Joana Carneiro

Joana Carneiro has attracted considerable attention as one of the most outstanding young conductors working today. She currently serves as Assistant Conductor with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, working closely with Esa-Pekka Salonen, and official guest conductor of the Gulbenkian Orchestra. As a finalist of the prestigious 2002 Maazel-Vilar Conductor’s Competition at Carnegie Hall, she was recognized by the jury for demonstrating a level of potential that holds great promise for her future career. Since then, her profile has grown quickly both in the US and Europe and recent engagements include performances with the Gulbenkian Orchestra, her debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, the New World Symphony, the Algarve Orchestra, the Mancini Institute Orchestra, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. She served as assistant conductor to Esa-Pekka Salonen at the Paris Opera’s premiere of Adriana Mater by Kaija Saariaho. She has also conducted the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Toledo Symphony Orchestra, the Macau Chamber Orchestra and Beijing Orchestra at the International Musica Festival of Macau, the Portuguese National Symphony Orchestra and the Beiras Philharmonic Orchestra. In the 2007-08 season, she made her debut with the Chicago Opera Theater as Assistant Conductor for their production of A Flowering Tree. In 2004, she was decorated by the President of the Portuguese Republic, Mr. Jorge Sampaio, with the Commendation of the Order of the Infante Dom Henrique. (taken and adapted from Joana Carneiro’s webpage)

António Pinho Vargas

António Pinho Vargas was born in 1951, in Vila Nova de Gaia near Oporto. He graduated in History and has the final degree in Piano by the Oporto Conservatory. With a scholarship from the Foundation Calouste Gulbenkian, he studied three years with the composer Klaas de Vries at the Rotterdam Conservatory, having majored in Composition in 1990. He was decorated by the President of the Portuguese Republic with the commend Order of the Infante D.Henrique, in 1995. He attended composition courses, workshops and seminars in Portugal with Emmanuel Nunes; in the Netherlands with John Cage and Louis Andriessen; in Hungary with Gyorgy Ligeti and in Italy with Franco Donatoni. He begun to play jazz in 1974 with musicians such as Kenny Wheeler, Steve Potts, Paolo Fresu, Arild Andersen, Jon Christensen and Adam Rudolph.. In 2008 he returned to his performance activity and edited a solo piano double CD Solo. Since his years in Holland, António Pinho Vargas composes mainly contemporary music, having reached a proeminent place in the Portuguese music scenario. He had his works performed in France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Poland, Hungary, Sweden, Spain, Brasil, United Kingdom and USA. His body or works includes compositions for ensemble and solo instruments, for orchestra, for choir and orchestra and operas. (text taken from António Pinho Vargas' website)

Available discography

António Pinho Vargas' "Nocturno Diurno", by the Chamber Orchestra Kremlinmisha Rachlevsky, cond. Misha Rachlevsky:

Pedro Carneiro

photo by Didier Lelièvre

Pedro Carneiro is one of the very few percussion players to have made an international career as a soloist, and has established himself as one of the world's foremost solo percussionists, performing regularly throughout Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and the USA. Now at the age of 32, Carneiro has commissioned and performed the world première of over 80 works by leading composers worldwide and appears regularly with a wide range of acclaimed musicians, including the Arditti and Tokyo Quartets, Christian Lindberg and Steve Reich. Carneiro appears regularly as a soloist/director, conducting from the marimba keyboard – he is the chief conductor of the Portuguese Chamber Orchestra, the “Orchestra in Residence” at the Centro Cultural de Bélem, Lisbon. As an instrumentalist, Pedro is a frequent guest soloist with numerous orchestras, such as the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, London Mozart Players, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, working with conductors such as Petri Sakari, John Neschling, Ronald Zollman, Gerard Schwarz, Kaspar de Roo, Olari Elts, Andrew Parrott, Juanjo Mena, José Ramón Encinar, John Storgards, Joseph Swensen and Marc Taddei amongst others. (written by Teresa Simas – complete biography to be found in Pedro Carneiro’s website)

Eurico Carrapatoso's "Suite d'Aquém e d'Além Mar ", 1st movement, by Pedro Carneiro conducting from the marimba keyboard the Orquestra de Câmara de Cascais e Oeiras:

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.

Discography

Fernando Lopes-Graça

One of the most proeminent Portuguese composers of the 20th century (b. 1906-d. 1994). He studied composition at the National Conservatoire, in Lisbon, and atended José Viana da Mota's piano virtuosity class. In his first opus, "Variations on a Portuguese Popular Theme", written in 1929, he already shows an interest that will last and grow throughout his work: that on Portuguese traditional music. After a period in Paris, where he studied composition and orchestration with Koechlin, in the late thirties, his return to Portugal brings him to an intense activity as a composer, choir director, pianist, musicologist, critic, essaist, translator, in spite and because of being outcast and forbidden to teach by the dictatorship regime. In the 40s and 50s, he won several composition competitions, founded a concert society and a music magazine. In 1949, he entered the jury at the Béla Bártok International Competition, in Budapest. Together with ethnomusicologist Michel Giacometti, he traveled throughout the country recording work songs, which he later harmonized. His body of work includes many regional songs and others (such as the "Heroic Songs") aimed to be sung by amateur choirs, but also orchestral works, chamber and piano music. He was comissioned a piece by Mstislav Rostropovich, to whom he wrote the "Concerto da Cammera col Violoncello Obbligato". Other major opuses are his "Sinfonia per Orchestra", the two piano concertos, "Requiem for the Victims of Fascism in Portugal", "Song of Love and Death", six piano sonatas, 24 Preludes, "In Memoriam Béla Bártok".

Discography

Fernando Lopes-Graça's Piano Quartet (1st movement), by Francisco Monteiro and members of the Lyra Quartet:

Guilhermina Suggia

A unique name in music history. Guilhermina Suggia (b. 27th June 1885 - d. 30th July 1950) took the world by storm when, still a youngster, was invited to play, as a soloist, in many ot the most important concert halls throughout Europe, where she thrilled everyone with her perfect technique and overwhelming, enticing style. She was one of the first women cellists to work as a soloist and had works dedicated to her by several composers. For a few years, until 1913, she lived in Paris, with companion and former teacher Pablo Casals, and they were considered the best cello players of the day. After they split up, she moved to London, where she was cherished as a performer and settled while developping her highly praised international career. Moving back to Portugal, in the late 1920s, she kept on touring and tutoring and formed a new generation of young cellists who later passed on her teachings to their own pupils. She worked with some of the greatest Portuguese musicians of her time, namely pianist and composer José Viana da Mota, conductor Pedro de Freitas Branco and violinist Bernardo Moreira de Sá. On her will, Guilhermina Suggia left her Stardivarius to the Royal Academy of Music, in London, and her Montagnana to the Conservatoire in Oporto, with the purpose of creating a fund, both in the UK and Portugal, to help young cello students. Check out Suggia's blog (mostly in Portuguese) for a lot of information and photos, as well as for a complete bibliography (including several books and articles in English).

http://suggia.weblog.com.pt/

Available CD

Suggia plays Max Bruch's "Kol Nidrei"

Introduction

Little is known about Portuguese classical music in other countries - and, unfortunately, inside Portugal as well. Yet, from early times until the present, there have been, and are, composers who produced a unique body of work and performers of the highest artistry. This blog will gradually include information, photos, lists of available works and, whenever possible, links to recordings excerpts - a taste of great Portuguese music, mostly, but not exclusively, classical . Please pop in regularly to check for new discoveries!