Portugal XXI is a concert on January 23 at Casa da Música in Porto, whose programme is composed of works by four Portuguese composers, in order to pay tribute to the activities carried out by the Matosinhos Municipality for the sake of Portuguese culture. The repertoire of this event will thus include two pieces by composers published by the MIC.PT: Antinous (1994) for orchestra and string quartet by António Chagas Rosa, performed on this occasion and for the first time in Porto by the Matosinhos String Quartet; and Transmutations pour orchestre – la bibliothèque en feu (2012) by Pedro Amaral where the composer pays tribute to Bruckner, Wagner and Richard Strauss. The concert, Portugal XXI, opening with the premiere of a new work by Vasco Mendonça, and followed by Díptico by Luís Tinoco, includes the participation of Mei Yi Foo (piano) and of the Porto Symphony Orchestra Casa da Música under the baton of Pablo Rus Broseta.

Six Portraits of Pain (2005), version for solo cello and orchestra, and Estudos e Interlúdios (2000) for six percussionists, two works by António Pinho Vargas, composer published by the MIC.PT, will be presented, respectively, on January 16 and 17 at the Auditorium of the Lisbon College of Music (ESML), and on January 16 at the Cultural Center of Belém in Lisbon (CCB). “A comission by Casa da Música (...), this is the work of pain that has become constitutive of the artist's melancholy”, writes Augusto M. Seabra about Six Portraits of Pain. The work will be interpreted on this occasion by Marco Pereira (cello) and the ESML Orchestra conducted by Vasco Mendonça. The presentation of Estudos e Interlúdios, a work that explores the rhythm as pulse and duration, will be carried out by the ensemble Percussões da Metropolitana (Metropolitan Orchestra Percussions), within a concert that includes works by Steve Reich and Thierry de Mey.

Three composers published by the MIC.PT, Rui Dias, Filipe Lopes and Rui Penha, participate in the Phonopticon project produced by the Sonoscopia (Porto), association and platform for creation, production and promotion of projects focused on music and sound research and its interdisciplinary crossings with other arts. The project will be inaugurated on January 7 at the GNRATION in Braga. Phonopticon is a sonic model inspired in the Panopticon, a building designed by Jeremy Bentham in the 18th century, where a control central tower has a 360 degrees vision on the cells of the prisoners. Here, the ideas of control and power implicit in the Panopticon are replaced by sound representations, free and abstract in its essence, that find different meanings within the listening processes of every listener. Phonopticon is thus a concert exploring new expressive and performative ways in the areas of composition, performance and spatialization, gathering new acoustic and electronic musical instruments.

s122015 for piano with ebows, melodica and field recordings is the new work by Tiago Cutileiro, which was premiered by Joana Gama (and Tiago Cutileiro) on December 29 at the Municipal Art House/Conservatory of Music in Seia, in the context of the DME Festival . Electroacoustic Music Days. s122015 (the title changes according to the place and time of collecting the recordings used in the performance) “is, in a way, a sound and tonal portrait of a space and time that is specifically chosen and conceptually confined - in this case Seia in the final of 2015; [simultaneously, it is] a challenge for an interpretative anti-virtuosity”, reveals this composer published by the MIC.PT in the programme note of the work commissioned by the DME Festival. The 24th edition of this event in the Serra da Estrela region (Seia and Gouveia), and the 42nd of all the festival’s editions, was taking place at the end of 2015, between December 27 and 30. Its programme included conferences, workshops as well as concerts with pieces by various composers published by the MIC.PT: Rui Penha, Eduardo Luís Patriarca, Ângela da Ponte, Miguel Azguime and Helder Gonçalves, among others.

The Festival Dias de Música Electroacústica (DME) will have its 25th edition on January 9 and 10, at the Teatro Cine Gouveia. The programme includes two concerts with the presentation of works by Portuguese composers, including gv122015, a new piece by Tiago Cutileiro for piano with ebows, melodica and field recordings. The version presented on January 9 will be performed byJoana Gama, a pianist that has dedicated a great part of her activity to the music of the 20th and 21st centuries. The work gv122015 was created with sounds recorded in the city of Gouveia by the composer Tiago Cutileiro, resident artist at the Festival DME during the first week of January 2016. On January 10 the DME Festival's programme comprises works by several artists within a concert dedicated to videomusic, including creations by João Pedro Oliveira, composer published by the MIC.PT. The DME Festival has artistic and executive direction of Jaime Reis. It takes place several times in different locations each year. DME is promoted by Associação de Fomento do Ensino Artístico (AFEA)/Collegium Musicum - Conservatório de Música de Seia.

This January Jaime Reis joins the composers published by the MIC.PT. The MIC.PT on-line Score Catalogue includes already one of his works, Calmodulin Synthesis (2002), for 5 percussionists. Born in 1983, Jaime Reis studied composition and electronic music with Isabel Soveral and João Pedro Oliveira at the Aveiro University. He attended seminars and summer courses with Emmanuel Nunes and Karlheinz Stockhausen. He is working on a doctoral thesis in Musicology at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa. He has composed several works of chamber and orchestral music, and many electroacoustic pieces. Besides his work as a composer, he is also artistic director of the Electroacoustic Music Days festival (DME). He collaborates with the INET-MD (Etnomusicology Institute of Universidade Nova de Lisboa) and has worked in the pedagogical direction of the Conservatório de Música de Seia. He was resident composer at the LEC (Lab for Electroacoustic Creation) of the Miso Music Portugal in 2006/07. His music has been presented in Portugal in several events like Festival Música Viva and Festival de Música de Aveiro, and also in Poland, Turkey, France, Austria, Belgium. Jaime Reis has received commissions for works from ensembles and institutions like Lisbon Contemporary Music Group, Grupo Síntese, Duo Contracello, Borealis Ensemble, UFT/INATEL, Festival Primavera, Logos Foundation (Bélgica), F.L.S.I. (Paris), among others.

The work 'Aphâr (2007) for electronics and video by João Pedro Oliveira, composer published by the MIC.PT, was distinguished with the Award of Merit at the IndieFEST Global Film Award (California, the USA), whose objective is to promote independent artists and unique voices to a worldwide audience. ‘Aphâr is a Hebrew word that means “dust”. This piece is inspired in the dream of Jacob, described in the Old Testament. “To climb Jacob’s ladder is a very difficult process. Every step one takes is harder and harder, taking more and more time and effort to accomplish. The steps are heavy, and the dust from one’s feet is spread around, until it finally disappears. If one reaches the top of the ladder, everything else is gone, a door closes to the rest of the world, and in this moment one achieves the infinity” (João Pedro Oliveira).

The piece Três Prelúdios sobre o Mar (1997) by Carlos Marecos, composer published by the MIC.PT, is integrated in the repertoire of the SATIE.150 recital, which the pianist Joana Gama will give on January 7 at 7h00 p.m. at the Luís de Freitas Branco Hall of the Cultural Centre of Belém. SATIE.150 marks the 150th anniversary of Erik Satie. At the recital the pieces by this French composer are interlaced with works by composers who share with him the taste for deformalization of music, although obtaining distinct results; they are: John Cage, Arvo Pärt, John Adams, Alexander Scriabin and Carlos Marecos, whose Três Prelúdios… were commissioned by the ACARTE service of the Gulbenkian Foundation. With its premiere at the CCB in Lisbon, during 2016 Joana Gama’s recital SATIE.150 will be heard once every month in 12 locations.

Audivi Vocem, a new work by António Chagas Rosa, was premiered on December 16, at Centro Cultural Conde Duque, in Madrid. This composition for chamber orchestra was commissioned by the Orquestra XXI and having been included in the XIII Mostra Portuguesa. The title Audivi Vocem originates from a motet of the Portuguese renaissance composer Duarte Lobo. Chagas Rosa, composer published by the MIC.pt, explained that “In the case of Audivi Vocem (…) I extracted from the texts what made more sense to me (“I heard celestial voices”) and I removed from the original score a harmonic series, which I then worked in my piece adapting it to my own construction needs” (fragment of the composer's interview conducted by Diana Ferreira, in artenotempo.pt).

Do Desenho e do Som #5 for euphonium, vibraphone, electronics and live graphic score is the work by Filipe Lopes, composer published by the MIC.PT, which was premiered on December 5 by the Frater Duo (euphonium and vibraphone) and Ricardo Antão (live graphic score), in the context of the APTE 2015 Festival, organized by the Portuguese Association of Tubas and Euphoniums at the Music School of the National Conservatory in Lisbon. Additionally, “the Pesca Sonora (Sound Fishery) project took its first dive in the sea, under the code name Prelúdio Submarino (Submarine Prelude)”, on December 16 at the Augusto Gomes Secondary School in Matosinhos (ESAG). This was the first presentation integrated in the project Grande Pesca Sonora, coordinated by the OMJ/LabJázzica, which Filipe Lopes is developing together with Joana Moraes, Pedro Cardoso, Maria Mónica, with the students and professors of the ESAG, as well as with the Association of Retired Fishermen and the João de Deus School Garden (Matosinhos).

Bruno Gabirro, Duas Invenções para tecla (2009)

Bruno Gabirro, eine kleine (2009)

Bruno Gabirro, O Tempo (2006)

Bruno Gabirro, Os Elementos (2009)

Bruno Gabirro, ... .. (2014)

Cândido Lima, A-MÈR-ES (1979)