Cesário Costa

Cesário Costa (b. 1970) is one of the most active conductors of his generation in Portugal. He studied in Paris, where he finished his Piano Graduation, and in Germany, where he completed his Degree with the highest grade and Master’s Degree in Orchestral Conducting at Würzburg Music Academy. In 1997, he won the first prize of 3rd International Competition for Young Conductors organised by Fundação do Oriente. That same year, he received a scholarship from Bayreuth Music Festival. He has been invited to conduct many orchestras in Portugal and others such as the Royal Philharmony Orchestra, Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble für Neue Musik (Germany), Arhus Sinfonietta (Denmark), Macedonia Philharmony Orchestra, Rome Philharmony Orchestra, Sudecka Philharmony and Rzeszów Philharmony (Poland), Orquesta de Extremadura (Spain). He has performed in many countries such as Spain, France, Germany, Belgium, England, Italy, Denmark, Macedonia, Malaysia and Brazil, and appeared in several Music Festivals. His repertoire ranges from baroque to contemporary, including the world première of more than seventy pieces. He collaborates on a regular bases with some of the most important concerts halls in Portugal. He was Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of Espinho Classical Orchestra and Algarve Orchestra. He was awarded the medal of cultural merit by Vila Nova de Gaia’s City Hall. He is the Vice-President of the jury of the Young Musicians Prize organised by the RDP-Antena 2. Currently, he’s the President of the Board of Metropolitana/ Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra. He’s also Principal Guest-Conductor of the Algarve Orchestra, Artistic Director of the Promenade Concerts organised by Coliseu do Porto and Principal Conductor of OrchestrUtopica. (adapted from text by Cesário Costa).

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Teresa Valente Pereira

Cellist Teresa Valente Pereira (b. 1982, in Lisbon) started studying cello at 6 with Maria José Falcão and completed with honours undergraduate studies with Paulo Gaio Lima. She got her post graduate diploma at the Reina Sofia School (Madrid) in the class of Natalia Shakovskaya and finished her studies doing a Konzertexam Diploma with Christoph Richter. Participated in various cello masterclasses with Xavier Gagnepain, Steve Doane, Miklós Peréyni, Natalia Gutman and others, and chamber music masterclasses with Walter Levin, Veronica Hagen and Erich Höbarth, among others. She was awarded several prizes and distinctions, among which the 1st prize of the Young Musicians Radio Award and the Estoril's International Competition. She played as a soloist and chamber musician in some of the most important music halls in Portugal, Spain, Italy, France and Venezuela. Her performances with Hansjorg Schellenberger, Antoni Ros-Marbá, Ronald Zollman conducting the Gulbenkian, Portuguese Symphony, Oporto National and “Freixenet” Reina Sofia orchestras, were highly acclaimed. She participated in various national and international festivals. She was a member of Grupo Albéniz, performing regularly in Portugal and Spain. First solo recording was released in 2002 with pianist Bruno Belthoise, including the first recording ever of Armando José Fernandes’ Sonata for cello and piano. She also recorded for the Portuguese and the Spanish Classical Radios. She was a member of the EUYO Orchestra, working with Sir Colin Davis and playing at the Royal Albert Hall and the Philharmonie Berlin. She was Principal cello of the Lisbon Metropolitan and the Asturias Symphony and collaborates regularly with the Gulbenkian Orchestra. Currently she’s involved in a new chamber music project, Trio Pangea, with Bruno Belthoise and violinist Adolfo Carbajal. (adapted from text by Teresa Valente Pereira)

Fábio Machado

Fábio Machado (b. 1985, in Funchal, Madeira) started studying mandolin at the age of 9 and later on joined the Madeira Mandolin Orchestra (Recreio Musical União da Mocidade) and advanced to Concertmaster. He played on radio and national television and recorded two CDs with the Orchestra, named “A Bem da Arte II” and “Bandolins” (“Mandolins”). Machado toured Portugal in 1998 with stops in Águeda, Vila do Conde, Benavente, Santarém and Expo 98. In 2002 he joins the Orchestra on a tournée through the United Kingdom, playing 9 concerts in various locations such as St. George’s Bristol, and in the St. George’s Windsor Chapel. The last concert was officially inserted in the celebrations of the Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II of England. In 2002 Machado played some N. Paganini Caprices (Solo) at Teatro Municipal Baltazar Dias; in 2004 he recorded a DVD with the MMO at the same theatre, performing as a soloist. Machado is particularly fond of contemporary music and a mandolin work has been especially written for him by the Norwegian composer Oddvar Kvam, “A Special Day” for Mandolin and Piano. In September 2006 performed in "Romeo and Juliet" of S. Prokofiev, at "La Fenice" Theatre in Venice, under the direction of Myron Romanul, Orchestra del Teatro La Fenice together with the Bayerisches Staatsballett. He has appeared in England, Italy, Germany and USA. In November 2004 he joins the Superior Course of Mandolin at the Conservatory of Music "Alfredo Casella” in L’Aquila and currently studies at the Conservatory “Cesare Pollini” in Padua, always under the instruction of well renowned instructor and artist Dorina Frati. (adapted from text by Fábio Machado)

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Fábio Machado and the Madeira Mandolin Orchestra play Tomaso Vitali's "Chaconne in G minor":

Carlos Marecos

Composer Carlos Marecos (b. 1963, Lisbon) graduated in Composition, in 1999, at the Lisbon Superior School of Music, where he studied with Eurico Carrapatoso, António Pinho Vargas and Christopher Bochmann. He won the composition prize Prémio Lopes-Graça in 1999 and 2000. He has received commissions from numerous important cultural entities including Culturgest, the Gulbenkian Foundation Centre for Modern Art (ACART), the World Exhibition - Lisbon 1998, OrchestrUtópica, the Estoril International Music Festival and Cistermúsica - Alcobaça Music Festival. He directs the chamber ensemble “Ensemble Portátil”, which is dedicated to contemporary repertoire and modern settings of Portuguese folk music. In the areas of theatre and dance, he has worked with the stage directors João Brites, Raul Atalaia, Luís Miguel Cintra, as well as the choreographers Madalena Victorino and Vera Mantero. Since 2002, Marecos has been developing staged works regularly with a team of artists including soprano Margarida Marecos, stage director Paulo Lages, actor Guilherme Filipe, set designer Acácio de Carvalho and costume designer Manuela Bronze. Together, they staged productions such as “La Serva Padrona/A Criada Patroa” (a modern version of Pergolesi’s intermezzo musicalle, with orchestration by Marecos – 2002), “Caminho ao Céu” (musical theatre, staged by Paulo Lages - 2003) and “O Fim – Ópera Íntima” (a chamber opera with libretto by Paulo Lages, based on the play by António Patrício - 2004). Outside Portugal, his music has been performed in Spain, France, England, Denmark, Colombia and the USA. He is currently earning a doctorate in musical research at the University of Aveiro, with the composers João Pedro Oliveira and Christopher Bochmann. He teaches composition and analysis at the Lisbon Superior School of Music and at the Dom Dinis Conservatory in Odivelas.

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Carlos Marecos' opera "Outro Fim", by Margarida Marecos (soprano), Guilherme Filipe (actor), cond. Humberto Castanheira (2nd Renaissance of Portuguese Composition project on You Tube):

Diogo Alvim

Portuguese composer Diogo Alvim (b. in Lisbon in 1979) finished his Diploma in Architecture in Lisbon in 2004. He had also been studying Harpsichord at the Lisbon National Conservatoire wih teacher Cândida Matos, and Analysis and Composition Techniques with teachers Carlos Gomes and Eurico Carrapatoso. He attended several harpsichord workshops and sang in several choirs. From 2004 to 2006 he lived and worked in London as an architect. During that period, he attended a course on Computer Music at the London School of Contemporary Music and the course “Compose and Perform” at the Goldsmiths University with composer Fumiko Miyachi. In the meantime, he collaborated with dancer/choreographer Tânia Carvalho on the soundtrack of her show “Explodir em Silêncio Nunca Chega a Ser Perturbador”. He returned to Lisbon to study Composition at the Lisbon Superior School of Music, and to continue his Harpsichord studies. Currently in his last year of the Composition Course, he has studied with composers Sérgio Azevedo, João Madureira, Carlos Caires and Luis Tinoco. He has also been attending the Gulbenkian Composition Seminars with Emmanuel Nunes. Diogo Alvim has had several pieces premiered at the event Peças Frescas since 2007. He participated in the 6th and 7th editions of the Gulbenkian Orchestra's Workshop, with the pieces “Pequeno Concerto para Clarinete e Paisagem” (Esther Georgie, cl.), and “Concatenação”, both conducted by Joana Carneiro. In July 2008, his piece “Topografia” was played at a “first reading” concert by Orchestrutopica with conductor Cesário Costa, held at the Portuguese Music Festival, in CCB, Lisbon. In October 2008 he premiered “Distância (Ocupação_3)”, for electronics, at a concert held at the Instituto Franco-Português, programmed by Miso Music Portugal.

Diogo Alvim's "Pequeno Concerto para Clarinete e Paisagem", by Esther Georgie (cl), Gubenkian Orchestra, cond. Joana Carneiro (2nd Renaissance of Portuguese Composition project on You Tube):

Constança Capdeville

Composer, pianist and percussionist, Constança Capdeville's musical theatre is a combination of music with scenical elements, which she put into practice with the various music groups she founded. She started her musical studies in Barcelona before permanently establishing herself in Portugal after 1951 due to the social and political circumstances that emerged from the Spanish Civil War. She carried on her higher studies at Lisbon's National Music Conservatory, where she took piano classes with Varela Cid and composition classes with Jorge Croner de Vasconcellos. She graduated in ancient music interpretation (transcription, scoring, clavichord, piano accompaniment) by attending Macário Santiago Kastner's classes. She participated in some musicology projects with Gulbenkian, the National Library and the Ajuda Library. In the summer of 1962 she held a scholarship from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and took composition classes in Galicia with Philip Jarnach. This led to the piece Variações sobre o nome de Stravinski (Variations on Stravinski's name), which earned her the National Conservatory's Composition Prize. Countless seminars and improvement courses led to the presentation of her works in national and international festivals. She followed closely the performance of Lisbon University Orchestra, in which she participated many times as a composer and interpreter. She was also a member of Lisbon's Minstrels, of the chamber group Convivium Musicum and of Lisbon Contemporary Music Group. In 1969, after a request from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, she participated for the first time in Gulbenkian's Music Festival, which allowed her to follow her own style, and became a regular eversince. She was a forerunner in the writing of musical theatre pieces in Portugal, a genre to which she dedicated herself more and more, especially after 1980 with the group ColecViva, founded and directed by her. She also distinguished herself in the teaching of composition, namely at Santa Cecília's Music Academy, Lisbon's Higher School of Music and the Musical Sciences Department of Lisbon's Universidade Nova. In 1992 she was awarded the posthumous honourable state title Grau de Comendador da Ordem de Santiago de Espada. (adapted from text in PMIC)

Jorge Peixinho

Jorge Peixinho was a composer, pianist, teacher, critic, lecturer, international jury member, direction member of several organizations, concert organizer and conductor. His influence was crucial for the promotion of contemporary music in Portugal and Portuguese music abroad. He studied composition and piano at the National Conservatory of Lisbon. He was awarded a scholarship from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation to study with Boris Porena and Goffredo Petrassi at the Accademia de Santa Cecilia in Rome, where he received the diploma of advanced studies in composition in 1961. After working with Luigi Nono in Venice he obtained another scholarship from the Gulbenkian Foundation and the Cultural Institute to study with Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen in Darmstadt on various occasions between 1960 and 1970. During this decade he developed a broad range of activities as a composer, pianist, teacher, concert organizer, lecturer and critic. A scholarship from the Belgian government for advanced studies in electro-acoustic music enabled him to work at the IPEM studio in Ghent in 1972-73. He later attended a workshop on music and computers at the Ircam, Paris. In 1970 he founded the Grupo de Música Contemporânea de Lisboa (Lisbon Contemporary Music Group) which has since done valuable service in promoting contemporary music (with a particular emphasis on Portuguese music) and no less in theoretical and practical exploration of the problematic of new music and of new instrumental techniques. In 1974 he received the composition prize of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and in 1976 that of the Portuguese performing rights society. In 1977 he was elected member of the Presidential Council of the ISCM (international Society for Contemporary Music). Throughout this period he collaborated regularity with the Gulbenkian Foundation's Contemporary Music Encounters. He taught at the National Conservatory of Lisbon. In recent years, before his untimely death at the age of 55, he was greatly in demand as a jury member and participant for both lectures and concerts. (adapted from text in PMIC)

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Jorge Croner de Vasconcellos

Son of the violinist Alexandre Bettencourt and pianist and teacher Laura Croner, and grandson of clarinettist Rafael José Croner, composer Jorge Croner de Vasconcellos initially attended the Lisbon Faculty of Arts. A student of the National Conservatory since 1927, he eventually decided to exclusively follow a musical career. Alexandre Rey Colaço, António Eduardo da Costa Ferreira and Luís de Freitas Branco were some of his teachers. He also worked with conductor and composer Francisco de Lacerda. With a scholarship granted by the National Education Junta, he attended, in Paris the École Normale de Musique, courses directed by Paul Dukas, Nadia Boulanger, Igor Stravinsky and Alfred Cortot. When he returned to Portugal in 1938, he became responsible for the subject of Music History at the Music Amateurs Academy. A year later he performed at a concert with singer Arminda Correia and achieved recognition for his recitals in Paris, London and Brussels. After 1939, he became a teacher of Composition, Singing and Music History at Lisbon's National Conservatory. Already in the 1960s he also participated as a teacher in the Estoril Summer Courses. Although his work is not all that vast, the composer left a considerable number of singing pieces, many of which composed from texts of classic Portuguese poets. As far as chamber music is concerned, one should particularly mention the piano repertoire and the arrangements for pieces by Carlos Seixas. Croner de Vasconcellos also explored symphonic music, namely by composing pieces for the National Information Secretariat during the 1940s and the 1950s. He died in Lisboa in 1974. (adapted from text in PMIC)

Armando José Fernandes

Armando José Fernandes was born in Lisbon, 1906. He took a degree in Engineering before having decided in 1924 to dedicate himself to music, an art form he had felt attracted to from an early age. He started his studies in 1927 at Lisbon's National Conservatory. Alexandre Rey Colaço and Lourenço Varela Cid (piano), Luís de Freitas Branco (Music Sciences) and António Eduardo da Costa Ferreira (Composition) were among his teachers. He finished the course in 1931 and was awarded the first prize in piano and also the Rodrigo da Fonseca Award. Between 1934 and 1937, with the sponsorship of the National Education Council, he developed his piano and composition studies in Paris with Alfred Cortot, Nadia Boulanger, Paul Dukas and Igor Stravinsky. Between 1940 and 1942, he taught Piano and Composition at the Music Amateurs Academy. From 1942 on he worked exclusively as a composer for the Musical Studies Department of the National Radio Broadcast Company. In 1953 he joined Lisbon's National Conservatory as a Composition teacher. He honourably retired from this position on his 70th birthday. Although his lineage, harmonically chromatic in the colours and formally neo-classic in spirit, denounces a cosmopolitan character, permeable both to the sensitivity of someone like Fauré as well as to the constructivism of someone like Hindemith, it also displays a certain kind of Portuguese inspiration, thanks to the likely search for motivation in Portuguese popular themes. He received the composition awards Moreira de Sá (Porto, Orpheon Portuense, 1944) and Círculo de Cultura Musical (Lisbon, 1946). He died in Lisbon in 1983. (photo and text from PMIC - Based on the biography included in the Catálogo Geral da Música Portuguesae, organized by Humberto d'Ávila).

Cláudio Carneyro

Son of the great painter António Carneiro and Rosa Queiroz Costa, Cláudio Carneyro was born in Oporto, 1895. He started studying the violin at 15 with Carlos Dubini. The composition studies began in Oporto with the French professor Lucien Lamber, who encouraged him to continue his work in Paris where, for two years, he joined the class of Charles Widor. In 1921 he became a solfeggio teacher at the Oporto Music Conservatoire. Two years later, the Paris opening of his "Prelúdio, Corale Fuga", by the Colonne Orchestra, led by conductor Gabriel Pierné, would persuade him to dedicate himself totally to composition. In 1926 he won a scholarship of the Portuguese government and left for the United States of America where he remained for two years. In Hartford, Connecticut, he married the American violinist Katherine Hickel, who gave him a daughter, Ana Maria, still living there. Meanwhile, the Orpheon Portuense granted him the Moreira de Sá Prize (1933) and the Portuguese government awards him the medal of "Oficial de Santiago de Espada" (1934). In 1935 he works in Paris with Paul Dukas as a scholarship owner of the Instituto de Alta Cultura. Three years later he starts teaching composition at the Oporto Music Conservatoire. After 1956 he is also the school's principal. In 1941 he is appointed musical counsellor of the radio station Emissor Regional do Norte. He died in 1963 after a cerebral haemorrhage. (text and photo from PMIC)

Joly Braga Santos

Composer Joly Braga Santos was born in Lisbon, 1924. He studied violin and composition at the National Conservatory, where he was a student of Luís and Pedro de Freitas Branco. The latter was the main responsible for promoting his work around the world. During his youth, he took inspiration from Portuguese traditional music, namely folklore and Renaissance polyphony. These influences are clear in the first four symphonies he composed between his 22nd and his 27th years of age, which were almost immediately performed by the national radio broadcast Symphonic Orchestra. In 1948 he was a Higher Culture Institute scholarship holder, having then studied musicology and composition in Venice with Virgílio Mortari, Gioacchino Pasquali and Alceo Galliera. At that time he also attended the International Conduction Course with Hermann Scherchen, where he was a colleague of Luigi Nono, Bruno Maderna and Fernando Corrêa de Oliveira. Again in Portugal, Joly dedicated himself for a long period to orchestra conduction. He only started again to compose more regularly after 1960, having then written his fifth and sixth symphonies. Besides his vast musical legacy, Joly Braga Santos also had an intense activity as a music critic. He was a founding member of the Portuguese Musical Youth, lectured in Composition at Lisbon's National Conservatory, worked at the National Radio Broadcast Company's Musical Studies Cabinet, and was a conductor of the S. Carlos National Theatre Orchestra, of the Oporto Symphonic Orchestra and assistant conductor of the Portuguese radio broadcast Symphony Orchestra. He died in Lisbon in 1988. (adapted from text in PMIC)

Frederico de Freitas

Composer Frederico de Freitas was born in Lisbon in 1902. He initially studied with his mother Cândida de Araújo Guedes de Freitas, having enrolled in the National Conservatory when he was 13 years old. The first compositions from his catalogue are from 1922. Worth of mention is the piece Poema sobre uma Écloga de Virgílio (Poem on a Eclogue by Virgil), for string orchestra. At the same time he was a composer, Frederico de Freitas also developed a career as secondary school teacher. However, it was his eclecticism that earned him the favour of the wider public. This eclecticism allowed him to compose not only pieces like Suite Africana (African Suite) or Quarteto Concertante (Harmonious Quartet), but also a vast gallery of light songs that since then inhabit national popular imagery. In 1935 Frederico de Freitas was admitted in the National Radio Broadcast Company as orchestra conductor, and since then played a leading role in the music events organized by the Estado Novo government. In 1940 he composed Missa Solene (Solemn Mass), for solo voices, choir and orchestra and Auto de D. Afonso Henriques (King Afonso Henriques Act), both pieces premiered on the Double Celebrations of the 800th Anniversary of Portugal's Foundation and the 300th Anniversary of the Independence Restoration. The conductor career, for which he worked very hard, was also internationally recognized, and as a result of that Frederico de Freitas was regularly invited to conduct foreign orchestras. Among his later pieces, one should mention D. João e as Sombras (D. João and the Shadows, 1960), the symphony Os Jerónimos (1962), Fantasia Concertante (Harmonious Phantasy, 1969) and Farsa de Inês Pereira (The Farse of Inês Pereira, 1979), the latter finished by Manuel Faria after Frederico de Freitas' death. (text and photo fom PMIC)

Luís Costa

Composer Luís Costa was born in São Pedro de Farelães in 1879 and died in Oporto in 1960. After completing his studies with Bernardo Moreira de Sá, he left for Germany, where he studied with Viana da Mota, Stavenhagen, Ansorge and Busoni. In parallel with his career as a soloist pianist, he worked with remarkable artists such as the cellists Casals, Hekking, Suggia and violinists Enesco and Aránye as well as the Rosé and Chaumont quartets. He taught at the Oporto Music Conservatory of which he was also director. He was a teacher of rare distinction due to both his natural gifts and his vast culture as well as deep musical knowledge. He taught and influenced whole generations of pianists as far as both aesthetics and professional ethics were concerned. As Artistic Director of the "Orpheon Portuense" he had a noteworthy action. At his invitation, some of the most remarkable artists of his time visited and performed in Oporto. Namely, he was responsible for Maurice Ravel's visit, in 1928. In nature he always found an endless source of inspiration that can be found in the titles and atmospheres of many of his piano compositions. His friendship with his master Moreira de Sá, a celebrated encyclopaedist and a violinist keen on chamber music, left him a taste for ensemble music which later translated into his professional life as a pianist and composer. His chamber music works are proof of the above. He was a cultivated musician interested in all arts and a friend of sculptors, painters, poets and writers. He was captivated by the magic of poetry. Thus were born works for piano and singing that were not irrelevant in the context of his work. (adapted from text by Maria Teresa Macedo, in PMIC)

Paulo Jorge Ferreira

Accordionist Paulo Jorge Ferreira (b. Lisbon, 1966) began his musical studies at the age of five with professor José António Sousa. He participated in national and international contests, achieving distinguished classifications. Along his musical learning he attended seminaries directed by some of the most prestigious contemporary accordionists. He studied at Matono Musical Institute and finished his superior studies in the Castelo Branco Superior School of Applied Arts. He has performed concerts both national and internationally, namely in France, Mexico, Belgium, Austria, Italy, Macau, Spain and Hungary, and chamber music concerts, playing with highly honoured musicians such as the pianist Maria João Pires and António Victorino d’Almeida, among others. He has been invited as a guest musician by symphony and chamber orchestras, for example, Beijin Orchestra, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Portuguese Symphony Orchestra, Oporto National Orchestra, Lisbon Sinfonietta, Remix Ensemble, and as a solist with Esart Ensemble and Remix Ensemble working along with famous international conductors, such as Stefan Asbury, Lawrence Foster, Peter Rundel, Martin André, Emilio Pomarico. He also composes with Pedro Santos an accordion duo (Duo Damian), with Pedro Vasconcelos one of accordion and piano (Ars Duo), with Carlos Alves one of accordion and clarinet (Artclac), and a quintet with a string quartet. Along his musical carrier he has been participating in several discographic recordings, radio and tv programs. He’s also developed the activity of composer, writing works for solo instruments, chamber music and orchestra. Recently one of his compositions for solo accordion was chosen as a compulsory piece in an accordion contest in the Basque Country. He lectures in the Applied Arts Superior School in Castelo Branco and in several conservatoires. He often participates as a jury member in international accordion competitions. In 2004, it was published a solo cd, "Percursos". (adapted from text by Paulo Jorge Ferreira).

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Bruno Belthoise

Photo: Christof Aubrian

Since he was awarded the Prix de la Fondation de France in 1988 and graduated from the Ecole Normale de Musique of Paris, pianist Bruno Belthoise has always liked surprising people with his choice of repertoire. A discoverer of music scores and an authority on 20th century Portuguese music, he has recorded five monographs (Disques Coriolan) that were just as many world premieres. He has delivered lectures and given recitals in Europe and in America and collaborates with Portuguese radio station Antena 2 on a regular basis for live concerts and recordings. His contribution toward making this music known has been encouraged by the most prestigious institutions in Portugal (Ministery of Culture, Gulbenkian Fondation, Camões Institut). Prize-winner of the Fondation Laurent-Vibert in 1991 and 1992 and “Classical Revelation” of ADAMI in 1997, he’s been invited to numerous festivals in France. His repertoire ranges from J.S. Bach to contemporary composers such as Alexandre Delgado, Sérgio Azevedo and Emmanuel Hieaux. He conceived and recorded three albums for La Librairie Sonore. Thanks to the performances he put together for young audiences like Babar et autres histoires, Hänsel and Gretel, Les aventures de Poucette, he gave tour concerts to thousands of children throughout France and in French-speaking countries. His need for diversity in the means of expression at his disposal led him to meet Syrian singer-composer Abed Azrié. Together they set up recitals and conceived an album, Chants d’amour et d’ivresse. He also composed a wind quintet for The Concert Impromptu. Since 2003 he’s been working as a pianist, composer and actor with the Compagnie Alain Rais. Inspired by the theatre and poetry, he ranges from Federico Garcia Lorca to Habib Tengour, lingering over René Char’s dazzling language and Maria Helena Vieira da Silva’s vibrant painting. (adapted from text by Bruno Belthoise)

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Discography

João Rafael

Composer João Rafael was born in 1960 in Caldas da Rainha, Portugal. From 1979 to 1985, he studied composition and piano at the Lisbon Conservatoire, obtaining his composition diploma with Christopher Bochmann in 1985. He continued his composition studies with Emmanuel Nunes, first in Paris (1985-88, with a scholarship from the Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon) and then in Freiburg (Germany) at the "Institut für Neue Musik" (1988-92, with scholarships from the DAAD and the Heinrich-Strobel Foundation) obtaining a composition diploma (Aufbaustudium). In Freiburg he also studied electronic music with Mesias Maiguashca. In October 1990, his piece Transition for clarinet solo won the first prize at the International Composition Competition "Camillo Togni" in Brescia in Italy. Other pieces received further prizes in international composition competitions and were selected to be played in important festivals all over Europe. In December 1994, a "Concert-Portrait" took place in Freiburg with the Ensemble Recherche conducted by Kwamé Ryan. In June 1995, Radio France (France Musique) dedicated to João Rafael one of the programmes "Auto-Portrait". Further Radio-Portraits were realized on the Portuguese Radio in 1991, 1996, 1998 and 2002. Regular analysis seminars and workshops, as well as text and analysis publications, in Portugal, Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, United Kingdom, Russia and USA. João Rafael works regularly in the domain of electronic music both as a composer and as an interpreter. His pieces have been performed by internationally renowned soloists, ensembles and orchestras in important festivals in Portugal, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Hungary, Austria, Italy, Switzerland and Germany. They have also been broadcasted in almost all European countries. (text by João Rafael)

João Rafael's "Occasus", by Ensemble Recherche, cond. Kwamé Ryan (2nd Renaissance of Portuguese Composition project on You Tube):

João Antunes

Composer João Antunes was born in 1975 in Lisboa. He began studying music at the Academia de Amadores de Música de Lisboa, where he studied techniques of composition and musical analysis with Pedro Rocha and Eurico Carrapatoso. He graduated in composition in 2006 at the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa, having studied with Sérgio Azevedo, Luís Tinoco and Christopher Bochmann. He is currently working on his masters thesis in composition at the Universidade de Évora under the guidance of Professor Christopher Bochmann. In 2005, his work Ecos destorcidos was presented in the Música Viva Festival. He participates in seminars in composition driven by Emmanuel Nunes, in the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, since 2006. Following these seminars, he wrote Sphinx (2006) and Paisagens Reveladas (December 2008) for the Gulbenkian Orchestra. In 2007 he participated in the I Reading Panel of the Algarve Orchestra, presenting his piece Sopro de Inquietação. This piece was selected for the 2007/2008 season of the Orchestra. He was also com,missioned another piece for two sopranos and orchestra (Minha Partilha de Mim), for the same institution. In 2008, his piece for flute solo Hesitante - Confiante was incorporated as a compulsory piece work for Young Musicians Prize in 2008 (antena 2/RDP). He is currently working on a set of four songs for chorus and piano (Elementos Elementares), commissioned by the Academia de Música de St. Cecilia de Lisboa. João Antunes is currently teaching techniques of composition and musical analysis in the Fundação Musical dos Amigos das Crianças and Conservatório Regional Silva Marques. (adapted from text by João Antunes)

João Antunes' "Minha Partilha de Mim", by Sónia Alcobaça, Raquel Camarinha, Patrícia Quinta, Algarve Orchestra, cond. Cesário Costa(2nd Renaissance of Portuguese Composition project on You Tube):

Cândido Lima

Photo: Perseu Mandillo

Composer Cândido Lima was born in Viana do Castelo in 1939. He began his musical studies in Piano and Composition in Braga, where he played for many years as an organist at the Cathedral. He graduated in Piano and Composition in the Lisbon and Oporto Conservatories. After his military service in Bolama Island in Guinea, he studied Philosophy in the University of Braga. Later, Cândido Lima obtained a PhD in Aesthetics in the University of Paris with his dissertation "Identity and Alterity in Musical Composition". Having obtained scholarships from different organizations such as the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the Culture Secretary of State and the Acantes Centre, he attended international courses with Nadia Boulanger, Stockhausen, Kagel, Ligeti, Pousseur, Boulez and Xenakis, among others. He also studied Analysis and Conducting with Gilbert Amy and Michel Tabachnik and attended several electronic and computer music courses at the University of Paris 8 - Vincennes, the University of Paris I-II - Panthéon-Sorbonne, CEMAMu and IRCAM. His articles are regularly published in the press and he has created television and radio series to promote the work of contemporary composers in Portugal. He was responsible for the visit of Xenakis, Giuseppe Englert, Jean-Baptiste Barrière, Wilfred Jentsch and Stefano Scodanibbio to Portugal. In 1973, Lima founded the "Música Nova Group", which promoted classic and Portuguese composers in festivals, series, radio, television, presenting them in concerts both in Portugal and abroad. As a researcher, he has participated in the Musical Education Reform in Portugal since 1968, especially in the area of Composition. He was the president of the Braga Musical Youth (1968/74). Until 1986 he taught and directed the Oporto and Braga Music Conservatories. In 1988 he joined the Direction and Consultation Council of the Music Department at the Aveiro University. He has written pieces for a diversity of instrumental ensembles, voice and piano, orchestra, some of which with electroacoustics and audiovisual mediums. He was the first Portuguese composer to use the computer. (adapted from text in PMIC)

Discography

Excerpt of Cândido Lima's "Memorabilis", by António Esteireiro (2nd Renaissance of Portuguese Composition project on You Tube):