and a PhD in musicology in Paris VIII. He is a member of CITAR and post doctoral researcher at CICM (MSH Paris Nord / Université Paris VIII) with a fellowship from FCT / MCTES (Portugal). His research project in progress : InstallaSon - KITTy : Vers le développement d’outils d’assistance à la conception et construction d’espaces musicaux navigables. Most of his compositional work is for cinema and television. Outside Portugal, his compositions have been played in several countries, mainly in Europe (France, Spain, Italy, Russia, etc.). Deputy director of Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa (from 1995 to 2001) he taught there Composition and Electroacoustics (since 1987). Member of ColecViva, directed by Constança Capdeville, as direction assistant, sound synthesis and percussion since 1985. Since 1992 he collaborates with the Grupo Música Nova, directed by Cândido Lima. (adapted from text by António de Sousa Dias)

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Daniel Schvetz

Luso-Argentinian composer, born in Buenos Aires , Daniel Schvetz studied piano and composition in National Conservatory and particularly; piano with Roberto Brando and Moisés Makaroff and couterpoint, analisis and composition with Guillermo Gratzer, pupil of Paul Hindemith. He began improvising on the piano since 3 years old and this took him to develop his ideas both arranging and composing early, for jazz, folklore and contemporary ensembles and choirs. He attended the Cursos Latinoamericanos de Música Contemporânea, in Brazil and Argentina. He made investigation and performing tours all over his own country, Bolivia and Peru. He founded the projects “Luna” and “ Canto entero”, of Folkloric projection, and “ El Borde”, who performed his own compositions in modern tango style. Yet there he wrote many works for piano and different chamber ensembles, and for theatre. In Portugal since 1990, he is professor of Analysis and composition technics and Chamber music at National Conservatory, and lecturer of Musical Analysis at Metropolitan Conservatory and Metropolitan Professional School. He founded with César Viana “Ophris”, to perform Portuguese Contemporary music. Works include “Formantes” for sax quartet, “Primeira sinfonia concertante”, for chamber orchestra and solo clarinet, “Segunda Sinfonia Concertante” for symphonic band and solo tenor sax, “Suite semi-porteña”, for harpsichord, symphonic theatral poems based on Borges’ and on V. Nemésio’ poems, “Sinfonia Apocalíptica”, for sax quartet, percussion and orchestra, “Missa de Santa Cecília”, “Cantata Brevis”, the operas “ The little prince” and “O Defunto”, musicals such as “Contos de Shakespeare”, “Homlet”, “Sonhos de uma noite de verão” and the farses “Gariações Volberg” and “A Mauta Flágica”. He conducts and performs tango and in improvisation concerts. (adapted from text by Daniel Schvetz)

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Artur Pizarro

Photo by Sven Arnstein

Renowned for his lyrical poeticism and outstanding virtuosity, Artur Pizarro won the Leeds International Piano Competition in 1990. He performs regularly throughout the world with the leading orchestras and the world’s most distinguished conductors including Esa-Pekka Salonen, Sir Andrew Davis, Charles Dutoit, Sir Simon Rattle & Sir Charles Mackerras. As a recitalist he has performed at many of the world’s most prestigious venues and festivals including Washington’s Kennedy Centre, The Wigmore Hall, The Aldeburgh Festival, Neues Gewandhaus, Frankfurt Alte Oper, Theatre du Chatelet, Musee D’Orsay, Zurich Tonhalle, the BBC Proms and the NHK and Orchard Halls in Japan. His regular chamber music appearances have partnered him with Raphael Oleg, Christian Altenburger, Truls Mork, Toby Hoffmann, the St Lawrence, Muir & Petersen Quartets. In 2005, he founded the ‘Pizarro Trio’ with violinist Raphael Oleg and cellist Josephine Knight. He has recorded extensively for Collins Classics, Hyperion Records, Harmonia Mundi, Naxos and Linn Records, for which he released 2 CDs of Beethoven Piano Sonatas, 2 CDs with works by Chopin and also Ravel’s complete piano works, plus a CD of Rimsky-Korsakov’s piano duo music with Vita Panomariovaite. Recent recording also include Rodrigo’s complete piano works, for Naxos (chosen as Editors Choice in Gramophone Magazine) and the complete Lizst Hungarian Rhapsodies for Brilliant Classics. Throughout 2003-04 he performed the complete cycle of Beethoven Piano Sonatas in London. All 8 concerts were broadcast on BBC Radio 3’s ‘Performance on 3’ and the cycle earned him a Royal Philharmonic Society Award Nomination for ‘Best Series’. The 06-07 season included the complete solo works of Ravel & Debussy in London broadcast live by BBC Radio 3 and also performed Lisbon & Denmark. (adapted from text in Artur Pizarro’s webpage)

Discography

Bruno Borralhinho

Cellist Bruno Borralhinho was born in 1982 and began his music studies at twelve years old with prof. Luis Sá Pessoa. He later studied with prof. Markus Nyikos at the Universität der Künste in Berlin, graduating and postgraduating with the highest distinctions. After that, he studied with Norwegian cellist Truls Mørk and attended several Master Classes with Natalia Gutman, Antonio Meneses, Anner Bylsma, Jian Wang and Martin Löhr, among others. He won 1st Prize in the "Julio Cardona" and "Prémio Jovens Músicos" contests, the last organized by the Portuguese National Radio. In the year of 2000 he organised the first National Cello Meeting in Portugal. As a soloist, he performed with the Gulbenkian Orchestra, Coimbra Chamber Orchestra, Orquestra Clássica do Centro (soloist and conductor) and Orquestra do Norte. He has been a member of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra and Solo-Cellist of the Jeunesses Musicales World Orchestra. He was also a member of the Academy of the Staatskapelle Berlin, resident orchestra of the Berlin State Opera, and “Praktikant“ in DSO - Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin. He performed in leading concert halls throughout all Europe, Russia, USA, Canada and South America and worked with important conductors, such as Daniel Barenboim, Claudio Abbado, Kurt Masur, Kent Nagano and Christoph Eschenbach, and famous soloists: Anne Sophie Mutter, Martha Argerich, Maxim Vengerov, Mischa Maisky, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Rolando Villanzón, Thomas Quasthoff, among others. He’s a member of the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra and Artistic Director of the Ensemble Mediterrain. His active professional activity includes regular soloist performances in solo recitals, with orchestra or with piano accompaniment in Portugal, Spain, Germany or Brazil, and he also gave Masterclasses in Spain and Brazil. (adapted from text by Bruno Borralhinho)

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Pedro M. Rocha

Composer Pedro M. Rocha was born in Torres Novas in 1961. From 1981 to 1986 he studied music at the Lisbon National Conservatoire, with Gilberta Paiva and Olga Prats (piano), as well as composition with Jorge Peixinho, Álvaro Salazar and mainly Christopher Bochmann, under whom he graduated in 1990 at Lisbon Superior School of Music. From 1982 to 1990, he attended the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’s Composition Seminaries with Emmanuel Nunes and then went to study microtonalism with Alain Bancquart, in Paris (Gulbenkian F. scholarship), where from 1992 to 1993 he attended a Composition and Computer course at the IRCAM. He also attended several workshops and seminaries about various subjects: Piano; Electroacoustic Music, Choir and Orchestra Conducting, Singing and Vocal Technique. His music includes orchestral pieces – with and without choir; a capella choir; chamber music often using pre-recorded sounds; pure acousmatic works, some with video. He is interested in the expansion of form and of musical parameters. Different works have different kinds of openness/ improvisation - “Dual”, “To a free world”, “To a world free from beliefs” – that contrast with totally closed ones like the acousmatic: “To a world free from religions”, “To a word free from countries”, “Composição I” and “Simbioses”. (text by Pedro M. Rocha)

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Remix Ensemble

Remix Ensemble is Casa da Música's contemporary music group. Since its debut in 2000, it has already performed the world premières of sixty new works and a considerable range of contemporary music, covering all currents of style and idiom. In addition to its work on the concert platform, the group has made incursions into opera and music theatre, music accompanying films, dance and jazz. It has regularly invited featured composers to undertake workshops alongside performances of their works, including Emmanuel Nunes, Heiner Goebbels, James Dillon, Magnus Lindberg, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Harrison Birtwistle, Wolfgang Mitterer and Karin Rehnqvist. To date, the Remix Ensemble has been conducted by Stefan Asbury, Ilan Volkov, Kasper de Roo, Pierre-André Valade, Rolf Gupta, Jonathan Stockhammer, Jurjen Hempel, Matthias Pintscher, Franck Ollu, Reinbert de Leeuw, Diego Masson, Paul Hillier and Emilio Pomàrico, amongst others conductors. At international level, the Remix Ensemble performed in Paris (IRCAM, Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord and L'Odeon), Strasbourg (Musica), Brussels (Ars Musica), Huddersfield, Rotterdam, Madrid, Barcelona, Valence, Budapest, Orleans, Bourges, Reims, Norrköping and Vienna. The first double CD of music by the Remix Ensemble was released in 2004, containing live and studio recordings of works by Pauset, Azguime, Côrte-Real, Peixinho, Dillon, Staud and Nunes. New CDs with music by Emmanuel Nunes (Numérica), Bernhard Lang (Villa Concordia), Pinho Vargas (Numérica) and Wolfgang Mitterer (Casa da Música) are also available. In 2007/2008, Remix Ensemble performed several world premieres, including the first opera by Emmanuel Nunes and works by Miguel Azguime (with the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation), António Chagas-Rosa (with the Klangforum Wien), Johannes Maria Staud, Rebecca Saunders, David Horn, Georg Friedrich Haas, Vykintas Baltakas, Georges Aperghis, Jon Balke, Wolfgang Mitterer and Mauricio Sotelo. The Remix Ensemble is scheduled to play concerts at various international festivals during 2009: Madrid, Witten, Brussels, Huddersfield and Amsterdam. Peter Rundel is the Remix Ensemble's Chief Conductor. (text from Remix Ensemble's page at Casa da Música's website)

Gilda Oswaldo Cruz

Brazilian pianist Gilda Oswaldo Cruz was born in Rio de Janeiro, where she began her musical studies. She graduated at the Escola de Música of the Rio de Janeiro Federal University with highest honours. After finishing the virtuosity course at the Musik Hochschule in Vienna, Austria, under the guidance of Hans Graf and Bruno Seidlhofer, Gilda Oswaldo Cruz got the first prize at the Elena Rombro-Stepanow International Competition. After further studies in Barcelona, she continued her concert career in Europe and South America. She lives presently in Lisbon, Portugal, and specializes in Brazilian and contemporary music, besides the solo and chamber-music repertoire for her instrument. Her first CD dedicated to piano works by Claudio Santoro, the most important Brazilian composer of his generation, was issued in Rio de Janeiro by Biscoitofino in 2001, getting excellent reviews. Her second CD, dedicated to the same composer, offers the first performance of several unpublished masterworks by Amazon-born Santoro. This CD has been released and sucessfully presented in Brazil, Portugal and Spain. In 2007 Gilda Oswaldo Cruz produced a series of fourteen radio programmes dedicated to the music of Arnold Schoenberg. The series was commissioned by Antena 2, the classical music official radio of Portugal, and broadcast twice in Brazil by the Rádio-Mec, the state-owned radio station of Brazil. In 2008, the same Antena 2 commissioned and broadcast a series of thirteen radio programmes about Heitor Villa-Lobos. This year, the 50th anniversary of the death of Villa-Lobos, Gilda Oswaldo Cruz will be recording a new CD with the Bachianas nº 4 and the sixteen Cirandas for piano solo, at the studio of label Biscoitofino, in Rio de Janeiro. (text by Gilda Oswaldo Cruz)

Luís Cardoso

Luís Cardoso began his musical studies in 1993 at the Amateur Academy for Music (Academia de Amadores de Música). In 1996, he continued his education at the School of Music of the National Conservatory, where, in 2001, he completed the course in Voice with Professor Filomena Amaro. He studied Analysis and Compositional Techniques with Eurico Carrapatoso. He received his first degree in composition from the Superior School of Music in Lisbon where he studied with Luís Tinoco, Christopher Bochmann and António Pinho Vargas. He won the composition contest of ESMAE/Casa da Música (2003) with the piece Serenata, which was premiered by the Remix Ensemble in March 2005 at the Casa da Música, Porto. In 2005 Luís Cardoso composed Trio de cordas, a commission from the Orchestrutópica premiered in September 2005 at the Festival Expresso Oriente at Culturgest, Lisbon. He won the competition “Opera in Creation” with Antígona (2006), a short chamber opera. Also in 2006, he received honorable mention in the 1st Composition Competition of the International Music Festival of Póvoa de Varzim, in the Chamber Music category, with the piece Pater Noster, for baritone and string quartet. In 2006 he participated in the Composition Seminars of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, under the orientation of Emmanuel Nunes. In January 2007, the Gulbenkian Orchestra, under the direction of Maestro Guillaume Bourgogne, premiered Heptâmetro, as part of the 5th Workshop for Young Composers. He has also lectured at commented concerts with the Duo Contracello and the Capela Quartet. More recently he presented conferences on Portuguese contemporary music in Finland and Sweden, by invitation from Instituto Camões. Luís Cardoso was Young Resident Composer in Casa da Música during 2008. (text taken from Ava Musical Editions)

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mp3: Luís Cardoso's "Quatro Estrofes", for solo cello, played by Nuno Abreu

Paulo Raposo

Photo: J. Bernstein

Paulo Raposo is media artist, composer, curator and radio producer based in Lisbon. After studies of philosophy and cinema in Lisbon, he has been working in the medium of live electronic and computer sound, performing, recording and exhibiting works in France, Germany, UK, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Israel, Portugal, Baltic States and United States. His work spans across different sound investigations including public space and field recordings, audio-visual environments, electracoustic and interactive works that explores the inter-relationships and displacements between digital process and architectural spaces, using computer and custom-built software to create abstract and delicate sound works. Critics referred to his work as "an opportunity to hear contemporary sound art in one of its best moments with the perfect blend of phonography and masterful processing" and "an imaginative and border-crossing project with its sensors open in all directions". Raposo performed and colaborated with numerous artists, including Janek Schaefer, Jason Kahn, Stephan Mathieu, Kaffe Mathews, Marc Behrens, John Grzinich, Zbigniew Karkowski, eRikm, André Gonçalves, Carlos Santos, Christopher Murphy, Koji Asano, Sara Kolster, amongst others. He curates Sirr since 2001, a label dedicated to promote challenging sound art, and organizes numerous events. (text by Paulo Raposo)

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Discography/ downloads

Carlos "Zíngaro"

Violinist Carlos Z. has performed with a wide variety of improvising musicians and composers, including: Barre Phillips, Daunik Lazro, Derek Bailey, Joëlle Léandre, Jon Rose, Peter Kowald, John Butcher, Mark Dresser, John Zorn, Roger Turner, Hans Reichel, Dominique Regef, Evan Parker, Günter Müller, Mats Gustafsson, Agusti Fernandez, Paul Lovens, etc.. In 1979, thanks to a Fulbright Grant was invited by the Creative Music Foundation in Woodstock, New York to participate in meetings, classes and performances with such composers as Anthony Braxton, Roscoe Mitchell, George Lewis, Leo Smith, Tom Cora and Richard Teitelbaum (a regular collaborator). As a soloist, or with other musicians and composers, C. Zingaro has performed at many of the most important new music and improvising festivals in Europe, Asia and America. A substantial level of his musical activities are associated with theatre, film and dance. He has also been stage and costume designer for several other theatre productions. He has produced several film scores and worked extensively with dancers and dance companies such as the Gulbenkian Dance Company, the Opéra de Genève Dance Company, Francis Plisson, Ludger Lamers, Isabelle Schad, Vasco Wellencamp, Vera Mantero, and Olga Roriz. C. Zingaro was a founding member of the Lisbon-based art gallery Comicos, his work has been exhibited, and he has received several prizes for his cartoons, comics and illustrations, samples of which can be seen on a number of CD sleeves, for example, Musiques de Scène, Release from Tension, Cyberband, The Sea Between. Actual formations: T.E.C.K. String 4Tet - Tomas Ulrich - cello, Elliot Sharp - guitars, Carlos "Zingaro" - violin, Ken Filliano - d.bass ZFProject - Simon H. Fell - d.bass, Carlos "Zingaro" - violin / laptop, Marcio Mattos - cello / electronics, Mark Sanders - drms / perc TRIO Norbert Moslang (electronics) + Roger Turner (percussion) + Carlos "Zingaro" - violin / laptop SPECTRUM TRIO - Wilbert DeJoode (d.bass), Dominique Regef (hurdy gurdy), Carlos "Zingaro" - violin PUNCTUAL TRIO - Lou Malozzi (electronics), Fred Lomberg-Holm (cello), Carlos "Zingaro" - violin / laptop. (text by Carlo Zíngaro)

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Discography

Pedro Faria Gomes

Pedro Faria Gomes (b.1979, Lisbon) has studied at the Academia de Música de Santa Cecília with Leonor Fernandes (piano) and João Madureira (composition). He graduated in composition at the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa in 2001, where he studied with Eurico Carrapatoso and Christopher Bochmann. He lectured in analysis at the Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa Conservatoire from 1999 to 2007 as well as composition techniques and analysis at the AMSC and the Piaget Institute of Almada. He won the Lopes-Graça Prize in Composition (Tomar) with À Memória de Anarda in 2007. Recently, his music represented Portugal at the Expo 2008 in Zaragoza. Pedro Faria Gomes is currently in his final year of a MMus programme in composition at the Royal College of Music studying with David Sawer. He had scholarships from both the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia and the RCM. He also won the PRS Sir Arthur Bliss Memorial award in 2007-8 and a Stanley Picker Trust award in 2008-9. His music has been released on CD by Compasso and Numérica. Past performances of Pedro Faria Gomes’ music include: I Solisti Veneti with Claudio Scimone, Orquestra Nacional do Porto with Luís Carvalho, Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa and Orquestra do Algarve, both with Cesário Costa, Sinfonietta de Lisboa with Vasco Azevedo, Coro de Câmara Lisboa Cantat with Jorge Alves, Royal College of Music Symphony Orchestra with Patrick Bailey, Composers Ensemble with Richard Baker, Contemporary Consort with Tom Davey. And such venues as: Teatro Nacional São João, Grande Auditório da Culturgest, Teatro Municipal São Luiz, Teatro Diogo Bernardes, Teatro Municipal Sá de Miranda, Fundação de Serralves, Teatro Nacional D. Maria II, Casa da Música, Escola de Música do Conservatório Nacional, Conservatoire Claude Debussy, National Portrait Gallery, Royal College of Music, Victoria and Albert Museum, Southbank Centre. (text by Pedro Faria Gomes)

João Ricardo

João Ricardo was born in Porto, Portugal, in 1973. His musical path started at the age of 6 with piano studies which were to be interrupted by a move to Kuwait. Years later he dedicated himself to the electric bass and guitar, as well as to the exploration of diverse tools such as magnetic tape and software trackers. The passage through several rock/metal bands (among which Gangrena) and some incursions in the experimental music field led to the present ocp (operador de cabine polivalente) project. In the advent of the new millenium, he dropped out of Law School and headed to London to study live audio. Back home, he created a PA company, worked in a Casino (where he's had the opportunity to assist Diana Ross, Bobby McFerrin, Chaka Khan, Wilson Pickett, among others) and did free lance audio engineering. Presently, he dedicates himself to performing live and to composition/production/experimentation for multimedia; forms Pygar with Hugo Olim and participates in two other musical projects: Boiar and F.R.I.C.S. (an improvised fanfare). Throughout his career he's played alongside names like Mikael Stavostrand, ALOG, Tim Hecker, Kangding Ray, Fennesz, etc, and has performed in Holland, UK, Spain, Cape Verde, Mozambique and Portugal. He's also a prolific figure in the international open source audio scene. (text by João Ricardo)

http://ocp.pt.vu/
http://pygar.pt.vu/
http://boiar.com/
http://myspace.com/fanfarraimprovisada

Rafael Toral

Rafael Toral is a performance musician using custom-built or modified electronic instruments. He is currently searching new performance possibilities in electronic music, through his long-term "Space Program", a quest for a discipline to structure musical discourse in "post-free jazz electronic music". Approaching jazz from an alien perspective, as a system of individual decision-making from the viewpoint of free spectrum electronics, his conception is concerned with physical, gestural performance, “phrasing and swing”, instruments with a simple and clear sonic identity, and articulation of silence and sound. Rafael Toral has performed throughout Europe, USA, Korea, Japan, New Zealand and Australia and collaborated with Phill Niblock, John Zorn, Lee Ranaldo, Christian Marclay, Alvin Lucier, Jim O'Rourke, Evan Parker, Roger Turner and David Toop, among others. He is a long time collaborator of Sei Miguel and a member of the Mimeo european electronic orchestra. Formerly known for his work with guitar and electronics and records such as "Wave Field" (1994) or "Violence of Discovery and Calm of Acceptance" (2000), in 2003 he terminated that line of works to completely renew his approach to music. In 2006 he released “Space”, followed by “Space Solo 1” in 2007 and "Space Elements Vol. I" in 2008. (text by Rafael Toral)

Website

My Space page

You Tube

Discography

Bibliography

Quarteto Arabesco

Quarteto Arabesco has evidenced itself as a pioneering Portuguese string quartet, with an original approach of a varied repertoire. It is constituted by Denys Stetsenko (violin), Raquel Cravino (violin), Lúcio Studer (viola) and Ana Raquel Pinheiro (cello). It is specialized in authentic performance of baroque and classical music. Period instruments are used and historical treatises and other written evidence are followed to gain insight into stylistic and technical considerations on how the works may have been played in the period in which they were written. This work has been enthusiastically followed by great masters such as Enrico Onofri, Alfredo Bernardini, Richard Gwilt and Gaetano Nasillo. Since its premiere in 2006, it presented more than 40 concerts, continuously seeking for the creation of novel programs. It has participated in festivals such as International Music Festival of Madeira, Maio Barroco Festival, Leiria Music Festival, Mafra Organ Festival, Encontros de Musica Antiga de Loulé, Faro Organ Festival, Temporada Musica em S. Roque, as well as in important concert halls such as Casa da Música, Centro Cultural de Belém, Culturgest and Gulbenkian Foundation. (text by Quarteto Arabesco)

Website

Catarina Molder

Born in Lisbon, soprano Catarina Molder got her Master degree of Singing at Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa, followed by post-graduation in Singing at Hamburg Music University. She worked with the choir of Teatro Nacional de São Carlos and made several recordings for RDP plus concerts with orchestra under the direction of João Paulo Santos, Jorge Matta, Christopher Bochmann, Cesário Costa, Leite Raposo and Will Humburg. She took part in the Music Festivals of Macau, Musicatlântico with two Opera Galas in Azores, the International Music Festivals of Guarda and Leiria. Between 1999 and 2002 she did recitals with german lider, mélodie, kabarett songs, Portuguese songs, among others, all over Portugal. She created the show “Universo da Infância”, Song and Piano Recitals for Children which, since the success of its premiere in Lisbon, in October 99, travelled all over the country for more than 5 years, with over 200 performances. She featured in José Júlio Lopes’ contemporary opera “Nefertiti”, among others, and produced several successful operas and opera shows, some of them for children audiences. Her enormous flexibility in repertoire, from Puccini to contemporary music, from lied and melodie to Kabarett, musical or jazz, and her special skills as an actress lead her to do both repertoire Operas or modern experimental shows. She participated as narrator and performer in Concerts for Children where she also sung with the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra and Gulbenkian Orchestra. Besides her career as a singer, she also directs her own Opera Company (Companhia de Ópera do Castelo) in Lisbon. In 2005/06 she was invited by the Gulbenkian Foundation to create and direct the Educational Project Discovering Music at Gulbenkian, where she is also the artistic director of a Mini-Saison specially design for children and young people. (adapted from text by Catarina Molder)

Contacts: ph. 00 351 936355794
catarinamolder@gmail.com coperadocastelo@gmail.com

Catarina Molder's show "Memory of Angels":

Cristiano Holtz

Cristiano Holtz was born in Brazil in 1972. He started his musical training with his grandmother when he was seven years old. Inspired by the music of J. S. Bach and Gustav Leonhardt’s playing, he began to study the harpsichord at the age of twelve in Brazil. With the age of fifteen he continued his musical studies in the Netherlands, staying there for ten years, studying with several teachers, such as Jaques Ogg and Gustav Leonhardt. He also attented masterclasses with Miklós Spanyi (clavichord) and Pierre Hantaï (harpsichord). Since 1989 he has been playing mostly as soloist thoughout Europe, Latin America and Asia, in several international festivals and giving masterclasses in Portugal, Brazil and Singapore. Besides harpsichord and clavichord, he also gives recitals on historical organs. In 1995 he won an award in the Eldorado Competition in São Paulo. He frequently records for Brazilian and Portuguese radio and television. In 2002 he recorded keyboard works by J. S. Bach and chamber music by Händel and Vivaldi, in the frame of Porto European Cultural Capital, in association with the daily newspaper “Público”. In 2006 he recorded the suites of J. Mattheson (world premier) for the label RAMÉE, this recording obtained several international awards such as the “Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik” and the Goldberg’s early music magazine 5 Stars. He currently lives in Lisbon where he teaches at the “Instituto Gregoriano” and the “Conservatório Nacional de Música”. (text by Cristiano Holtz)

Cristiano Holtz' My Space page and blog

Available discography

Vá-de-Viró

After 17 years of existence, many concerts done and 3 CDs edited, this group continues persistent, joyful and friendly on privileging the music from ethnic inspiration. The group elements are: Adriano St. Aubyn, Cláudia Matias, Gonçalo Pescada, Igor Martins, Jorge Semião, Maria do Rosário Arenga, Patrícia Martins, Paulo Cunha e Paulo Girão. To the old ethnic melodies and the adapted old lyrics, they add original melodies and lyrics witch enrich their vast repertoire. With no preconceptions, this group continues to experiment their many influences and interests, resulting from this mixture a sound that many call... "Vá-de-Viró". (text by Vá-de-Viró)

Vá-de-Viró's website

Gonçalo Lourenço

Composer and conductor Gonçalo Lourenço was born in Lisbon in 1979. Active as a choral conductor, he founded the Odyssea Choir and the Coro da Universidade Lusófona in 2004, and serves as the music director of both ensembles. He has participated in conducting courses such as the First International Course of Vocal Music Luisa Todi and the Aveiro International Courses of Vocal Music where he worked with singers Claire Vangelisti and João Lourenço and Maestros António Vassalo Lourenço and Paulo Lourenço. As a composer, Lourenço has worked with Emmanuel Nunes and Guillaume Bourgnone at the 1st Gulbenkian Orchestra Workshop for Young Composers 2003 / 2004. His work “Tentativas” has been performed by the Gulbenkian Orchestra, as was the piece “Néctar”, for fourteen instruments (soloists from the same ensemble). He has also composed film music, including the soundtracks of “Pestes ao Ataque”, “Círculo Mágico” and “Com Tradição”, which he produced. Commissioned by Maestro Gunnstein Olafsson, Lourenço’s music has been performed by the Young Musicians Orchestra of Iceland. Additional commissions include “Dunego” for String Quartet and Guitar, for Brazilian guitarist Rodrigo Rios, and “Four Christmas Motets” for Maestro J.D. Goddard and the Mastersingers of Ohio. (adapted from text by Gonçalo Lourenço)

Gonçalo Lourenço's My Space page

Vítor Rua

Composer and guitarist Vítor Rua (b. 1961) began his career in the late seventies with a series of interventions that changed the face of Portuguese pop/rock. In 1982, he formed with Jorge Lima Barreto the duo Telectu. In 1987, in an act of autodidactic determination, he devoted himself to the study of contemporary musical notation. His work is characterised by a variegated, embryonic post-modernism and an empiricist rejection of cultural confines, and reflects a transition from structured improvisation to strict composition. The multiple intention of his work is therefore an aesthetic and kaleidoscopic propaedeutic about the situationism of post-modern music - a proposition for a new musical subjectivism. In the course of his work as an improviser, he has played with leading figures in the world of improvisation (Jorge Lima Barreto, Chris Cutler, Elliott Sharp, Jac Berrocal, Nuno Rebelo, Carlos Zíngaro, Jean Sarbib, Evan Parker, Paul Lytton, Eddie Prévost, Louis Sclavis, Sunny Murray, Ikue Mori, Paul Rutherford, Giancarlo Schiaffini, Barry Altschul and Daniel Kientzy). His music has been played around the world by virtuosos interpreters like Daniel Kientzy, John Tilbury, Giancarlo Schiaffini, Ensemble QTR (Peter Bowman and Kathryn Bennetts), Ana Ester Neves, Frank Abbinanti. (text by Vítor Rua)

Bruno Monteiro

Bruno Monteiro is hailed by critics as “one of today´s best Portuguese violinists”. He received his Master’s in Music in Violin Performance with academic honors from the Chicago College of the Performing Arts/Roosevelt University. He is also a graduate with the highest grades from the Manhattan School of Music in New York City. His major teachers were Shmuel Ashkenasi, Patinka Kopec, Isidore Cohen, Peter Winograd and Laurie Carney. He received also the guidance of Gerardo Ribeiro, with whom he worked privately in Chicago. Prior to his studies in the USA, he was a student in Portugal of Carlos Fontes and obtained his conservatory violin diploma with the highest distinction. Awarded national and internationally, he won, among others, the First Violin Prize of the Portuguese Musical Youth Competition and was a winner, with a Special Violin Mention, at the Ibla Grand Prize International Music Competition in Italy. With an active repertoire that ranges widely from the Baroque to our days, he performs in recital, as soloist with orchestra and as a chamber musician in the most important venues of Portugal. He also performed extensively on the Portuguese Television and Radio. Bruno Monteiro was chosen to represent Portugal at the Jeunesses Musicales World Orchestra, joining the first violin section. He also performed in many concert halls outside Portugal. His first CD, “Début” (2007), contains works by Franck and Grieg, while the second, “20th Century Expressions” (2008), features works by Szymanowski, Bloch and Korngold. A third (“Recital”) will come out In March 2009, and offering Brahms, Fauré, Respighi and Sarasate (all three CDs with pianist João Paulo Santos, whom he appears in recitals with). (adapted from text by Bruno Monteiro)

Bruno Monteiro's website

Available discography

Pedro Rebelo

Pedro is a composer/digital artist working in electroacoustic music, digital media and installation. His approach to music making is informed by the use of improvisation and interdisciplinary structures. He has been involved in several collaborative projects with visual artists and has created a large body of work exploring the relationships between architecture and music in creating interactive performance and installation environments. This includes a series of commissioned pieces for soloists and live-electronics which take as a basis the interpretation of specific acoustic spaces. In the duo laut with saxophonist Franziska Schroeder he investigates the extension of interfaces and control in interactive performance practices. His electroacoustic music is featured in various CD sets (Sonic Circuits IV, Discontact III, Exploratory Music from Portugal, ARiADA). His work as an improvisor has been released by Creative Source Recordings. Pedro conducts research in the field of digital media, interactive sound and composition. His writings reflect his approach to design and composition by articulating creative practice in a wider understanding of cultural theory. Pedro was Visiting Professor at Stanford University (2007) and was the Music Chair for the 2008 International Computer Music Conference. He has been Director of Research at the Sonic Arts Research Centre and is now Director of Education at the School of Music and Sonic Arts, Queen’s University Belfast. (text by Pedro Rebelo)

Pedro Rebelo's website

Ana Telles

Pianist Ana Telles has pursued musical studies in Lisbon and New York. She has graduated from Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa, Manhattan School of Music and New York University. She has studied piano with Sara D. Buechner, Nina Svetlanova, Dmitry Paperno, Sequeira Costa and Alicia de Larrocha, as well as chamber music with Isidore Cohen and Sylvia Rosenberg, among others. She has devoted much attention to the study and interpretation of Messiaen’s piano music and has played all his works for piano and small orchestra plus a few others. She studied privately with Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen. She’s very much committed to the cause of contemporary music and has worked closely with composers such as Philippe Hurel, Emmanuel Nunes, João Pedro Oliveira, Pedro Amaral, Christopher Bochmann, Alain Bioteau, João Rafael, Carlos Caires, Guy Leclerq, Alexandre Delgado, José Júlio Lopes, Joaquim Santos, Thomas Bloch and Lucya Dugloszewski. She plays regularly in Portugal, Germany, France, Italy, Ireland, Cuba, Brasil, Taiwan and the USA, as a soloist or integrated in chamber music groups, and participated in festivals in Portugal and abroad. She played as a soloist with the Gulbenkian Orchestra, Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra, the Classical Orchestra of Madeira, the “Filarmonia das Beiras” Orchestra and the OrchestrUtópica (all from Portugal), among others. She currently prepares a doctoral thesis on Portuguese composer Luís de Freitas Branco’s piano music at the Paris IV University (Sorbonne) and the University of Évora (Portugal). In addition, she produces musical programmes for the Portuguese classical radio station and teaches at ISEIT (Instituto Piaget), Almada (Portugal). (adapted from text by Ana Telles)

Ana Telles plays Joaquim dos Santos' 1st Piano Concerto (1st mov.), with Orchestra Nova Amadeus, cond. Jean Sebastian Béreau:

Also on You Tube:
http://br.youtube.com/watch?v=-da4nQ1cDM8
http://br.youtube.com/watch?v=YaIuVeasyaQ
http://br.youtube.com/watch?v=BEtnyNlCx8c

Eurico Carrapatoso

Photo by João Tuna

Portuguese composer Eurico Carrapatoso (b. 1962) graduated from Universidade in Porto with a degree in history in 1985. He taught social and economic history as an assistant professor at the Universidade Portucalense. In 1985 he began his musical studies with Borges Coelho, Fernando Lapa and Cândido Lima. In 1988, he began his composition studies with Constança Capdeville. His final studies were with Jorge Peixinho from 1991-93 at the Conservatório Nacional, where he graduated with highest honors. Carrapatoso has taught composition at the Escola Superior de Música and the Academia de Orquestra in Lisbon. Since 1989, he has taught Analysis and Techniques of Composition at the Conservatório Nacional in Lisbon. His works have been performed by most major ensembles and orchestras in Europe, Asia, Australia and Americas (Brazil, USA). He has won several awards, including the Lopes-Graça Prize (1998) and the Francisco de Lacerda Prize (1999); in addition, his works have represented Portugal three times at the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers (Paris: 1998, 1999 and 2006). In May 2001 he won the Identidade Nacional Prize. In June 2004 he was decorated by the President of the Portuguese Republic with the Commendation of the Order of the Infante Dom Henrique. (text by Eurico Carrapatoso)

More detailed biographies: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurico_Carrapatoso and
http://composers21.com/compdocs/carrapat.htm

Available discography

Eurico Carrapatoso's "Deploração sobre a morte de Jorge Peixinho" (5th mov. - "Paisagem Onírica com Anjos"), played by the Oporto National Orchestra, cond. Mark Foster:

also on You Tube:

http://br.youtube.com/watch?v=BxiaBwLLJE8
http://br.youtube.com/watch?v=YB3za18lfXk&feature=channel
http://br.youtube.com/watch?v=h4f3dkh0qdA&feature=channel
http://br.youtube.com/watch?v=vItALhNKwdA&feature=channel

Ana Seara

Born in 1985, composer Ana Seara started studying music at the Conservatório de Música Calouste Gulbenkian de Braga, where she attended with distinction the unique Complementar Composition Course taught in Portugal. She was rewarded, for 4 consecutive years, at the Regional Piano Competition held annually in Braga. In 2007 she graduated in Composition at Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa. As a student of that school, she organized projects like "Peças Frescas" - coordinated by Luís Tinoco, in partnership with the S. Luiz Teatro Municipal (Lisbon), new composer's concerts and co-organized and produced the III, IV and V ESML Music Festival. In 2005, her work, Resson [ÂNSIAS] ... was presented in the Música Viva Festival. She competed for the first edition of the International Composition Competition of Póvoa de Varzim, getting an Honorable Mention in the category of chamber music, while, on the following 2 years, at the same competition, she won a 1st and a 2nd prize in the "Music for Orchestra" category and a 2nd prize for chamber music. In 2007, she was commissioned a piece for the Young Musicians Prize, promoted by the Antena 2 radio station, and another by OrchestrUtópica, premiered at Culturgest, in Lisbon. She has also participated in the II Reading Panel of the Algarve Orchestra. Subsequently this piece was selected for the season 08/09. She’s currently working on her masters thesis in composition at the University of Évora under the guidance of Professors Christopher Bochmann and Carlos Caires, and preparing two works commissioned by the Cascais and Oeiras Chamber Orchestra and the Grupo de Música Contemporânea de Lisboa. (adapted from text by Ana Seara)

Excerpt of Ana Seara's "Percance", by pianist Joana Gama (Peças Frescas event):

João Vasco

Pianist João Vasco was born in the village of Sintra in 1976. Being a piano teacher both at Conservatório Nacional de Lisboa and Conservatório Metropolitano de Música de Lisboa, his daily life has been divided between teaching and the stages. He has performed in Spain (Badajoz, Valladolid), France (Lyon and Rouen) and Ireland (Cork). In Portugal, at Festivals such as Festival de Música de Guimarães, Festival de Almada, Festival Temps d’Image and stages such as CCB, Culturgest, D. Maria II National Theatre, Gulbenkian Foundation and several other concert halls spread along the country. The portuguese contemporary music receives a special attention from him, having played João Madureira, Vasco Mendonça or Jorge Salgueiro’s works in first audition. During 2009 João Vasco will present his first piano solo CD, “BeyondFado”, a compilation of twelve fados arranged for piano by Portuguese jazz and classical composers. João Vasco has a degree in Music by the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa and a Master's Degree in Musical Arts by the Universidade Nova de Lisboa. (text by João Vasco)

João Vasco's website

My Space page

António Carrilho

Well known for his energetic and virtuoso playing, recorder player António Carrilho’s large concert experience has brought him to give concerts all over the world with different ensembles and orchestras, both in old music and in modern programs, performing as a soloist as well as a chamber music player. He develops an intense career as a soloist in a repertory that spans from the Middle Age to our days. He featured playing with the Gulbenkian Orchestra, Portuguese Symphony Orchestra, Orchestrutópica, Lisbon Symphonietta, Cascais and Oeiras Chamber Orchestra, Divino Sospiro, The Hague Royal Conservatory Orchestra and others, namely in Norway and Israel. He collaborated with conductors such as Sigiswald Kuijken, Lucas Pfaff, João Paulo Santos, Nicholas Kranmer, Paulo Lourenço, Cesário Costa; Harry Christophers, Enrico Onofri, António Vassalo Lourenço, Gunnstein Òlafson, Osvaldo Ferreira, Nicolay Lalov and Vasco Pearce Azevedo. Many composers from several countries have written chamber music and concertos pieces for him, including the Portuguese or POrtugal based António Chagas Rosa, Nuno Côrte-Real, Eurico Carrapatoso, Sérgio Azevedo, João Madureira, Pedro Junqueira Maia, Ângela Lopes, Luis Tinoco, Cândido Lima, Virgílio Melo, Álvaro Salazar, José Júlio Lopes, Vasco Mendonça, Clotilde Rosa and Ivan Moody. In 1999 he reached the final of the First International Recorder Competition in Haifa, Israel. In 2001, he received an honourable mention at the Moeck/SRP solo recorder competition in London. He’s the artistic and musical director of groups in Portugal, Spain, The Netherlands and in Norway. He is currently envolved in several recordings of Portuguese contemporary works for recorder. Future recording projects include a solo Portuguese contemporary recital, a Piazzolla debut and a DVD of Sérgio Azevedo´s “Suite Concertante” for recorder and string orchestra. As a conductor, he directed operas such as ”Dido and Aeneas” by Henry Purcell, Charpentier’s ”La descente d´Órphée aux Enfers” and Pergolesi’s ”La Serva Padrona”. António Carrilho teaches masterclasses in Portugal, Italy, India, France and the Netherlands. (text by António Carrilho)

António Carrilho's website (with several mp3 recordings)

Available discography

Fernando Guimarães

Born in Oporto, tenor Fernando Guimarães completed his singing degree at his hometown, under the guidance of António Salgado. He went on to win awards in his country’s foremost singing competitions, such as the Concurso Nacional de Canto Luísa Todi (2nd prize) and the Young Musicians Award (both in 2007). As the winner of the L’Orfeo International Singing Competition, he sang the leading role of this Monteverdi Opera in Mantova (on the 400th birthday of its premiere) and Budapest. As an opera soloist, Fernando sang: Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Rossini), Ferrando in Così Fan Tutte, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Don Basilio in Le Nozze di Figaro (Mozart), Jaquino in Fidelio (Beethoven); Nencio in Haydn’s L’Infedeltà Delusa (in Strasbourg, with Le Parlement de Musique and Martin Gester); Ippolito in La Spinalba (F. A. de Almeida); Testo in Monteverdi’s Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda (Gulbenkian Foundation), etc. His concert repertoire includes, among others: Johannespassion, Matthäuspassion, Mass in B minor, Magnificat, Weihnachtsoratorium and several Cantatas (J. S. Bach), Messiah and Ode to St. Cecily’s Day (Händel), Mass in C minor and Requiem (Mozart), Serenade for tenor, horn and strings (Britten). He was part of the cast for the musical Evil Machines (music by Luís Tinoco over a libretto by Terry Jones), with world premiere in January 2008, at Teatro S. Luiz (Lisbon). Fernando Guimarães debuted recently at Teatro Nacional de S. Carlos (as Monostatos in Die Zauberflöte), the Main Auditorium of Gulbenkian Foundation (with Haydn’s Paukenmesse, under the conducting of Erwin Ortner), and Casa da Música (Porto). In 2008, he was part of the european tour of the Académie Baroque Européene d’Ambronay, singing works by Gabrieli and Monteverdi under the conducting of Jean Tubéry. (text by Fernando Guimarães)

Homepage

Fernando Guimarães sings the aria "Possente Spirto" from Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, recorded at Teatro Bibiena, in Mantova (Italy), with Ensemble Concerto, Concerto Palatino, cond. Roberto Gini, dir. Gianfranco De Bosio(with Shen Yang as Caronte):

António Fragoso

Born at the village of Pocariça, in central Portugal, on June the 17th, 1897, António Fragoso died of the pneumonic flu, on October the 13th, 1918. In spite of his premature death, he wrote a number of pieces for solo piano, songs and chamber music of such quality that, nowadays like in his time, it is believed by many he could have been the greatest Portuguese composer of the 20th century. He started taking piano lessons from his uncle but it was not until he was 17 years old that he moved to Lisbon to study at the National Conservatoire, namely with Marcos Garin, Tomás Borba and Luís de Freitas Branco. He graduated in only 4 years, with the highest classification on his piano exam. By that time, several of his works had already been premiered in concerts in Lisbon and other towns and were highly praised by the critics, as well as teachers and fellow composers. Notwithstanding his youth and notable influences by composers such as Chopin, Fauré and Debussy, his beautiful, melancholy music has an identity of its own, a good example of that being the "Petite Suite", the 7 preludes and the 2 Nocturnes, all for piano, and the song cycles "Poèmes Saturniens" (after Paul Verlaine's poems) and "Canções do Sol Poente". At the time of his passing, António Fragoso was working on his first sonata for violin and piano, of which only one movement was finished.

António Fragoso Association's blog

Available discography

Available DVD

Available scores (free): Nocturno, arr. Glenn Michael Egner; Petite Suite; 7 Preludes.

Miguel Henriques (piano) plays António Fragoso's Prelude (from "Petite Suite"):



António Fragoso's "Nocturne for orchestra", by the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, cond. Jesús Ignacio Pérez Perazzo:

António Rosado

Pianist António Rosado began studying music when the was 3 years old, with his father, and graduated at the Lisbon National Conservatoire with the highest classifications. When he was 16 he went to study in Paris, where he had classes with Aldo Ciccolini, his tutor for several years, who said, about him: “António Rosado has something that cannot be taught or learned: the sense of the keyboard.” His virtuosity made him win international prizes such as the Alfredo Casella Competition and the Perosi International Academy’s G. Pella Prize. Those achievements helped establish a notorious career which throughout the years lead him to play many concerts and festivals all over the world, solo or with prestigious orchestras and conductors. He has been invited to play and record for TV and radio stations in many countries. His discography includes CDs dedicated to Enescu, Liszt, Rachmaninov, Mozart, Schumann and the Portuguese composers José Viana da Mota, Fernando Lopes-Graça, Luís de Freitas Branco and Armando José Fernandes. In 2008, António Rosado was decorated Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government.

Available discography.

António Rosado plays Fernando Lopes-Graça's Piano Sonata No. 2, 2nd movement.