Portuguese Music

Maria Anadon

2010-02-11T19:48:00.014Z

Photo taken from here

Singer Maria Anadon released her debut CD, “Why Jazz?” (Movieplay/Grove 1995) sided by the American female quartet Unpredictable Nature. The album was contemplated with a Cultural Interest Manifesto by the Portuguese Ministry of Culture. Her second album, “Cem Anos” (Movieplay/Grove 1998) is totally sung in Portuguese and recreates – giving them contemporary angles - some of the most notable songs that have been soundtrack to the Portuguese cinema scene. Maria Anadon’s voice paves the way to a journey crossing one century of Portuguese movies’ History, and all the while mixes it with several influences: the Lisbon Fado, the aromas of African coffee, the native sounds from South-America and the mood of New Orleans jazz clubs. The Portuguese Ministry of Culture also graced this work with a Cultural Interest Manifesto. Her third album, “A Jazzy Way”, graced with yet another Cultural Interest Manifesto by the Portuguese Ministry of Culture, sees the light of day in 2006 and finds her deepening her work with the American all-female jazz band Five Play (Arbors Records 2006). The album marks the definite international establishment of her voice as a jazz reference. «One thing that Ms. Anadon does do very consistently is bring a fresh and original approach to every song she sings.» In The New York Sun - Will Friedwald; «Maria Anadon is a new voice but one that should be heard often.. She is deep in the jazz tradition.» In The Review Corner - Herb Young. «Jazz is a universal language. For instance, a genuinely gifted pianist from Denmark can craft as fine a treatment of “Days of Wine and Roses” as an American like Fred Hersch. But it’s different for vocalists. Maria Anadon is a delightfully rare exception.» In Vox - Christopher Loudon“Smile” (IPlay 2010), Maria Anadon’s fourth solo CD, loaded with new standards, rarities and a tribute song to Charles Chaplin, again recorded with the all-female American band Five Play, is scheduled to be released in March, once more benefiting from a Cultural Interest Manifesto by the Portuguese Ministry of Culture.

(from text by Maria Anadon)

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José Carlos Xavier

2010-01-31T01:12:00.003Z

As a student of the Lisbon National Conservatory of Music, tenor José Carlos Xavier studied singing, particularly with Cristina de Castro. At a very young age, he joined the Choir of São Carlos National Theatre. He made his debut as a soloist at that theatre, interpreting roles in the operas "Miguel Mañara", “Der Rosenkavalier”, "Rigoletto", "Fedora", "Louise" and "Dona Mécia". At the invitation of conductor Michel Corboz, he joined the Chamber Music Group of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and sang as a solo performer in Spain and Italy. He was a scholar of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation for five years, which he spent in Italy at the Liceo G. B. Viotti, in Vercelli and where, supervised by Zita Fumagalli, he successfully graduated in Singing, obtaining the highest classification and a summa cum laude mention by the panel. José Carlos Xavier chose to live in Italy. He sang at a wide range of music festivals, such as Aix-en-Provence, Toulon (where he was considered best vocal participant in the concert by Le Figaro’s critic Clarendon), Tuscany, the 1st Music Festival of Lagos, Vilar de Mouros and Kriens Music Festival (Lucerne). In the field of opera, he played, among others, Ernesto in "Don Pasquale”, Peppe in "I Pagliacci", Des Grieux in "Manon Lescaut”, Werther in “Werther”, and, more recently, Tamino in "Die Zauberflöte", with the Kammeroper in Zollikofen. Together with the Association "Amici della Lirica", he performed several recitals in various Italian cities and also abroad. Upon his return to Portugal, José Carlos Xavier started to collaborate regularly with the Secretary of State for Culture and gave recitals on a national scale. He gave performances in Macao, as well as in India, Japan and Thailand. He commercially recorded a cycle of “Troubadour Songs” by Frederico de Freitas and a cycle of originals by F. Lopes Graça. He also recorded for RTP (Portuguese Broadcasting Corporation) and for RTE – Spanish Television, as well as for the Portuguese and French National Broadcast Radio Companies. He teaches singing courses at the Lisbon National Conservatory of Music, where he has supervised some of the most prominent Portuguese young lyrical singers. He is the founder and the president of the “Luísa Todi National Singing Competition” (seven editions) and a frequent member of panels at national and international competitions, namely the Rio de Janeiro Theatro Municipal Singing Competion, in September 2010.
(from text by José Carlos Xavier)

José Corvelo

2010-01-31T00:38:00.002Z

Baritone José Corvelo completed his advanced singing studies at Escola Superior de Música e das Artes do Espectáculo, in Porto, Portugal, with José de Oliveira Lopes. He attended master-classes under the guidance of Fernanda Correia, Oliveira Lopes, Rudolf Knoll, Lamara Tchekónia, Liliana Bizineche, Francisco Lázaro, Enza Ferrari, Jorge Vaz de Carvalho, Ambra Vespesiani, Ettore Nova and Daniel Muñoz. José Corvelo is now one of the most sought-after Portuguese baritones. In 2000 he began a regular collaboration as a soloist with Circulo Portuense de Ópera, Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, Orquestra do Norte and The Portuguese Opera Company. There he made important debuts such as Uberto, Bartolo, Figaro, Leporello, Germont, Monterone, Escamillo, Sharpless, Alfio, Tonio/Taddeo and many others. He took part in the world première of Eurico Carrapatoso’s A Floresta (The Forest, 2004, Teatro São Luis, Lisboa – co-production with Teatro Nacional de São Carlos) and recorded in DVD Carrapatoso’s O Lobo Diogo e o mosquito Valentim (Diogo the Wolf and Valentim the Mosquito, Casa da Música, Porto). His vast concert repertoire includes oratorio, masses and lieder. He has worked with distinguished scene directors and with conductors such as M. Tardue, J. Reynolds, Ferreira Lobo, Félix Carrasco, Osvaldo Ferreira, R. Giovaninetti, Martin André, Zsolt Hamar, NikŠa Bareza, R. Manfredini, N. Giusti, Enrico Dovico, César Viana, J. Paulo Santos, C.Bochmann, Ivo Cruz, R. Massena, G. Andreoli, Cesário Costa, G. Arglebe, António V. Lourenço, Emílio de César, R. Perez, J. Willig, M. Letonja, G. Bülh and many others.
(text by José Corvelo)

Tiago Derriça

2010-01-30T22:13:00.010Z

Composer Tiago de Sousa Derriça was born in Lisbon in 1986. He started his musical studies at age seven, then he attended the CMML (Metropolitan Conservatory) where he studied Cello with Eugen Prochác, Peter Flanagan and João Pires. During this period of time he had Composition lessons with the composer Pedro Faria Gomes. In 2004, 2007 and 2008 Tiago Derriça attended Leiria Summer Conducting Workshop with Jean-Sébastien Béreau. He also took part of the Second National Workshop of the OSAM (Metropolitan Academic Orchestra) with the conductor Michael Zilm. He graduated in Composition at the ESML (Lisbon College of Music), where he studied with João Madureira, Luís Tinoco, Sérgio Azevedo, Vasco Azevedo, Roberto Perez, Benoît Gibson, António Pinho Vargas and others. Tiago was admitted at the UE (Évora University) where he is studying Composition with Christopher Bochmann. His works has been performed by various chamber groups, as well as the OSL (Lisbon Sinfonieta Orchestra), OML (Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra), EUCO (European Union Chamber Orchestra), Ricercare Choir and NOL (Lisbon New Orchestra) where he is composer-in-residence.(text by Tiago Derriça)

Tiago Derriça's "Diaphonia" by Lisbon Sinfonietta, cond. Vasco Pearce de Azevedo (2nd Renaissance of Portuguese Composition project on You Tube):

Susana Santos Silva

2010-01-14T01:16:00.005Z

Susana Santos Silva was born in Porto in the year of 1979. She holds a Graduate Diploma in Jazz/Trumpet ‘2008 from the College of Music and Performing Arts in Porto. She also holds a Graduate Diploma in Trumpet´2004 from the same school, finishing the course at the Stlaatliche Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe in Reinhold Friedrich´s Class, where she also had lessons with Prof. Edward Tarr, Klaus Schuwerk and Klaus Braker. She is a member of the European Movement Jazz Orchestra, with whom she toured in Germany, Slovenia, Austria, Belgium and Portugal, Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos, LAMA Trio, leads her own Quintet, freelances and records with other projects in different musical styles.She participated on Master Classes and Seminars with names such as John Aigi Hurn, Charles Buttler, Eric Aubier, Pierre Thibeau, Pasi Pirinen, Philip Smith, Pierre Dutot, Adolph Herseth, Robert Astre. She played with several orchestras such as Orquestra Académica do Porto, Sinfonieta do Porto, Orquestra Nacional do Porto, Filarmonia das Beiras, Remix e Orquestra de Jovens da Casa da Musica. She participated in some Workshops with Jon Faddis, Cecil Bridgewater, Alex Sipiagin, Orrin Evans, Richie Beirach, Greg Osby, Jason Lindner, Mark Turner, Chris Cheek, Ohad Talmor, Dan Weiss, and others. As part of Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos, she records Portology featuring Lee Konitz and OJM Invites Chris Cheek, and plays with Mark Turner, Rich Perry, John Riley, Carla Bley, Steve Swallow, Bob Berg, Rick Margitza, Perico Sambeat, Conrad Herwig, Ingrid Jensen, Joshua Redman, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Dan Weiss, Gerald Clever, John Hollenbeck, Theo Bleckman, Jordi Rossi, Eric Vloeimans among others. The orchestra has been playing on the jazz festivals all over Portugal and in Milano, Brussels and New York. With Carlos Azevedo Ensemble records Lenda. She is now attending a Master in Jazz Performance in Codarts, Rotterdam, where she works with Eric Vloeimans, Jarmo Hoogendijk and Wim Both.

(text by Susana Santos Silva)

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Luís Tinoco

2010-01-12T03:17:00.003Z

Luís Tinoco (b. 1969, Lisbon) made his First Degree in composition at the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa. He was then awarded with scholarships by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the Centro Nacional de Cultura to complete a Masters degree in Composition at the Royal Academy of Music, in London. At the RAM he was awarded with the Edward Echt, Mosco Carner, Battison Haynes, Charles Lucas and the Howard Carr Memorial Prize. Currently he is doing a PhD research at the University of York. Since 1999, Tinoco has lectured Composition at the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa. For the Portuguese Classical radio – RTP Antena 2, he wrote and presented A Century’s Score - from 2000 to 2003 -, and he is the author of The Geography of Sound, for the same radio, on air since 2004. Also for the RTP he is the artistic director of the Young Musicians Prize. Tinoco’s work has been recorded on CD by the Arditti Quartet (UK); Galliard Ensemble (UK); Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne (Canada); John Wallace / Royal Scottish Academy Brass, (UK); Apollo Saxophone Quartet, (UK); QuadQuartet (PT) and by Pedro Carneiro (UK). A CD devoted to his chamber works performed by the Ensemble Lontano, conducted by Odaline de La Martinez (Lorelt Records), was launched in November 2005 at the Purcell Room / South Bank Centre, in London. Future CD releases include a new recording with the Arditti String Quartet and the percussionist Pedro Carneiro, on the Dutch label Etcetera, in Feb. 2010. Tinoco’s orchestral music has been regularly commissioned, performed and / or programmed by various orchestras such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Utah Symphony Orchestra, Albany Symphony Orchestra, El Paso Symphony Orchestra, Turin Philharmonic, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Portuguese Symphony Orchestra, Oporto National Orchestra and the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra. Amongst other, Tinoco’s music has been conducted by (in alphabetical order) Martin Andre, Stefan Asbury, René Bosc, Joana Carneiro, Cesário Costa, Cliff Colnot, Sarah Ioannides, Susanna Malkki, Odaline de La Martinez, David Alan Miller, Ludovic Morlot, Donato Renzetti, Peter Rundel, Jonathan Stockhammer, Yaron Traub, Tapio Tuomela and Ilan Volkov. Recent projects have included Search Songs and …from the Depth of Distance - two song cycles for soprano and symphony orchestra; and Evil Machines - a music theatre project with libretto and stage direction by the former Monty Python Terry Jones. Future projects include the premiere of Paint Me, a chamber opera with libretto by Stephen Plaice. Luís Tinoco’s music is published in the UK since 2005, by the University of York Music Press.

(text by Luís Tinoco)

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Pedro Rego

2010-01-10T23:56:00.004Z

Pedro Rego was born in Canelas, Estarreja. He studied Saxophone in the class of Professor Fernando Valente in the Calouste Gulbenkian Conservatory of Music of Aveiro, where he integrated the Aveiro Saxophone Quartet and Big Band. He also attented the Saxophone Courses in Aveiro with the Amsterdam Saxophone Quartet. At the same time he also participated in Jazz Workshops with the Quarteto Carlos Martins, Carlos Barreto and Zé Eduardo. In 1995 he attented the I Course of Chamber Music in Aveiro with Teacher Jaime Mota and in 1996 won a national public TV Prize of the Saxophone Class of the Aveiro Conservatory of Music. In Lisbon he attented the Hot Club Portugal School of Jazz and the VI Workshop of Jazz of Loures. He also participated in the Seminars “Musical Development for children” and “Psychology of Music” and “Musical Education” with Edwin Gordon in FCSH of the New University of Lisbon, and in the Seminar “Music and Movement” according to Orff-Schulwerk guided by Teacher Verena Maschat in the Superior School of Education of Lisbon. He attended saxophone Masterclasses with Teachers Henk Van Twillert, Mário Marzi and Claude Delangle. He collaborated with several Wind Bands of the north area of the country. He was member of Glup Swing Orchestra in Aveiro, he took part in Big Villas Band of Hot Club of Portugal, Big Band Almada Cool and he also collaborated with the Didactic Orchestra of the Foco Musical. Since 1998, he’s been teaching Saxophone in the Regional Conservatory of Setúbal, where he created the SetSax Quartet. He also teaches Musical Education in the Portuguese Musical Youth, of which he’s Pedagogic Coordinator and General Secretary. In 2006 he was invited to teach the Saxophone class in Ourearte School of Music and Arts of Ourém, where he guided the First Seminary of Wind Band of Ourém. He has also founded the Ourearte Saxophone Quartet. He took the Inatel Course of Musical Conducting with Conductors José Brito, Alberto Roque and René Castelain, attended Masterclasses of Conducting with Conductors José Ignácio Petit, Robert Houlihan, Rodolfo Aglimbeni, Félix Hauswirth, José Pascual Vilaplana, Jacob of Haan and Douglas Bostock. Since October 2006 he’s been ahead of Philarmonic Society Palmelense "Loureiros"’ Wind Band and takes part of Loureiros’ Big Band and of Barreiro School of Jazz Big Band and he collaborates with DJ JH in Chillout Music. (adapted from text by Pedro Rego)
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Francisco Monteiro

2010-01-09T19:20:00.009Z

Pianist Francisco Monteiro started his musical studies as a pupil Helena Costa’s in Porto – Portugal, entering later the local music conservatory where he achieved the Superior Piano Course with honour. He is graduated by the Musik Universität Wien – Austria (piano concert class by Noel Flores), the University of Coimbra – Portugal (Master Degree in Musicology) and the University of Sheffield (Ph.D. – Contemporary Music). He also studied analysis and composition with Cândido Lima, Álvaro Salazar (Porto) and Gottfried Scholtz (Vienna – Austria), conducting with Jean-Claude Hartemann and piano interpretation with Marie-Françoise Bucquet (Paris). He took part in several master classes with Vlado Perlemutter, Natalie Pepin, Anne Koscielny, Joseph Palenicek, Moura Castro and Jorg Demus among others. Awarded in national piano competitions, his activity as a pianist includes both solo and chamber presentations. Although is repertoire embraces works from the XVIII century until our days, he is mainly devoted to the 20th century and Portuguese music: he presented premières of works of C. Lima, J. Peixinho, A. Salazar, António Sousa Dias, Fernando Lapa, Christopher Bochmann, Terry W. Owens, Carlos Azevedo, Armando Santiago, Clotilde Rosa, Eurico Carrapatoso and Pedro Rocha. He took part in the Festivals of Udine, Transimeno Lake and Cagliary SpazioMusica (Italy), Essen Contemporary Music Festival (Germany), Bogotá Music Festival (Colombia), Valencia’s and Logroño’s Contemporary Music Festivals (Spain), Baku Music Festival (Romenia), Costa Verde Music Festival, Gulbenkian Contemporary Music Encounters, and the Music Festivals of Porto, Aveiro, Coimbra and Lisbon (Portugal). He also played solo in France, Austria, Italy, Belgium, U.S.A., Germany and in the U.K.. Francisco Monteiro recorded for the Portuguese national radio and television and the CDs "Exposed on the cliffs of the heart" - piano music of Terry Winter Owens and “Lov” – flute, cello and piano trio, playing music of Crumb, Piazolla, Azevedo and Peixinho. He also took part in many CDs concerning Portuguese contemporary music, with works of J. Peixinho, Clotilde Rosa, Christopher Bochmann, António Pinho Vargas, Álvaro Salazar and others. Together with is career as a performer he maintains a regular activity as a composer. His music is much influenced by the Western classical tradition and avant-garde composers of the sixties, and also by traditional Portuguese rural music and rock music. He is Professor in the Polytechnic Institute of Porto - Portugal (School of Education).

(text by Francisco Monteiro)

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Ana Ester Neves (soprano) and Francisco Monteiro (piano) perform Francisco Monteiro's "O Amor" (one of the "Three Alexandre O'Neill Songs").

Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos

2010-01-09T03:15:00.004Z

Created in 1999, the Orquestra de Jazz de Matosinhos is one of the most dynamic orchestras in the Portuguese jazz panorama. Directed by Carlos Azevedo and Pedro Guedes, the orchestra has sought to create its own repertoire as well as organize specific projects with guest performances by soloists, maestros and composers of international renown Through the diversity and imagination involved in the programs presented, the regular release of international recordings and its continuous growth, OJM has managed to reach a level where it is truly a national jazz orchestra. After almost ten years in action a number of events stand out, namely the Porto 2001 closing ceremony, the recreation of Sketches of Spain with the Remix Ensemble, the presentation of Carla Bley’s music, recording the CD Portology with Lee Konitz for the North American label Omnitone, the concerts with Lee Konitz, the CD OJM invites Chris Cheek for Fresh Sound New Talent, the concert with John Hollenbeck, the concert with Dee Dee Bridgewater, the concert in which OJM performed with the Porto National Orchestra, the concert with Kurt Rosenwinkel and also the recent concert with Joshua Redman and Chris Cheek at the inauguration of the Cine-Teatro Constantino Nery in Matosinhos. And OJM has crossed borders, performing in Brussels, Milan and in New York, at the Carnegie Hall, during the JVC Jazz Festival. (text by OJM)

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Emanuel Salvador

2010-01-09T03:12:00.001Z

Described by the Strad Magazine as “one of the finest Portuguese violinists of his generation”, Emanuel Salvador has already performed as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral leader in the U.K., Kazakhstan, Portugal, Holland, Mexico, Spain, Italy, Germany, Malta and South Korea. He has been awarded top prizes at Isolde Menges and Beckenham Festival competitions; Barbirolli Memorial and Wolfson; Jovens Músicos; Gulbenkian Foundation Scholarship, Instituto Camões Grants. After graduating from Artave (a specialist music school) as the best student of the year he then moved to London, where he got a BMus from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (Professor John Glickman) and a MMus at the Royal College of Music (Dr. Felix Andrievsky). Other professors include Ilya Grubert, David Takeno, Ulf Hoelscher as well as members from Borodin and Takacs Quartets and Peabody and Florestan Piano Trios. As a concerto soloist Emanuel has played with several orchestras including Sinfonica UANL, Rotterdam Ensemble, Newbury Symphony, Norte, Vitalis, Skolia, Nova Amadeus. His festival appearances include Gaia International, Proms in St. Judes and Ampthill and the International String Orchestra Festival in Malta. Since September 2005 Emanuel is the leader of Orquestra do Norte in Portugal. As a guest leader he worked with Seoul Classical Players and Gulbenkian Ensemble.

(text by Emanuel Salvador)

Alexandra Mascolo-David

2010-01-09T03:02:00.006Z

‘A splendid pianist refined, searching and expressive, and her playing is loaded with insight and interpretative detail’. So wrote The Washington Post, after Alexandra Mascolo-David’s performance at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in the nation’s capital. She has performed and led workshops and master classes in Europe, China, and the Americas, including a New York debut recital at Carnegie Hall in May 2004, which was favorably reviewed in The New York Concert Review. In recent years, she has centered her repertoire around the evocative piano music of Portuguese and Brazilian composers, especially that of Francisco Mignone. She is in the forefront of presenting Mignone’s piano music, and her performances, especially of his ‘Valsas brasileiras’ (Brazilian Waltzes), have been widely acclaimed. She recently received a Research Excellence Grant from Central Michigan University to record Francisco Mignone¹s Fantasias Brasileiras ‘Brazilian Fantasies’ for piano and orchestra with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, under Maestro Raymond Harvey, for the White Pine Music recording label, in a 2010 release. In addition to performing traditional solo and chamber literature, she has also championed works by contemporary American composers Daniel McCarthy, Derek Bermel, David Gillingham, Augusta Read Thomas, and David Maslanka. Noting her performance in David Maslanka’s Piano Concerto No. 1 for Piano, Winds and Percussion, released by Albany Records in 2005, the American Record Guide wrote, ‘Ms. Mascolo-David dispatches the difficult solo part with alarming ease.’ Another CD, featuring music of Latin America for piano and cello with 14 year-old cellist Gabriel Cabezas, winner of the Ninth Sphinx International Competition, was released on the White Pine Music label in February of 2007. Ms. Mascolo-David has recently performed for the Fontana Chamber Arts Summer Festival in Kalamazoo, and for the Irving S. Gilmore Keyboard Festival Summer Camp with Brazilian pianist Rubia Santos, with whom she founded the BelleDonne piano duo. She has taught at the Interlochen Arts camp, at Iowa State University, and currently is Professor of Piano at Central Michigan University. She is also a most sought out and devoted teacher. American and international students attend Central Michigan University, in order to join her studio. Her pupils have won numerous auditions and competitions and they all have achieved much success after graduation. (from text by Alexandra Mascolo-David)

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Alexandra Mascolo-David plays Francisco Mignone's Waltz 12:

Mário Redondo

2010-01-09T02:55:00.005Z

Born in Lisbon, in 1971, baritone Mário Redondo has a degree in Law, completed the Course for Actors (ESTC), and attended the Singing Course of Lisbon’s Conservatory. Most important professional opera work: “Il Matrimonio Segreto”, D.Cimarosa - Geronimo (T.N.São Carlos, 2000); “Albert Herring”, B. Britten - Sid (T.Aberto, 2002); “Trouble in Tahiti”, L.Bernstein - Sam (Amiens - France, 2003); “Os Fugitivos”, J.E.Rocha (world premiere - T.Trindade, 2004); “Simon Boccanegra”, Verdi - Pietro (TNSC, 2004); “Beggar’s Opera”, Gay/Britten - Lockit (Teatro Aberto, 2005); “The Nose”, Chostakovitch – Ivan Iakovlevitch (TNSC, 2006); “Le Nozze di Figaro”, Mozart - Count (T.Trindade, 2006); “Tosca”, Pucinni - Angelotti (S.Carlos, 2008); and “Fidelio”, Beethoven – D.Fernando (TNSC, 2008). Soloist in: “The Seven Deadly Sins”, Kurt Weill (T.Camões, OSP, 2000); “Swing, Dig The Rhythm”, with music by L.Bernstein (Royaumont - France, 2003); “Mass in B Minor”, Bach (Belfast, 2006); “Night Waltz – the music of Paul Bowles” (CCB, 2007); and “In Terra Pax”, Frank Martin (TNSC, 2008). Has worked since 1992 as a professional actor. Most important works in this area: the plays “Kvetch” (S.Berkoff - T.Trindade, 2004) and “The Misanthrope” (Molière – Lisbon, 2009); and the movies “Sinais de Fogo” (Luís Filipe Rocha, 1994), “Capitães de Abril” (Maria de Medeiros, 1999), and “Amália” (C.Coelho da Silva, 2008). Lately, he’s engaged in a very successful musical theatre career, of which the best examples are “The Threepenny Opera”, in the role of Mack The Knife (T.Aberto, 2005); the world premiere of “Einstein’s Dreams”, by J.Rosemblum and J.S.Lessner, in the role of Einstein (T.Trindade, 2005/2006); the leading role in “Sweeney Todd” (T.Aberto, 2007); and “Evil Machines”, a musical fantasy by Monty Python's Terry Jones with music by Luís Tinoco (T.S.Luiz, 2008). (text by Mário Redondo)

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Sara Braga Simões

2010-01-09T02:43:00.006Z

Photo: Alfredo Rocha

Soprano Sara Braga Simoes is a winner of several national and international prizes. Operatic Roles include Pamina (Die Zauberflöte - Mozart) Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro – Mozart), Zerlina (Don Giovanni – Mozart), Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel - E. Humperdinck), Despina (Così fan Tutte - W.A. Mozart), The Governess (The Turn of the Screw – B. Britten), Spinalba (La Spinalba - F. António de Almeida), Sleeping Beauty (Sleeping Beauty – O. Respighi), Jenny (Three sisters who are not sisters – N. Rorem), Rowan (The Little Sweep - B. Britten). She sang Ein Deutsches Requiem – Brahms, Des Knabem Wunderhorn – Mahler, E vo - Berio, Trois poèmes de Stephan Mallarmé - M.Ravel, Nuits d’étè - H.Berlioz, Te Deum - Dvorack, Madrigals (Book I) - George Crumb, Shîr - João Pedro Oliveira*, D’une saison… l’autre - A. Lemeland*, Lacrymosa - Yanov-Yanovsky, Magnificat, Dixit Dominus and Gloria - A.Vivaldi, The Devil’s Suite - Peter Maxwell Davies, Christmas Oratorio - Saint-Saëns, Stabat Mater - G.B.Pergolesi and Haddock’s Eyes - David Del Tredici. Sara was directed by Martin André, Cesário Costa, Laurence Cummings, Marc Tardue, Osvaldo Ferreira, Stefan Asbury, Peter Rundell, Ferreira Lobo, Manuel Ivo Cruz, Brad Cohen, Peter Birgamin, Armando Vidal, Jaroslav Mikus, Gunther Arglebe, Yoichi Sugyiana, among others. Engagements for this season include her London debut with the world premier of Pedro Amaral’s opera in London: The Dream, Nino Rota’s Aladin (as The Princess) and George Benjamin’s A Mind of winter in Centro Cultural de Belém (Lisbon). (text by Sara Braga Simões)

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Ana Queirós

2010-01-05T20:06:00.004Z

Award winner in national and international competitions, portuguese pianist Ana Queirós performs regularly in Portugal, Brazil (Portuguese Music tour in São Paulo, Belém and Vitória), Germany (Neckargemund Klavierwoche, Heidelberg and Weissber Festivals), Spain, Italy (Festival Internazionale de Pianoforte Firenze), USA (New York) and Mozambique (Maputo International Music Festival). A graduate from the Manhattan School of Music, she studied with Luis Pipa, J. Alexandre Reis and Pedro Burmester in Portugal and obtained her Master of Music in Piano Performance degree as a scholarhip student of Dr. Solomon Mikovsky. She also studied in Madrid with Galina Egyazarova and attended masterclasses by Paul Badura-Skoda, Vitaly Margulis, Pierre Reach, Vladimir Viardo, Dimitri Bashkirov, Tania Achot, Laszlo Simon and Charles Spencer, among others, in Germany and Spain. With an intense musical activity, Ana performs regularly in both solo, with orchestra and chamber music concerts. Besides Doppio Ensemble, she is also the founder of TriArt with French composer and percussionist Jean-François Lézé and premiered several works by Portuguese and French composers. She is in the faculty of Braga University and Oporto Music Conservatory and also collaborates with Oporto National Orchestra and ESMAE. Her musical studies have been supported by Manhattan School of Music, Centro Nacional de Cultura and Calouste Gulbenkian Foudation. Next engagements include concerts and masterclasses in Spain, Italy, Germany and USA.
(Text by Ana Queirós)

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Evandra de Brito Gonçalves

2010-01-05T19:54:00.004Z

Evandra de Brito Gonçalves is one of the most talented portuguese violinists of her generation. She received awards in Portugal and USA, both as a soloist and a chamber musician, playing solo with Orquestra Nacional do Porto, Orquestra das Beiras, Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa, Sinfonieta do Porto, Orquestra Clássica do Porto, USC Symphonie Orchestra and Northewstern Symphonie Orchestra. She was a student of Gaio Lima, Zofia Wóycicka, Gerardo Ribeiro ( Northwestern University ) and Robert Lipsett ( University of Southern California ). She has also attended masterclasses with Isaac Stern and Augustin Leon Ara, Zakhar Bron, Gerardo Ribeiro, Almita Vamos , among others. At the age of 13 years old, she was accepted has a member of the European Union Youth Orchestra, where she had the opportunity to work with musicians such as Leonard Slatkin, M. Rostropovich, Sir Colin Davis, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Martha Argerich, Emanuel Ax, Bernard Haitink, Carlo Maria Giulini and perform in all the major orchestra halls in Europe and South America. While attending Northwestern University ( Chicago ) for her Master Degree, she was Mr. Ribeiro´s teaching assistent. Since she came back to Portugal, she became a member of the Orquestra Nacional do Porto and teacher at the Escola Profissional de Música de Viana do Castelo. She performs regularly with the pianist Ana Queirós, the Doppio Ensemble, formed in 2002. In 2010 Doppio Ensemble will release a CD, and has been invited to perform in Portugal, Spain, USA and Italy. Evandra is also the violinist and co-founder of the prestigious chamber music group Camerata Senza Misura. More recent projects include the trio TriArt ( with pianist Ana Queirós and french percussionist and composer Jean-François Lézé) and the violin trio VioNinas ( with Maria Kagan and Ianina Pacheco ). Both groups play different kinds of music, that goes from the Bossa Nova, Jazz, Tangos, Afro-Cubans,tradicional Russian influenced compositions and world music in general.
(text by Evandra de Brito Gonçalves)

Manuel Durão

2010-01-05T19:18:00.001Z

Born in 1987, Lisbon, composer Manuel Durão studied trumpet and percussion and graduated in Composition by Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa (2008). He attended Conducting Workshops by Jean-Sébastien Béreau. In 2005, he won the competition Jovens Criadores promoted by Clube Português de Artes e Ideias and represented Portugal in the III Bienal Jovens Criadores da CPLP (Community of Portuguese Language Countries). He was selected for the first round of the Opera Competition in the Municipal Theatre in Lisbon. He is studying since 2007 at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” Leipzig (Germany) with Reihard Pfundt (composition), Helgeheide Schmidt (piano) and Michael Schorcht (Improvisation). He received a Scholarship from ERASMUS-Program (2007) and from the DAAD (2009-2010). He is founder of the Nova Orquestra de Lisboa. He became comissions from the RTP - Portuguese Radio and Television, Mikroduo, Lisbon Guitar Quartet, Sinfonietta Lisbon, Ricercare Choir Lisbon, Tatjana Masurenko and Brigitte Fassbaender. In 2010 will be presented the german version of his Diary of a Mad Man at the Opera Leipzig with musicians of the Gewandhaus Orchestra.

(text by Manuel Durão)

Carla Caramujo

2010-01-05T17:30:00.003Z

Soprano Carla Caramujo completed her Bachelor and Masters in Music Performance, with distinction, at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, having graduated from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama Opera Course. She studied with Laura Sarti and Patricia MacMahon. She was a scholar of the Samling Foundation in the UK. Carla Caramujo won first prizes in a number of competitions including the Luisa Todi National Singing Competition (Lisbon), Chevron Excellence award 2005 and Ye Cronies Award 2006 (UK) and at the Musikförderpreis der Hans-Sachs-Loge (Nürnberg). She made her début at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos (TNSC), Lisbon, as Gilda Rigoletto and in a Concert Gala with Vesselina Kasarova. Carla Caramujo’s operatic roles include Adina L’elisir d’amore (Teatro da Trindade), Violetta La traviata (Sintra’s Festival), Queen of the Night Die Zauberflöte (Trinity theatre, Kent), Madame Herz Die Schauspieldirektor (Teatro das Figuras, Faro), Fiordiligi Cosi fan tutte (Teatro Rivoli, Porto), Valetto L’incoronazione di Poppea (Traverse Theater, Edimbrough), Armida Rinaldo (Festival Theater, Edimbrough), Frasquita Carmen (Teatro Communale, Bologna), Flight Controller Flight (New atheneum theater, Glasgow), She in Douglas Templeton’s Night Square, Usignuolo and Fata Azzurra in Respighi’s La bella dormente nel bosco (Casa das Artes, Famalicão). Her concert performances include Brahms Requiem, Bach Magnificat, Handel Messiah, Mozart C minor Mass, Beethoven Mass in C, Mendelssohn Elijah, Poulenc Gloria, Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, Mozart Concert Arias, in major UK venues and in Germany, the Czech Republic, Mexico and Portugal where she has also performed at entro Cultural de Belém, Gulbenkian and many of the major music festivals. In 2008, Carla has participated on a doccumentary series for RTP (Portuguese Radio and Television), Percursos da Música Portuguesa, with a recital performed at the Teatro Nacional de S. Carlos. Last summer she returned to Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon to sing sang Donna Anna Don Giovanni and recently she sang Nena in Pergolesi’s Lo frate 'nnamorato for CCB (Lisbon) and Vespina in Francisco António de Almeida’s La Spinalba for the festival Are-more of Vigo (Spain). In Spring 2010 she will sing Adele Die Fledermaus, also at Teatro Nacional de São Carlos.

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Costa Campos

2010-01-05T17:15:00.007Z

A full, glowing night, of augurious stars, came down upon the blessed and mystical set erected at the ruins of Convento do Carmo, there to witness the premiere of Costa Campos as a lead singer, playing D. Basilio from Il Barbiere di Siviglia, under the direction of Jan Latham König. It was the first peak in the life of this young man graduated in Law, born in Luanda, who quested madly for the Apollonius gesture, the grave sculpture of singing, ever since he emerged from the Escola de Teatro e Cinema do Conservatório Nacional, with Maria Germana Tânger and Águeda Sena, since when he received the teaching of Maria Cristina de Castro, Hugo Casaes, Natália Viana, Elsa Saque and Liliane Bizineche; the conspicuous and detailed perfecting of the art and of the craft with Ivo Vinco, Jeff Lawton, Jonathan Morris and Günther Bauer; and finally the splendid principles of voice and interpretation from the divine Grace Bumbry and that illustrious maestro, Enza Ferrari. There followed the musical-theatrical, multi-disciplinal and various performances: Judas, from O Nazareno (Coliseu de Lisboa), La Diva from Zarzuelas Cabaré e Olé Olé (Municipal de S. Luís), the Marquis of Obigny in the historical production of La Traviata, signed by Pier Luigi Pizzi and directed by Giuliano Carella (Teatro de S. Carlos), the Senator Robert Lyons in Gershwin’s Of Thee I Sing (Festival de Música de Macau), Carumba, from Leal Moreira’s A Vingança da Cigana. In splendid artistic fruits did the year 2009 smile upon Costa Campos when, in the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, exemplarily integrated in the principles and in the most original scenic conceptions of such great men of the Theatre as Peter Konwintschy and Michael Hampe, he achieved authentic creations in the roles of Bénoit, from La Bohème (directed by Julia Jones), and of the Praetorian in Handel’s Agripina. An artist of indefatigable capacity for work and constant perfecting, eternally avid for new challenges, it is in the creation of the role Montesinos in the opera D. Quixote et la Duchesse, by Boismortier, that he reaps abundant triumph by exhibiting the excellence of his bass register, for the first time facing the hardships of a basso profondo tessitura. He is presently the mentor of a cultural project entitled Primo Canto, where the artistic wisdom begotten in his contact with the Grand Masters is passed onto others. Hailed as an aesthete both on- and off-stage, Costa Campos bears a debt of infinite gratitude towards his beloved Mother and the unforgettable Grace Bumbry for his excellence throughout. (text by Costa Campos)

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Júlio Pereira

2010-01-05T17:09:00.004Z

In 30 years of a career as multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer, Júlio Pereira has guided his artistic concern by parameters that have the universality of cultural events as reference. This, in no way contradicts the importance of his work in the scope of the traditional Portuguese music and the ethnic consideration of sounds and their roots. His work has always aimed to the incorporation of Portuguese tradition in aesthetic currents that mark the successive "contemporarities". Thus, his ouevre, comprising 17 LPs, after reflecting the importance of the 70s musical innovation, starts to focus in recovering and renovating the sounds of "almost lost" traditional instruments – of that, the most paradigmatic examples are Cavaquinho (1981), Braguesa (1982), and O meu bandolim (1992) – as well, especially since the 90s, the combination of these sounds with (always) new acoustic solutions – as Rituais (2000) documents significantly. All this places him, beyond his key role in the Portuguese music scenario of the 20th century last decades, also as a musician of the new century. Although Júlio Pereira’s work, since the album Cavaquinho (1981), didn’t extend to the composition of music for lyrics, his poetic selectivity led him to produce an album – Faz de conta - which intersects with core Portuguese speaking authors, such as Eugénio de Andrade and Vinicius de Moraes. In Graffiti, his new album, to be heard from the beginning of the new year, the words’ sound is back associating the most significant voices of World Music to his work after Geografias (2007), which definitely marked the composer’s universality and the stage return of the instrumentalist. Julio Pereira’s experience and musical testimony are attested by almost an hundred discs where he performed as an instrumentalist, orchestrator or producer. Mention must be made to the importance of his close ties to the career of José Afonso, since the late 70s, as well as his participation in joint works with Pete Seeger and The Chieftains and also Kepa Junkera, Chico Buarque, Dulce Pontes, Sara Tavares, Carlos do Carmo, etc.

(text by Júlio Pereira)

Ernesto Rodrigues

2010-01-05T16:49:00.002Z

Performer and composer Ernesto Rodrigues was born in Lisbon 1959. He has been playing the violin for 30 years and in that time has played all genres of music ranging from contemporary music to free jazz and free improvisation, live and in the studio. As an avant-garde violinist/violist his main interest shifted towards contemporary improvised and new music as well as graphic scores by Gerhard Stäbler, Nikolaus Gerszewski and Phil Niblock. Studies with contemporary composers Eurico Carrapatoso, Emmanuel Nunes and Pedro M. Rocha. The relationship with his instruments is focused in sonic and textural elements as well as the use of extended techniques. Electronic music was an early influence on his approach to violin playing, which challenges traditional romantic concepts of the violin and viola through use of preparations and micro tuning. Silence plays an important and determinant role in his music. Has founded and directs Variable Geometry Orchestra since 2000. A large ensemble where the conduction is operated by balancing the sound masses that travel in the acoustic space, dictating the construction of the realtime composition, and thus revealing the organized juxtaposition of specific instruments as mobile sound groups. Has created music for films, dance, performance and video. (text by Ernesto Rodrigues)

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Ana Paula Russo

2010-01-03T17:09:00.002Z

As a soloist, soprano Ana Paula Russo has sung in many Lied and Oratorium concerts, as well as in Opera. Some of her outstanding works were for the Gulbenkian Foundation, RTP (Portuguese Radio and Television), Europalia-91 (in Brussels) and Lisbon 94 – capital of culture.In 1989, she represented Portugal in the “Cardiff Singer of the World” Competition. She took part in some important music festivals, such as Capuchos, Leiria, Estoril, Algarve, P. de Varzim, F. da Foz and the International Festival of Macao. In concert, she sang works as, for instance, “Das Buch der hängenden Gärten” (Schönberg), “Les Noces” (Stravinsky),”Les Illuminations” (Britten), Cantata op, 29 (Webern), works by A. Chagas Rosa, “Carmina Burana” (C. Orff), “Stabat Mater” (Rossini and Dvorak) and many others. The Opera and Scenic music have had a major importance in APRusso’s career. Among many others, we can point out roles as: Rosina (The Barber of Seville), Oscar (Un ballo in maschera), Marie (La fille du regiment), Ninette (The love of the three Oranges),Musetta (La Bohéme), Adele (Der Fledermaus), Clorinda (La Cenerentola), Ernesta (As Damas Trocadas), Hanna (The merry Widow), Najade (Ariadne auf Naxos), Cunegonde (Candide), Vespetta (Pimpinone), Eurydice (Orphé aux Enfers), Nightingale (The Nightingale by Stravinsky), Minette (The English Cat by H.W Henze), D.Anna (D. Giovanni). In April’98 she was one of the singers in the world premiere of the opera “Os Dias Levantados” by António Pinho Vargas – this work was recorded on cd by EMI. In 1998, Ana Paula was chosen to sing the female leading role in the opera “White Raven” (world premiere) by Philip Glass in the Expo’98 in Lisbon. This opera was also sung in Madrid (Teatro Real) and in New York (Lincoln Center/NY State Opera). In the 10th anniversary of Fernando Lopes Graça’s death (2004), she sang the soprano soloist part in the composer’s Requiem – this performance was released on cd in 2006. In 2008 she sang in the world premiere of “Evil Machines”, a musical fantasy by Terry Jones (Monthy Python), with music by Luis Tinoco. Together wih Carlos Gutkin (guitar player), she recorded a very successful cd with ibero-american music, “Melodia Sentimental”. In 2009, she sang the main soloist part in Marcos Portugal’s “Missa Grande”, recorded in cd.

(Text by Ana Paula Russo)

Miguel Graça Moura

2009-11-25T00:19:00.003Z

Born at Oporto (Portugal), conductor Miguel Graça Moura graduated in Piano and Composition at the Oporto National Conservatory of Music (both diplomas with the highest grade), where he became later teacher of Composition. At the same time, he graduated in Architecture. As a composer, he received international acclaim (some of his works have been played in various countries), had some pieces commissioned by international festivals like Strasburg and won first prize at Naples Festival 1986. He also worked as assistant of Portuguese minister of Education, leading the national commission that reformed the artistic education in Portugal. With the help of scholarships from Portuguese Government, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and French Government, he studied, in Strasbourg (France), Conducting with Jean-Sébastien Béreau and Musical Analysis with René Schmidt (graduating with “Premier Prix” in both courses). After he taught Orchestra, Orchestral Conducting and Chamber Music at Reims National Conservatory (France) and became assistant of his ex-teacher J.-S. Béreau. He was Musical Director of “Música Viva” Ensemble (1975 to 1980), Strasbourg University Orchestra (1982 to 1984), Grenoble University Symphony Orchestra (1984 to 1986), Portuguese Youth Orchestra (1986 to 1994), Chamber Orchestra “La Folia” (1987 to 1992) and Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra (1992 to 2003). He also founded and directed in Lisbon the four music schools related to LMO. He conducted almost all Portuguese professional orchestras and many others in the 34 countries (in Europe, America and Asia). He conducted famous soloists like Maria João Pires, Augustin Dumay and Tatiana Nikolaeva, among many others. He is member, since 2003, of the jury of “Prokofiev” International Competition for Conductors (S. Petersburg, Russia). Miguel Graça Moura has recorded over twenty CDs, published by Philips Classics, RCA Classics and EMI Classics, as conductor of various orchestras from Portugal and abroad. (from text by Miguel Graça Moura)

Fausto Neves

2009-10-07T04:13:00.005+01:00

Pianist Fausto Neves initiated his studies with his parents and from a very early age with Helena Costa, in Oporto. Through her, Robert Weisz (Canada - Quebec) and Harry Datyner (Switzerland - Geneve) he contacted the great pianistic tradition of Vianna da Motta, Edwin Fischer, Alfred Cortot, Marguerite Long and Dinu Lipatti. Graduated by the Oporto Conservatory (1977), he was awarded with the Virtuosity Prize of the Geneva Conservatory (1982) and invited to teach in this school. Fausto Neves began performing to a widespread audience very early, being frequently invited to play at most important musical events in Portugal, Switzerland, Italy, Brazil, Canada and France. He was soloist with several orchestras under conductors like Arpad Gerezs, Gunther Arglebe, Graça Moura, Álvaro Salazar, Kamen Goleminov, Fernando Eldoro, Marc Tardue, Ferreira Lobo, Philippo Zigante, Cesário Costa, António Lourenço or Pearce de Azevedo. He has often recorded for RDP or RTP (Portugal) and TV Cultura (Brazil). His large repertoire, embracing from baroque to contemporary periods, gives a special attention to Portuguese Music. He has performed first auditions by Lopes-Graça, Eduardo Patriarca, Amílcar Vasques Dias and Cândido Lima and has divulged in Portugal composers like Ramon Barce, Charles Griffes, Frank Martin or Karol Szymanowsky. He has collaborated with other soloists on various occasions namely violoncellist Gisela Neves (CD ”Alla Danza”) and pianist Pedro Burmester together with percussionists Miquel Bernat and Manuel Campos integrating a piano and percussion quartet. His pedagogic activity included teaching at the Geneva and Sion Music Conservatories (Switzerland), Oporto Conservatory and Superior School of Music. At present he is invited Professor in Aveiro University. Fausto Neves holds the first prize in the “Cidade da Covilhã” contest among others. He is regularly invited to integrate juries in national and international contests as well as masterclasses. (from text by Fausto Neves)

Nuno Dario

2009-09-16T18:08:00.003+01:00

Nuno Dario is an explorative composer; his aesthetical concerns are focused on blurring the boundaries between musical genres. He began his musical studies privately with Dulce Nagy. He then studied classical guitar with Piñeiro Nagy at Academia de Amadores de Musica, composition with Christopher Bochmann, piano with Alexei Eremine and conducting with Roberto Perez. From 1999 to 2003 and 2005/06 he got his first degree in Composition with distinction from Lisbon College of Music, where he worked with composers Sérgio Azevedo, Christopher Bochmann and Luís Tinoco. His professional activity spreads over several musical genres, writing music for film and television as well as for the Web. Many of his works have been performed in Portugal and abroad by MikroDuo (in Switzerland), Trio GrandOpus or Epabi Symphony Orchestra to name just a few. A special highlight to his most appreciated theatre works such as ‘Dracula’ or ‘Hamlet’ (music and sound design) for the Lisbon Players. Nuno also kept furthering his conducting studies with Ernst Schelle and Neil Thomson leading to a freelance conducting career. He was principal conductor at Gymnasium Opera Classical Orchestra, co-musical director of Ensemble JER and he performed at prestigious venues with orchestras such as Epabi and Esproarte Symphony, Tejo National and other contemporary music chamber ensembles. He taught Analysis and Techniques of Composition, Choir and Orchestra at several music conservatories and professional school of music in Portugal from 2001 to 2007. In 2008 he enrolled on his composition PhD program at Royal Holloway College in London under the supervision of British film composer Brian Lock; his thesis being focused on film music. Nuno was granted the PhD scholarship by the Foundation for Science and Technology, a department of the Portuguese Ministry of Science and High Education. (text by Nuno Dario)

http://ima.zkm.de/~pfl/ceT_5_8.mp4
http://ima.zkm.de/~pfl/tal.mp4

Paulo Ferreira Lopes

2009-08-24T18:48:00.006+01:00

Composer Paulo Ferreira Lopes studied composition with Constança Capdeville in Lisbon between 1988 and 1991. In 1994 he moved to Paris. Between 1995 and 1997 studied Composition in Paris with Emmanuel Nunes, Antoine Bonnet and Computer Music with Curtis Roads. In 1996 he received a Master in Composition at the University of Paris VIII under the advice of Horacio Vaggione. In 1996 further studies in composition with Karlheinz Stockhausen at the "Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik", Darmstadt. Also in 1996, distinguished as Researcher with a scholarship of the French Government by the "Ministere de la Recherche" at the "Departement d’Esthétique et Technologies des Arts" of University of Paris VIII. In 1997, composition-prize at the exhibition "Documenta X" in Kassel, Germany. Founder and Director (between 1992/95) of the Electronic Music Studio C.C.I.M. Founder and Director (2000) of the Summer Workshops - olhAres de Outono at Univesity Catholic Porto. Since 1998, artist in residence and researcher at ZKM - Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie - Karlsruhe Germany. Since 2002, member from the European Parlament of Culture. In 2004 he received the Doctor degree from the University of Paris VIII. Since June 2004, Director from the Research Centre for Science and Technology in Art CITAR and Professor at Portuguese Catholic University. Since 2007 invited Professor at Karlsruhe Music University - Music Informatic Departement. In 2004 his work was selected by the International Society for Contemporary Music to represent Portugal in the World Music Days 2004. Paulo Ferreira-Lopes works has been produced in international festivals - Musica Strasbourg, Música Viva, Estoril Summer Festival, documenta X - Essen, Biennal S. Paulo, ZKM-Karlsruhe, World Music Day’s, Gulbenkian Foundation, Expo 98 Portugal , through important ensembles of the contemporary artistic scnene as AccrocheNote, OrchestrUtopica , Ensemble Modern Frankfurt, etc..

(text by Paulo Ferreira Lopes)

Works:

Ana Irene Rodrigues

2009-08-05T15:51:00.004+01:00

Saxophonist Ana Irene Vasconcelos Rodrigues was born in 1986 in Puerto-Cabello, Venezuela. At the age of five years old, she went to live in Madeira island, Portugal. When she was eight years old she started to have piano lessons at the School of music and arts of Madeira (Conservatório-Escola Profissional das Artes da Madeira. Two years later she started also to play the saxophone, with Duarte Basílio at the same school, and later on she also started to play in the village fanfare (Banda Municipal de Machico). In 2000 Ana Irene entered the Professional Course of Music in the School of music of Madeira, where at 17 she finished her high school specialized in music. During this three years of education she had the chance to participate and play with several groups like wind orchestras, saxophone quartet, choir, big band, contemporary group. She also did several master-classes and courses with Jean-Ives Formeu and his saxophone quartet, Demetrio Mendez, The Coimbra Saxophone Quartet, João Figueiredo, Manuel Silva and Henk van Twillert, etc. During her studies besides many concerts in Madeira, Irene went to perform in Finland, Spain, England, Açores, etc. Since 2004, she studies at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, as a student of the class from Henk van Twillert. During these years, Irene has performed in many cities of Europe with saxophone ensemble, saxophone quartet, trio, duo and many other chamber music groups. After one year an a half of non-playing due to an injury on the left arm, she re-started playing and performing again in the summer of 2009. During the 1st Semester of the school year 2009/2010, she went to study at the conservatorio "Giuseppi Verdi" in Milano, Italia for four months in the saxophone class of Mario Marzi. Now, back to Amsterdam, Irene is at the 3rd year of her bachelour studies, in the saxophone class of Arno Bornkamp.

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Pedro Rodrigues

2009-08-05T15:45:00.004+01:00

Winner of Artist's International Auditions (New York), Sor Competition (Rome), Young Musicians Award (Lisbon) and prizewinner at Paris, Verona, Valencia, Montelimar, Sernancelhe among other competitions, guitarist Pedro Rodrigues started his musical studies at the age of 5 and the study of classical guitar at 9 with José Mesquita Lopes with whom he completed his course of study with highest honours and as recipient of the Gulbenkian Scholarship. Later, he continued his studies with Alberto Ponce at the École Normale de Musique de Paris, receiving the Diplome Supérieur de Concertiste de Guitare "a l'unanimité avec felicitations" and he has also taken master classes with Leo Brouwer, David Russell, Joaquin Clerch e Darko Petrinjiak. Pedro Rodrigues performed either as soloist, chamber music ensembles or orchestras (Gulbenkian, Filarmonia das Beiras, Algarve's among others) in Europe, America and Africa in prestigious halls like Carnegie's Weill Hall - New York, Salle Cortot - Paris, Ateneo - Madrid, Endler Hall - Cape Town, Centro Cultural de Belém - Lisbon, Gulbenkian Foundation - Lisbon, Casa da Música - Oporto and he is regularly invited to teach masterclasses in Europe and USA. Mr. Rodrigues recorded for RTP, RDP, RTM, SABC, WIPR Broadcasting Companies and for NUMÉRICA, JNS Music and Nuova Venezia recording labels.

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José Luís Ferreira

2009-08-05T14:11:00.004+01:00

Composer José Luís Ferreira (b. 1973, Lisbon) made his First Degree in composition at the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa, in 2001, where he studied with Christopher Bochmann, António de Sousa Dias and António Pinho Vargas. He attended several composition courses, workshops and seminars in Portugal with Emmanuel Nunes, Salvatore Sciarrino, Jean-Claude Risset, John Chowning, Per Anders Nilsson, Trevor Wishart e André Bartetski. Presently, he's doing a PhD Music research on Computer Music at Universidade Católica Portuguesa (UCP) in Oporto/ CITAR (Research Center For Science and Technology in Art). His music, for different kinds of instrumentation with or without electronics, has been performed by several portuguese musical ensembles (Remix Ensemble / Orchestrutópica / Sinfonietta de Lisboa / Ricercare / Saxofínia/ Machina Mundi). In 2001, he won the Festival Musica Viva's acusmatic composition contest with the piece “Le bruit d`une tête qui frappe contre les murs d`une très petite cellule”. He also works as a musical assistant (computer music) with several composers performers/ ensembles, namely: Francisco Monteiro, João Madureira, Luís Tinoco, José Júlio Lopes, Orchestrutópica, Orquestra Metropolitana and Machina Mundi. Since 2002, José Luís Ferreira has lectured several courses at the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa, Faculdade de Belas Artes and Escola Técnica de Imagem e Comunicação (ETIC).

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Cesário Costa

2009-03-28T04:35:00.006Z

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).

Teresa Valente Pereira

2009-03-21T02:57:00.004Z

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

2009-03-21T02:07:00.003Z

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

2009-03-18T21:42:00.005Z

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.

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

2009-03-18T21:24:00.006Z

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

2009-03-06T20:31:00.005Z

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

2009-03-06T20:24:00.003Z

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)

Jorge Croner de Vasconcellos

2009-03-06T20:16:00.005Z

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

2009-03-06T19:38:00.005Z

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

2009-03-06T19:27:00.004Z

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

2009-03-06T19:16:00.004Z

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

2009-03-06T18:51:00.003Z

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

2009-03-06T18:49:00.006Z

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

2009-03-06T03:23:00.008Z

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

2009-03-05T15:40:00.009Z

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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João Rafael

2009-03-04T17:43:00.004Z

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

2009-03-03T00:46:00.007Z

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

2009-03-01T01:13:00.005Z

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):

Martin André

2009-02-27T16:37:00.005Z

British conductor Martin André went to the Yehudi Menuhin School where he studied the piano. At Cambridge University he combined playing the piano with conducting. Now as a conductor he divides his time equally between the opera house and the concert platform. Concert appearances in the UK have included the Philharmonia, BBC Concert Orchestra, Northern Sinfonia and Royal Scottish National Orchestra, among others. Abroad he works regularly with orchestras in countries such as Holland, Norway, Israel, Australia and, in Portugal, Oporto National Orchestra and Remix Contemporary Ensemble. He made his opera debut conducting for Welsh National Opera, with whom he spent many seasons as a resident conductor. During this time he worked on a wide variety of operas, particularly 19th century Italian repertoire. He continues to work across a broad range of composers, although is particularly recognised for his interpretations of Verdi, Mozart and Janáček. He has the rare distinction of being the only conductor to have performed for all the major British opera companies. Internationally he has made numerous appearances in the opera houses of Canada, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Holland, Israel, New Zealand, Portugal, South Africa and the USA. In Portugal he performed the opening concert of Casa da Música in 2005 and in 2006 he created the Youth Orchestra of Portugal, which proved to be such a success and was renamed Momentum Perpetuum. Every year since then it has played the new year’s concert in Casa da Música and in July 2008 it has toured in Italy. He also conducted the Portuguese National Symphony Orchestra, playing works by Luís Tinoco, António Pinho Vargas and Joly Braga Santos on the opening concert of the “Música Portuguesa Hoje” festival in Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisbon. (adapted from text in Martin André’s website)

Edson Zampronha

2009-02-26T22:29:00.006Z

Edson Zampronha (Rio de Janeiro, 1963) is a Brazilian-Italian composer. He has received two awards from the São Paulo Association of Art Criticism, Brazil. In 2005 he won, together with SCIArts Group, the 6th Sergio Motta Award, the most outstanding prize on Art and Technology in Brazil, for the installation Poetic Attractor. He has received commissions from different groups and institutions, as from the Museum für Angewandte Kunst, in Köln (Germany) for the cultural activities during the Soccer World Cup 2006; from the designer María Lafuente for her catwalk show at the Pasarela Cibeles 2006 (Madrid, Spain), and from the São Paulo State Symphonic Band for the 100th Anniversary of Sao Paulo State Gallery in 2005 (São Paulo, Brazil). He has worked as a guest composer in different institutions as LIEM-CDMC (Madrid, Spain), Phonos Foundation (Barcelona, Spain), and the University of Birmingham (England). His compositions are included in two CDs fully dedicated to his works (CD Sensibile and CD Modelagens) and in other thirteen CDs released by different record labels and institutions. As a performer, he has presented himself as a pianist an electroacoustic performer, and has included works by Portuguese composers in his repertoire (as by João Pedro Oliveira). He is Researcher at the Valladolid University, Spain. He has a Ph.D. in Communication and Semiotics – Arts – by the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, and he has developed a Post-Doctorate research on Music at the University of Helsinki (Finland). He has a Master in Musical Composition by the Rio de Janeiro Federal University. He is the author of the book Notação, Representação e Composição (São Paulo: Annablume) and he is the editor, with Maria de Lourdes Sekeff, of the book series Arte e Cultura – Estudos Interdisciplinares – 4 volumes. (text by Edson Zampronha)

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Nuno Jacinto

2009-02-26T01:18:00.003Z

Composer Nuno Jacinto was born in Madeira and started his musical education at the age of 7 at the Conservatório de Música da Madeira, in Violin, Piano, Organ and Harp. In 2000 he specialized in Violin in Escola Profissional de Instrumento, which he finished with distinction (18 values). He won the 2nd violin prize on "Education Pedagogics" in Athens, Greece. In 2003, he applied to Escola Superior de Música e Artes do Espectáculo (ESMAE) at Oporto, where he took his degree in Composition, studying in the classes of João Madureira, Nuno Côrte Real, Dimitris Andrikopoulos, Clarence Barlow, Carlos Guedes and Klaas de Vries. Several of his most recent works have already been presented in Funchal, Oporto, Braga, Aveiro, Lisbon in festivals like “Sound Acoustics”- Zépellin2005 (Barcelona), “Technical Breakdown” (Copenhagen), Black&White Festival (Oporto) and “Corta”- International Festival of Short Movies of Oporto. In 2006, he was awarded with the Scolarship of Merit of IPP, in contribution to his exemplary academic carrier. In 2007, his piece for violin solo “Solo II” integrated as obligatory Portuguese contemporary work in Young Musicians Prize 2007 (Antena 2/RDP). In 2008, his piece for Orchestra “ArRestare” (1st version) was premiered by the Algarve Orchestra and conductor Cesário Costa, during the II Atelier de Leitura para Jovens Compositores. Presently, he is teacher of Music Analysis, Acoustics and Music Technology in Escola Profissional Artística do Vale do Ave (ARTAVE). (adapted from text by Nuno Jacinto)

Yemanjazz

2009-02-23T17:52:00.006Z

This adventure started in minor mode. Coltrane was the far away godfather that in the first instance put together some of the present musicians that later would create the group we here present: Yemanjazz. During 2004/2005 Pedro Castanheira conceived the project, creating original compositions and arrangings which resulted in a True Musical and Lyrical Creole of Cape Verdian Batucadas, Afro Cuban Mandinga, Brazilian Samba and Post Bop Horn Sections, with combined Italian, Cape Verdian Creole, Brazilian and French Lyrics. The variety of nationalities of the current formation further and continually enriches these Global Musical Vectorizations. In 2006, the group finds its form with the present musicians: guitar & piano & vocals & didgeridoo & flutes – Pedro Castanheira (PT); electric bass – Pietro Casella (PT/IT); double bass & percussion – Afonso Castanheira (PT); alto saxophone & percussion – Peter Bastiaan (NL); tenor saxophone – Francisco Andrade (PT/VN)); trumpet – Ricardo Pinto (PT); drums – Nuno Pessoa (PT); trumpet – Alexandre Andrade (PT/VN); trombone – Eduardo Lála; vibraphone, percussion & panela “sound system” – Ian Carlo Mendoza (MX). As the name suggests, there is a relation to the ocean’s motion and its inhabitants…Space is the place and that is where music plays its unifying role. The waves of the ocean connect the continents, as well as the sounds coming from these lands and that’s where Yemanjazz distils these influences in to its own painting and poetry. Yemanjazz profits from vernaculars of a variety of disciplines, some of them outside music like dance, poetry & performance. (text by Yemanjazz)

My space

João Paulo Henriques

2009-02-23T16:46:00.004Z

Guitarist João Paulo Henriques was born in 1984 in Madeira Island, Portugal. He started his musical studies at the age of 6 with his father, playing the cello for 6 years. At 12 he began to study classical guitar having has main teachers, Pedro Zamora and Daniel Marchán. In order to continue his studies, he moved to Lisbon where he was accepted in the class of the renowned Croatian player Dejan Ivanovic, receiving his Diploma in the year 2008 from the University of Évora. In Portugal he presented himself in several solo recitals as well in chamber music recitals with Flute, Guitar, Piano and Percussion. He has also played in other countries as Spain, Holland and Belgium. He attend several master classes with the some of the best players and teachers in the world, like, Carlo Marchione, Joaquín Clerch, Darko Petrinjak, Marco Socías, Michalis Kontaxakis, Carmen Mª Ros, Leo Brouwer, Costas Cotsiolis and Hubert Käppel. Currently he is doing his Master Degree in Maastricht Conservatorium under guidance of the world renowned player and teacher Carlo Marchione. In 2005 he was a finalist in the soloist category of the national youth competition “Prémio Jovens Músicos” sponsored by the Portuguese Radio (RDP). He was awarded the 3rd prize exequo in the International Guitar Competition “Guitarmania” 2007 and the 1st prize in the VI International Guitar Competition of Leiria 2009.

(text by João Paulo Henriques)

Nuno Miguel Henriques's "Uma pequena Viagem - Caminho do Imperador", by
João Paulo Henriques.

Mário Carreira

2009-02-23T00:36:00.005Z

Guitarist Mário Carreira (b. Lisbon, 1962) is a performer and teacher at the Oporto Music Conservatoire. His special areas of interest include chamber music and repertoire for voice and guitar. He studied at the National Conservatoire of Lisbon and at the University of Évora with Manuel Morais, a student of the late Emilio Pujol, and in Caen/France with Louis-Marie Feuillet at the Conservatoire National de Caen. He also studied with many early music specialists including: the late Macario Santiago Kastner, Hopkinson Smith and Anner Bylsma. He specialises in the romantic guitar, in which he has worked and been in contact with: the late Robert Spencer, Manuel Morais, Jakob Lindberg, Dr. Thomas Heck and Dr. Brian Jeffery. He is the founder of the D'Amore Ensemble. He’s also a collaborator of Tecla Editions and the author of many articles, including one available on www.hebeonline.com (Matiegka's sonata op.23). As a concert-guitarist he played in Portugal, France, Spain, Switzerland and New-Zealand. (text by Mário Carreira)

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João António Ribas's Sonata nº 1 (Andante sostenuto and Rondó-allegro non troppo), by Jorge Salgado Correia and Mário Carreira.

Sofia Sousa Rocha

2009-02-21T01:20:00.006Z

Composer Sofia Sousa Rocha was born in 1986, in Braga. She started studying piano at the age of seven, enrolling four years later at the Conservatório de Música Calouste Gulbenkian in Braga. She studied violin with Manuel António Sá. In 2001 she started her first Composition studies with Paulo Bastos at the Conservatory of Braga, where she also studied Electroacoustic. In 2004 she successfully applied to the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa (ESML) to complete a First Degree in Composition, graduating in 2008, with a mark of 18 (out of 20). She studied with some of the most well recognized Portuguese composers such as Christopher Bochmann, Luís Tinoco, Carlos Caires and Carlos Marecos, among others. She studied singing with Sandra Medeiros between 2005 and 2008. Currently she is studying with Susana Teixeira. As a student at ESML Sofia Sousa Rocha co-organized various events, including the concerts "Peças Frescas" (Student Composers' Concerts), promoting the youngest Portuguese musicians and composers. She also co-directed the IV and V Music Festivals of the ESML in the S. Luiz Theater. Recent activities include the composition of new pieces commissioned from the Young Musicians Prize, promoted by Antena 2 – Portuguese Radio Broadcast and Alcobaça Music Festival. She has also participated in the II Reading Panel of Algarve Orchestra with “Papagaio sem penas” (2008). Subsequently this piece was selected for the season 08/09. She is currently teaching musical analysis and composition at the Escola de Música do Orfeão de Leiria / Conservatório de Artes. (text by Sofia Sousa Rocha)

Sofia Sousa Rocha's "Homenagem a Berio" (electronics) (2nd Renaissance of Portuguese Composition project on You Tube):

Nicholas McNair

2009-02-20T15:32:00.003Z

Pianist Nicholas McNair, resident in Portugal since 1980, likes to see all his musical activity, composing, performing, preparation, editing, improvising or teaching, as part of a single whole. Head chorister of Canterbury Cathedral at the age of 12, he later studied at Cambridge University and the Royal College of Music. In London he wrote a series of commissioned chamber and choral works supported by the Arts Council of Great Britain, the RVW Trust and other private foundations. The British Council sponsored a concert of his works in Queluz Palace, Portugal in May 1991, and commissioned a cantata “Magnificat” in 1992. He worked with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, researching and preparing for performance the principal operas of Mozart and Beethoven, all recorded by Deutsche Grammophon-Archiv. His editions also include the operas Antigono by Antonio Mazzoni (Lisbon October 1755) and La Notte Critica by Niccolò Piccinni (Lisbon 1767). A teacher at the Escola Superior de Música in Lisbon, he works frequently with the Gulbenkian Choir and Orchestra as organist and pianist. He has collaborated as editor, repetiteur or composer, with stage directors and composers such as Robert Wilson and Philip Glass (Lisbon, Madrid, New York), Carina Reich and Bogdan Szyber (Lisbon, Stockholm), Terry Jones and Luís Tinoco (Lisbon), António Pinho Vargas, Luís Bragança Gil, Tim Carroll, Paulo Matos, André Gago etc. He has created live music for 150 silent films, appearing also in the Cannes Festival of 1995 and at the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., in 1997. He gave a recital of improvisation at the 1st Mafra Festival (1997), and the first of his 8 CDs, “Classical Improvisations”, was released by Eroica in 1998. His improvisations (live and in transcription) have been used in performances with poets and actors such as André Gago, and in concerts of his works (e.g. Mãe d’Água, Lisboa March 2003). (text by Nicholas McNair)

Miguel Henriques

2009-02-15T23:59:00.011Z

Miguel Henriques has devoted his attention to major works of the pianistic repertoire. His recital programmes include pieces from different styles and periods from Bach to Beethoven, Chopin, Janácek, Schubert, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Scriabine, Shostakovitch, Messiaen, Schnittke, Lopes-Graça and António Pinho Vargas. From these two well celebrated Portuguese composers are also his last recordings on CD. Born in the city of Porto (Portugal), graduated at the Lisbon and Porto Conservatories and at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, Miguel Henriques took his master's degree at the University of Kansas in the United States. Complementary fields of professional activity in Musicology, Aesthetics, Composition, Conducting, Dramatic Expression, and Piano Methodology. Professor of piano at the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa, Miguel Henriques is regularly invited to teach in masterclasses in Portugal and abroad. (text by Miguel Henriques)

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Discography

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

Daniel Moreira

2009-02-15T23:10:00.005Z

Born in Porto, 1983, composer Daniel Moreira began his music studies in 1994. At the Porto Music Conservatory, he studied guitar with Artur Caldeira and composition with João-Heitor Rigaud. In 2006 he graduated from Faculdade de Economia do Porto with a B.A. in Economics, for which he was awarded the Banco de Portugal Prize for best student of Economics in 2006. He studies at Escola Superior de Música e das Artes do Espectáculo – ESMAE, Porto - since 2006, where he has studied composition with Dimitris Andrikopoulos and Fernando Lapa, and electronic music with Carlos Guedes. Also at ESMAE, he received lessons from Klaas de Vries, Magnus Lindberg and Jonathan Harvey (these last two in cooperation with Casa da Música). He is currently attending the Master´s Degree in Composition and Music Theory. In 2007, two of his pieces have been selected for reading sessions at Casa da Música: Magma, for an ensemble of 15 instrumentalists (Remix Ensemble, conductor: Rolf Gupta) and a preliminary version of the String Quartet (Diotima Quartet). He has received an award at Gian Battista Viotti International Music Competition 2007 in Vercelli, Italy (3rd prize for Noctis Lumina, for viola solo) and an Honorable Mention at Póvoa de Varzim Internacional Composition Competition 2008 (O Escuro Silêncio da Chuva, for female voice and ensemble). In 2009, he is young composer-in-residence at Casa da Música. Several works will be commissioned, two of which for the resident ensembles (Oporto National Orchestra, Remix Ensemble). He is a chorister at Coral de Letras da Universidade do Porto since 2004. (adapted from text by Daniel Moreira)

Fernando Miguel Jalôto

2009-02-15T21:52:00.007Z

Harpsichordist and Organist Fernando Miguel Jalôto graduated at the Royal Conservatory, The Hague - Early Music and Historical Performance Practice Department - as Bachelor of Music in 2002 and as Master of Music at 2005. His main Harpsichord teacher was Jacques Ogg and he attended Master-Classes with Gustav Leonhardt, Ketil Haugsand, Laurence Cummings and Ilton Wjuniski. He also studied Baroque Organ, Clavichord and Early Music Theory, Interpretation and Performance Practice. He’s Master of Music at the Art and Communication Department from the University of Aveiro (Portugal). As a student, Miguel participated in Baroque Orchestra projects with Jaap ter Linden, Elizabeth Wallfish, Ton Koopman, Christina Pluhar, Ryo Terakado and Roy Goodman. He was a member of the Académie Baroque Européenne de Ambronay and participated in MUSICA Masterclasses (Belgium). Since 2005 he’s the regular harpsichord player at the Lisbon-based Baroque Orchestra Divino Sospiro, under the direction of Enrico Onofri, with which he often performs at some very important venues in Portugal and abroad. As basso continuo player, he performed in the "Folle Journée" in Tokyo and in Lisbon. Already twice soloist with Casa da Música Baroque Orchestra (Oporto), he plays regularly with this orchestra. He recorded a CD with works by Antonio Soler, with Lyra Baroque Orchestra, for the Spanish label Glossa; he also recorded for Armide (France). He collaborates with modern chamber orchestras like Camerata Academica Salzburg and Sinfónica de Galicia. Founder and Artistic Director of the Early Music group Ludovice Ensemble, he gives regularly solo and chamber music recitals, covering a large range of repertoire. He’s currently Harpsichord and Basso Continuo guest teacher in Évora's University and Harpsichord accompanist at Oporto's Music Conservatory. (adapted from text by Miguel Jalôto)

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Hugo Ribeiro

2009-02-13T14:42:00.007Z

Composer Hugo Ribeiro was born in Lisbon in 1983 and began his musical studies with Vera Belozorovitch (piano) and Carlos Marecos (Composition Techniques and Analysis), concluding his Piano Secondary Course in 2005. He finished his composition degree in 2005 at the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa where he studied with Luís Tinoco, António Pinho Vargas and Christopher Bochmann, amongst others. In 2007 he obtained his Mmus degree in composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London where he studied with Simon Bainbridge and Paul Patterson. In 2004 he has frequented the summer composition courses in Darmstadt where he worked with Bryan Ferneyhough, Georg Friedrich Haas, Toshio Hosokawa and Tadeusz Wielecki. Also in 2004 he attended an Orchestral Conducting Course directed by the conductor Jean Sébastien Béreau. In 2004, 2006 and 2007 he was selected for the Gulbenkian Workshop for Portuguese Young Composers, where his pieces Message-Homage, Impromptu and In memoriam were premiered by the Gulbenkian Orchestra conducted by Guillaume Bourgogne. From other public presentations of his music one can highlight the premiere of Echoes for 15 instruments at the Foyer of the Queen Elisabeth Hall (London) performed by soloist from the London Sinfonietta and Royal Academy of Music, conducted by Christopher Austin; and the premiere of Letter for Kundera for 14 players at the Spitalfields Festival (London) performed by the Manson Ensemble conducted by Baldur Brönnimann. He was distinguished with the 1st Prize in the 2nd International Composition Competition Póvoa de Varzim “Orchestra Category” (2007) and won the national competition Opera in Creation 2008 at the S. Luiz Theatre in Lisbon (Portugal). He’s currently preparing his PhD at the Canterbury Christ Church University (where he works with Prof. Paul Max Edlin and Prof. Paul Patterson, as supervisor) and working in the score of Os Mortos Viajam de Metro, an opera in Portuguese with libretto by Armando Nascimento Rosa. (text by Hugo Ribeiro)

Hugo Ribeiro's "rust coloured landscape", by Tadashi Imai (piano) and the Royal Academy of Music Composers Orchestra, cond. Christopher Austin (2nd Renaissance of Portuguese Composition project on You Tube):

Luís Rodrigues

2009-02-12T03:08:00.004Z

Photo: Alfredo Rocha

Baritone Luís Rodrigues studied in Lisbon at Conservatório Nacional with José Carlos Xavier and at Escola Superior de Música with Helena Pina Manique. In his country he won the “Luísa Todi” Singing Contest and the RDP-Young Musicians Award (with pianist David Santos), and abroad the 2nd prize at the Concours Festival de la Mélodie Française de Saint-Chamond (France, 1996) and the 1st prize ex-aequo at the PoulencPlus Competition ( New York, 1999 ). He’s regularly invited to S. Carlos Opera Theatre in Lisbon, where he performed roles such as Shaunard, Masetto, Count Robinson, Harlekin, Ping, Figaro, Guglielmo and Marcello. He sang Marcello and Germont at Oporto´s Coliseo and took part in productions of Hänsel und Gretel, Die Zauberflöte, Cosi fan Tutte, Cunning Little Vixen, L’Elisir d’Amore, D. Giovanni, Tosca, Carmen and Il barbiere di Siviglia throughout his country. Under João Paulo Santos direction he sang in Sweeney Todd, Albert Herring, The English Cat and Neues vom Tage. His interpretation of Semicúpio in “Guerras do Alecrim e Mangerona” won him the Portuguese press award for classical musicians Prémio Bordalo - Casa da Imprensa . He performed in many occasions with Gulbenkian Foundation Orchestra and Chorus, singing Oratorio with Michel Corboz and Opera in concert versions with Lawrence Foster. His concert performances also include “Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen” and “Poème de l’amour et de la mer” with Portuguese Symphonic Orchestra and “Kindertotenlieder” with National Orchestra of Oporto. He recorded Suppé’s Requiem with Gulbenkian Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Michel Corboz (Virgin Classics) and Schubert’s Winterreise with David Santos (AboutMusic). (adapted from text by Luís Rodrigues)

João Godinho

2009-02-11T21:32:00.007Z

Composer João Godinho was born in Lisbon, 1976, and took music and piano lessons from the age of six to seventeen. The option of studying music composition was preceded by a degree in Business Administration. He graduated in composition in 2006 at the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa, having studied with Sérgio Azevedo, João Madureira, Christopher Bochmann, Luís Tinoco, Carlos Fernandes and José Luís Ferreira. His music interests are not restrained to classical and contemporary music. Jazz, ethnic, world, brazilian and latin music; pop, electronic and recent trends; music for film, theatre and dance; they all have a strong influence in his activity as a musician. As a self-taught student, he dedicates a special attention to improvisation, having also studied with Nicholas McNair, and to jazz, having studied at the Hot Clube de Portugal jazz school. Together with Alexandra Ávila, he founded the Lisbon Jazz Summer School, whose first edition took place in July 2005 at the Centro Cultural de Belém. His professional debut was in 2006 with the premiere of Kaminari – Ballet Music for choreographer César Moniz’s new ballet company, followed by a premiere of De Queda em Queda, a piece for piano and string quartet, commissioned by OrchestrUtópica. In 2007 he was commissioned a piece for marimba solo, by Antena2/ Young Musicians Competition. In 2008 he premiered “O Marionetista”, for alto saxophone and string quartet, comissioned by OrchestrUtópica and Festival de Música do Estoril. In the same year, he wrote fado arrangements for orchestra (and a version for small ensemble), for fado singer Joana Amendoeira. Apart from his music studies, he maintains several professional activities connected to the music field. Since September 2008 he has been working as a musical adviser for the programming of Centro Cultural de Belém in Lisbon. (adapted from text by João Godinho)

João Godinho's "De Queda em Queda", by Elsa Silva (piano), José Pereira and Jorge Maggiorani (violins), Jano Lisboa (viola) (2nd Renaissance of Portuguese Composition project on You Tube):

ka'mi

2009-02-09T16:57:00.008Z

Composer [ka’mi] was born in Lisbon, in 1973. He studied guitar and graduated in Musicology in 2001 by the UNL-FCSH (under Mário Vieira de Carvalho, Rui Vieira Nery, Salwa Castelo-Branco, Manuel Carlos de Brito, Luísa Cymbron and Tomás Henriques, among others), then studied Composition at the ESML (Christopher Bochmann, António Pinho Vargas, Luís Tinoco, João Madureira, Roberto Perez and Sérgio Azevedo, among others). He attended the Summer Courses in Darmstadt in 2004 (Brian Ferneyhough, Georg Friedrich Haas, Toshio Hosokawa, Chaya Czernowin, Enno Poppe and Wolfgang Mitterer). In 2005 he attended the Composition Seminars with Emmanuel Nunes at the Gulbenkian Foundation. In 2006, the work for ensemble O Berio is presented in the “Música Viva” Festival in Lisbon. Selected for the 3rd, 5th and 6th Gulbenkian Orchestra Workshop for Young Composers with the works Fragment for Ensemble, Glosa (in memoriam) for Orchestra and Peça para Eça for Orchestra, conducted by Guillaume Bourgogne and Joana Carneiro. After graduating in Composition, he pursued his studies in Composition with a post-graduate course with Gerd Kühr and Pierluigi Billone at KUG in Graz, Austria. He was selected for the 1st Atelier for young Composers with Algarve Orchestra in 2007 with the work Oito Minutos para Orquestra, conducted by Cesário Costa. He attended the IMPULS 2007 seminars in Graz, supervised by Beat Furrer, Enno Poppe and the ensemble KlangforumWien, and was invited to be part of the official Portuguese section for the Festival ISCM - World Music Days 2008, in Lithuania. He was selected for the Festival “Steirischer Herbst” in co-production with “Musikprotokoll”- ORF. In 2008, the work Rastos de uma Resposta for trumpet was commissioned by Antena 2/RTP for the Young Musicians Award 2008. He’s currently producing his Doctorate thesis with Prof. Reinhard Kapp at MDW in Vienna, Austria, on the subject of Microtonality. (adapted from text by ka'mi).

MIC page

ka'mi's "Jenseits des klanges", by the Ensemble für Neue Musik KUG, cond. Edo Micic (2nd Renaissance of Portuguese Composition project on You Tube:

Luísa Tender

2009-02-09T00:21:00.005Z

Pianist Luísa Tender was born in Porto, Portugal, in 1977. She had her first piano lessons at the age of four. After graduating from Escola Superior de Música in Porto as a pupil of Pedro Burmester, she continued her musical studies with Vitaly Margulis in Los Angeles and Irina Zaritskaya at the Royal College of Music in London. She was awarded the degree of Master of Music in Performance Studies from the Royal College of Music in 2002. She undertook further piano study with Artur Pizarro in Brighton in 2003, and in 2004 she was awarded the Diplôme Superieur d’Exécution from the École Normale de Musique in Paris, as a student of Marian Rybicki. In recent years, she has given solo and chamber music recitals in most of the main Portuguese concert halls and international music festivals, together with performances in Spain, Holland, Italy, Cyprus and Brazil. She has recorded solo and chamber works by Scarlatti, Brahms, Prokofiev and Berg for the Portuguese national broadcast. A recent review of her all-Schubert recital in Matosinhos in 2003 referred to her playing as ‘very moving, whilst never losing attention to details’, whilst her Sintra International Festival recital in 2004 was praised for its ‘lovely freshness’. She’s been the recipient of a scholarship from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and a study support grant from the Royal College of Music. She is currently a professor of music at Escola Superior de Artes Aplicadas (ESART) in Castelo Branco, where she teaches Music Analysis and Chamber Music. (adapted from text by Luísa Tender)

Madalena Soveral

2009-02-04T18:39:00.011Z

Madalena Soveral was born in Porto, where she studied music, first under mother guidance, Hélia Soveral, later under Reine Gianoli, Marian Rybicki and Claude Helffer. In 1966 she was awarded the “900 Musicale Europeo” prize, in Naples (Italy). Madalena Soveral has given regular concerts since 1990, both solo and with orchestra, as well as various forms of chamber music festivals of Naples, Santiago de Compostela, Sceaux, Festival de Montpellier-Radio France, Mantova (Italy), The UNESCO Twentieth Century Music Festival (Paris), Música Nova (Brasil), The 1st Lisbon Festival of Contemporary Musics (Lisbon, T.N.S.C.), to name but a few. During her career, she has focused on a 20th century repertoire working with a variety of composers and performers. She has performed the world premiere of numerous pieces, including those written especially for her: Estudos de Sonoridades (Filipe Pires), Interrogations (Miguel Graça Moura), Dominos (Sharon Kanach), In Tempore, for piano and electronic (João Pedro Oliveira), and Episode, for two pianos and two percussions (Francis Bayer). Coordenator Professor at the Escola Superior de Música e das Artes do Espectáculo do Porto, she’s been working in the last hears on a research project on 20th Century Portuguese Piano Music, at the University of Paris 8. Étude Analytique des Litanies du feu et de la mer d’Emmanuel Nunes, carried out between 1997-99, is the first part of that work. In 2005 she completed the Doctorat in Music with the teses Quatre compositeurs, Quatre oeuvres: la musique portugaise pour piano des années 90, about the piano’s compositions by António Pinho Vargas, Filipe Pires, João Pedro Oliveira and João Rafael. Since 2006 she joined the research Center CESEM of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa. (adapted from text by Madalena Soveral)

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

MIC page

Drumming

2009-01-26T03:24:00.006Z

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

2009-01-26T03:03:00.007Z

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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Ludovice Ensemble

2009-01-26T02:49:00.006Z

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)

blog (with audio recordings)

Rui Penha

2009-01-26T02:37:00.005Z

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

2009-01-26T02:22:00.005Z

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

2009-01-26T02:06:00.008Z

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

2009-01-26T01:16:00.002Z

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)

website

Daniel Schvetz

2009-01-26T01:05:00.005Z

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)

Blog (with audio recordings)

Artur Pizarro

2009-01-19T02:27:00.002Z

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)

Bruno Borralhinho

2009-01-18T22:15:00.005Z

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)

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

Pedro M. Rocha

2009-01-18T21:57:00.005Z

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)

Website

Remix Ensemble

2009-01-17T03:04:00.005Z

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

2009-01-17T02:55:00.003Z

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

2009-01-17T02:34:00.007Z

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)

Blog

Paulo Raposo

2009-01-17T01:35:00.008Z

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)

Discography/ downloads

Carlos "Zíngaro"

2009-01-17T01:20:00.005Z

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)

Granular Association

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

Pedro Faria Gomes

2009-01-17T00:16:00.002Z

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

2009-01-15T02:33:00.007Z

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)

Rafael Toral

2009-01-15T02:19:00.008Z

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)

Quarteto Arabesco

2009-01-15T01:51:00.005Z

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)

Catarina Molder

2009-01-14T03:49:00.007Z

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

2009-01-14T03:36:00.009Z

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

Gonçalo Lourenço's My Space page

Vá-de-Viró

2009-01-14T03:30:00.007Z

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

2009-01-14T02:58:00.006Z

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)

Vítor Rua

2009-01-14T02:32:00.007Z

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

2009-01-13T02:11:00.006Z

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

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

Pedro Rebelo

2009-01-13T00:19:00.007Z

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

2009-01-12T23:42:00.009Z

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

2009-01-12T22:14:00.017Z

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:

Ana Seara

2009-01-12T02:12:00.011Z

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

2009-01-12T00:43:00.007Z

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

2009-01-11T19:56:00.010Z

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)

Fernando Guimarães

2009-01-11T18:34:00.010Z

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

2009-01-07T21:17:00.019Z

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