José Corvelo

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

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)

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

Francisco Monteiro

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").

Nuno Dario

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)

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José Luís Ferreira

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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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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List of works

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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):

João Rafael

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

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):

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):

João Godinho

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

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).

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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:

Sérgio Azevedo

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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Other pages:

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

Pedro M. Rocha

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)

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Luís Cardoso

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)

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

Catarina Molder

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":

Ana Telles

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

Ana Seara

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):