The work Faz-me um vibrato! Uma ópera bué de fixe para coro contemporâneo (2018) by Vítor Rua, composer published by the MIC.PT, will be premiered on February 2 at the Club Setubalense by the Setúbal Voz Choir during a concert, whose programme also includes pieces by Jorge Salgueiro (artistic director of the Setúbal Voz Choir), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Philip Glass, Luís Carvalho, John Taverner, Eric Whitcare and Meredith Monk. Also this month - on February 3 at the Theatro Circo in Braga and February 23 at the Culturgest in Lisbon in the context of the Rescaldo Festival - Vítor Rua & The Metaphysical Angels will perform the material from the group's new album Do androids dream of Electric Guitars?, released in 2017 by the Clean Feed Records.

The premiere of the music theatre Bartolomeu, o voador (2018) by Jaime Reis will take place on February 11 at the Municipal House of Culture in Seia (Portugal), in the context of the DME Festival. The concert will feature the performance of the students at the Music Conservatoire of Seia. This month the new music theatre by this composer published by the MIC.PT will be also performed in the framework of the Aveiro_Síntese 2018 Festival, on February 25 (the Aveirense Theatre), by the students at the Art School of the Calouste Gulbenkian Conservatoire in Aveiro. The other events of the February DME Festival - with the participation of Jaime Reis, Antez, Colectivo Ó, Christophe Desjardins and Trio Basalto - will be taking place between February 11 and 18. Additionally, this month Jaime Reis, together with Mariana Vieira, will be lecturer at the Meeting on Research in Music, Art and Design organized by the ESART in Castelo Branco (February 22-24).

Portuguese Music for Accordion is a concert on February 7 at the Trinidade Theatre in Lisbon, organized in the framework of the Folefest 2018, whose programme includes two works by composers published by the MIC.PT: the world premiere of Anagnóstis (2014) by Daniel Schvetz, performed by the accordionist Fernando Brites; and O medo do rítmo branco (2006) by Carlos Marecos, performed by the (Des)Concertante Trio. The programme of this concerts, which will be broadcast by the Antena 2, also includes works by: Gerson Batista (Os suspiros de Dédalo, world premiere, performed by Pedro Santos), Hugo Vasco Reis (Metamorphosis and Resonances, world premiere, performed by Paulo Jorge Ferreira), and Paulo Jorge Ferreira, Folefest’s artistic director (In extremis performed All Libitum Trio). The Folefest is an important event for accordion music in Portugal - every year it includes the participation of acclaimed musicians from the world over. The Festival is organized by the Folefest Association, which together with the INATEl Foundation also promotes the 2nd edition of the Accordion Composition Award, dedicated to composers residing in Portugal (Portuguese and foreign). The deadline for works’ submission is April 27.

For the second half of the month (until February 25) the Arte no Tempo association has prepared various events at the Aveiresne Theatre organized in the framework of the Aveiro_Síntese 2018 . Biennale of Electroacoustic Music, including: concerts (with premiere performances and revisitations of work by great classics), informal conversations, a project of communitarian creation, workshops and a colloquium on the resources within electroacoustic music creation, among others. In the construction of the event’s programme the organizers aimed at putting side by side historical repertoire and new creations, as well as music by foreign and Portuguese authors, including various composers published by the MIC.PT: Clotilde Rosa (1930-2017; with premiere performance of this composer’s work written last summer for the Aveiro_Síntese), Paulo Ferreira-Lopes, António Chagas Rosa, Luís Antunes Pena, Ângela Lopes, Rui Dias, Jaime Reis, Carlos Caires; and also Pedro Bento, Diogo Novo Carvalho, Tiago Lestre, Virgílio Melo, among many other Portuguese contemporary composers. The 3rd Aveiro_Síntese will also celebrate the 50th years of the FM synthesis discovery by John Chowning - who together with Daniel Teruggi will be one of the Biennale’s guests - and the 70th anniversary of Pierre Shaeffer’s first concrete music studies. This is an ideal moment not only to reflect on the two currents of electroacoustic music creation - computer music and concrete music; but also to pay tribute to the two recently disappeared figures: Jean-Claude Risset (1938-2016) and Pierre Henry (1927-2017).

Works by two composers published by the MIC.PT will be presented in the context of the Sound Told Fairy Tales concerts - on February 20 and 21 at the O’culto da Ajuda in Lisbon - for the pupils of the Colégio Moderno of Lisbon. The works are: Nuno e os Monstros (2008) with music by Isabel Soveral and story by Ágata Mandillo; and Uma mesa é uma mesa.... Será? (2008) with music by José Luís Ferreira and story by Isabel Minhós Martins. This programme also includes three other works: O Pastorinho e a Flauta (2011) with music by Carlos Guedes, based on a traditional story from the Douro region, collected by Alexandre Parafita; Plop! (2006) with music by Isabel Pires, based on a traditional Tibetan story adapted by Ana Mandillo; and A Velha e o Ladrão (2006) with music by Sérgio Pelágio and story by António Torrado. Sound Told Fairy Tales is a Miso Music Portugal’s project for children with concept and sound diffusion realized by Paula Azguime, artistic direction and computer assistance by Miguel Azguime, technology provided by the Miso Studio; as well as with Ana Baptista and Francisco Sales as narrators.

In February the MIC.PT portal launches a new Composer’s Page dedicated to João F. Ferreira, who was born in 1985 in Castelo Branco (Portugal). João F. Ferreira graduated from Composition at the ESMAE in Porto, where he also did his Master’s Degree in Compositor and Music Theory with Dimitris Andrikopoulos and Eugénio Amorim. He also attended Master Classes with Jonathan Harvey, Kaija Saariaho, Marko Ciciliani and Pascal Dusapin, among others, having been admitted to the ENOA Project at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, where he worked with Luca Francesconi, and where his work Wolf_Gang (2012) for soprano, baritone and orchestra was premiered. João F. Ferreira’s catalogue of works includes pieces for solo instruments and chamber music (with or without electronics), orchestral music, electroacoustic pieces and installations. Among his works one should highlight: Dominó (2011) for orchestra, performed during an open score reading by the Porto Symphony Orchestra Casa da Música; Unwanted (2010/12) for voice and ensemble premiered by the Lisbon Contemporary Music Group; and Hunga Mate (2011) for ensemble, four voices, didgeridoo and electronics, premiered by the Ensemble I&D. His work False Entropy (2012) for bass clarinet and electronics was released on Frederic Cardoso’s CD Press the Keys. João F. Ferreira currently teaches Music Composition at the Conservatoire of Music in Porto and at Artâmega Marco de Canaveses Art Academy.

With the aim to promote and encourage contemporary music creation and to spread the work of young composers, the Portuguese Author’s Society (SPA) and the RTP/Antena 2 (Portuguese Public Radio) organize the 7th edition of the SPA/Antena 2 Composition Award. It is directed to Portuguese citizens and foreign composers residing in Portugal for more than four years, born on January 1, 1983 and later. The submitted compositions must not be published in any way, that is, they must not have any previous public performances and recordings, as well as any previous comercial score editions; they also must not be awarded at any other competition until the closing date of the Young Musicians’ Festival, on September 29, 2018). The organizers of the SPA/Antena 2 Competition reserve the right to execute the world premiere of the winning work. The submissions should be sent through registered mail until July 9, 2018 (date of reception).

In order to encourage the creation and diffusion of new electroacoustic works, the Miso Music Portugal promotes the 19th International Competition of Electroacoustic Composition Música Viva 2018. The deadline for the works’ submission is February 28, 2018; the winning work will be announced during the Música Viva 2018 Festival, which will be taking place at O’culto da Ajuda in Lisbon (May, 2018). The works submitted for the Música Viva 2018 Competition should include a maximum of eight channels and should have a duration between 5 and 15 minutes. This initiative is directed to composers of all nationalities and ages, each of whom may submit only one work, which has not been commercially published or awarded at any other national or international competition. The International Competition of Electroacoustic Composition Música Viva was launched by the Miso Music Portugal in 2000.