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):