Carlos Marecos

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.

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Carlos Marecos' opera "Outro Fim", by Margarida Marecos (soprano), Guilherme Filipe (actor), cond. Humberto Castanheira (2nd Renaissance of Portuguese Composition project on You Tube):

Sofia Sousa Rocha

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):

Hugo Ribeiro

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):