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)
Showing posts with label Alexandre Rey Colaço. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alexandre Rey Colaço. Show all posts
2009/03/06
Jorge Croner de Vasconcellos
Son of the violinist Alexandre Bettencourt and pianist and teacher Laura Croner, and grandson of clarinettist Rafael José Croner, composer Jorge Croner de Vasconcellos initially attended the Lisbon Faculty of Arts. A student of the National Conservatory since 1927, he eventually decided to exclusively follow a musical career. Alexandre Rey Colaço, António Eduardo da Costa Ferreira and Luís de Freitas Branco were some of his teachers. He also worked with conductor and composer Francisco de Lacerda. With a scholarship granted by the National Education Junta, he attended, in Paris the École Normale de Musique, courses directed by Paul Dukas, Nadia Boulanger, Igor Stravinsky and Alfred Cortot. When he returned to Portugal in 1938, he became responsible for the subject of Music History at the Music Amateurs Academy. A year later he performed at a concert with singer Arminda Correia and achieved recognition for his recitals in Paris, London and Brussels. After 1939, he became a teacher of Composition, Singing and Music History at Lisbon's National Conservatory. Already in the 1960s he also participated as a teacher in the Estoril Summer Courses. Although his work is not all that vast, the composer left a considerable number of singing pieces, many of which composed from texts of classic Portuguese poets. As far as chamber music is concerned, one should particularly mention the piano repertoire and the arrangements for pieces by Carlos Seixas. Croner de Vasconcellos also explored symphonic music, namely by composing pieces for the National Information Secretariat during the 1940s and the 1950s. He died in Lisboa in 1974. (adapted from text in PMIC)
Armando José Fernandes
Armando José Fernandes was born in Lisbon, 1906. He took a degree in Engineering before having decided in 1924 to dedicate himself to music, an art form he had felt attracted to from an early age. He started his studies in 1927 at Lisbon's National Conservatory. Alexandre Rey Colaço and Lourenço Varela Cid (piano), Luís de Freitas Branco (Music Sciences) and António Eduardo da Costa Ferreira (Composition) were among his teachers. He finished the course in 1931 and was awarded the first prize in piano and also the Rodrigo da Fonseca Award. Between 1934 and 1937, with the sponsorship of the National Education Council, he developed his piano and composition studies in Paris with Alfred Cortot, Nadia Boulanger, Paul Dukas and Igor Stravinsky. Between 1940 and 1942, he taught Piano and Composition at the Music Amateurs Academy. From 1942 on he worked exclusively as a composer for the Musical Studies Department of the National Radio Broadcast Company. In 1953 he joined Lisbon's National Conservatory as a Composition teacher. He honourably retired from this position on his 70th birthday. Although his lineage, harmonically chromatic in the colours and formally neo-classic in spirit, denounces a cosmopolitan character, permeable both to the sensitivity of someone like Fauré as well as to the constructivism of someone like Hindemith, it also displays a certain kind of Portuguese inspiration, thanks to the likely search for motivation in Portuguese popular themes. He received the composition awards Moreira de Sá (Porto, Orpheon Portuense, 1944) and Círculo de Cultura Musical (Lisbon, 1946). He died in Lisbon in 1983. (photo and text from PMIC - Based on the biography included in the Catálogo Geral da Música Portuguesae, organized by Humberto d'Ávila).
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