Paulo Jorge Ferreira

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

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Quarteto Lopes-Graça

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

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Olga Prats

Born in 1938, pianist Olga Prats built a distinguished career for herself, in which Portuguese composers, traditional music and chamber music have always played major roles. She graduated at the National Conservatoire in Lisbon, under Abreu Motta, and followed further studies in Köln and Freiburg (namely with Gaspar Cassadó and Sándor Vegh), where she won the prize for Best Foreign Student, in 1959. On her return to Portugal, she studied with Helena Sá e Costa and in 1965 won the Luís Costa Prize for Best Spanish Music Performer. She attended the Estoril Summer Courses with Jean Françaix, Karl Engel, Paul Tortelier and Ludwig Streicher and has played with a great number of orchestras, such as the Pommersfelden Festival Chamber Orchestra, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Buenos Aires Symphony Orchestra and Oporto Orchestra. Her wide repertoire ranges from Bach to Xenakis, including Schumann, Brahms e Stravinsky, and comprises Portuguese contemporary composers. She premiered and recorded several works by Fernando Lopes-Graça, Constança Capdeville, António Victorino d’Almeida, some of which were dedicated to her, and, among the new generations, Sérgio Azevedo and Sara Claro. She was the first Portuguese performer to play and record Astor Piazzolla’s music. She’s a founding member of Opus Ensemble, the prestigious and internationally acclaimed Portuguese ensemble. As a teacher, she tutored at the National Conservatoire and Lisbon Superior School of Music.

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