This month the MIC.PT In Focus section is dedicated to David Miguel, composer and professor at the Artistic School of the Conservatoire of Music in Coimbra. Together with Sara Carvalho he's also organiser of the ENCAPE 2019 – National Meeting on Composition and Musical Analysis: Educational Perspectives, taking place on June 26 and 27 at the Conservatoire of Music in Coimbra.
David Miguel holds a degree in Music (Composition) from the ESMAE School in Porto and he completed his Master's in Music Education at the University of Aveiro. He has participated in masterclasses, workshops and training courses with Clarence Barlow, Magnus Lindberg, Jonathan Harvey, Bruce Pennycook, Tim Steiner, Sam Mason, Paul Griffiths, Klaus Trumpf, Fernando Flores and Olga Prats. He was a collaborator of the Educative Service at the Casa da Música and a member of the Digitópia project. David Miguel's research project focuses on questioning in music teaching. His compositions include works for choir, chamber ensembles, orchestra, collaborations for theatre, installations and arrangements.
This May visit the MIC.PT In Focus section, where we premiere a new MIC.PT Interview to David Miguel. It's a unique opportunity to get to know better the work of this composer published by the MIC.PT – his musical roots, influences, aesthetic choices and ideas on / for Portuguese contemporary music.

Peaceful Meeting​ (2016) for cello and double bass is the piece by Clotilde Rosa (1930-2017), which will be performed by the CoPeCo Collective on May 3 in the framework of the World New Music Days 2019. This time the ISCM Festival is organised in Estonia with the theme Through the Forest of Songs. Also this month, on May 15, the Artistic School of the National Conservatoire (CN) organises a concert at the O'culto da Ajuda in Lisbon, dedicated to the music by this composer published by the MIC.PT. Clotilde é uma Rosa (Clotilde is a Rose) is a performance coordinated by Jorge Sá Machado, with the participation of the CN students from the classes of: Anne Kaasa, João Pereira Coutinho, Ana Castanhito, Rui Martins, Salvador Parola and Ricardo Mateus. The event marks the composer's 89th anniversary, which she would have celebrated on May 11. "I have this feature, which is very mine – I'm both romantic and lyrical. There are a lot of people who tell me that when they listen to my music, they can instantly recognise that it's «mine». I've never betrayed the contemporary language, but I've reinvented it in my own way" – told the MIC.PT Clotilde Rosa in October 2017.

Remembering the future​ (2019) four countertenor, soprano, clarinet, viola and double bass, with text by Tane Steven, is a new work by Daniel Davis. Its first performance will take place on May 23 at the Wigmore Hall in London, during the concert in the framework of the Voiceworks project. It's organised by the Guildhall School of Music & Drama where this composer published by the MIC.PT is realising the Doctorate in Composition. The work will be performed by: Nils Wanderer (countertenor), Sophie Sparrow (soprano), Edward Holmes (clarinet), Michiel Wittink (viola) and João Lucas (double bass). Voiceworks is an annual collaborative project organised to create new works with voice by means of workshops and exchange between young composers, poets, writers, singers and performers. The new pieces are then performed in the renowned Wigmore Hall. "During the process os sketching the work the idea of combining the whole collaborative project with visual art emerged" – reveals Daniel Davis. Thus the creation of an image for the score cover, inspired in the music and text, has been commissioned to the French visual artist Jérémie Queyras.

In the first half of May João Castro Pinto – composer published by the MIC.PT – is continuing his tour around Eastern Europe. In this sense, the fourth concert of the tournée will take place in the context of the Helikoosolek performance series, on May 1 in Tartu (Estonia). On this occasion João Castro Pinto will also make a presentation summing up his work as composer. The concert finalising his tour is integrated in the World Music Days 2019. Obsidia – of the Invisible Sounds or of the Audible Images (2017) is the title of the acousmatic work, which the composer will spatialise in concert on May 5 at the Estonian Public Broadcasting Studios in Tallinn. "One of the connotations of the term obsidiar (to obsess) is the idea of obsessive pursuit, of insistent focus. This idea of insistence is musically employed in the sense of the exploration of sonic aspects that, throughout the piece, are heard – reveals João Castro Pinto in the programme note.

This month the music by Hugo Vasco Reis will be performed on various occasions. The piece Some Lines Mixing a Color (commission by the Síntese – Contemporary Music Group) will be premiered on May 3 at the Municipal Theatre of Guarda, and performed on May 4 and 5 at the Music Conservatoire of Viseu and the Contemporary Culture Centre, Castelo Branco. The piece Micro Images for Guitar (2017) will be performed on the Azores (May 3) and in Fafe (May 14) by Luís Miguel Leite. The work Metamorphosis and Resonances for Harp Solo will be presented by Liis Viira, in Tallinn (Estonia), on May 4 at the World Music Days 2019. And in the end of the month, on May 26, Paulo Jorge Ferreira will perform Metamorpho-sis and Resonances for Accordion Solo during the Música Viva 2019 at the O'culto da Ajuda in Lisbon. The same piece by this composer published by the MIC.PT has also been selected for the Risuonanze Festival in Udine (Italy), to be performed by Ghenadie Rotari in June.

João Pedro Oliveira is member of jury at the two international competitions dedicated to electro-acoustic music creation – Iannis Xenakis International Electronic Music Competition (Greece) and MA/IN – MAtera INtermedia (Italy). In May the music by this composer published by the MIC.PT will be presented in the context of various events. On May 16 the electroacoustic piece Hydatos (2008) will be performed at the event Radio Open · Spaced Out Radio in Padua (Italy). On May 25 the piece Maelström (2006) for cimbalom and electronics will be presented in the context of the Mühlenbecker Klanglandschaften concert series (Berlin, Germany). The video-music Storms (2018) has been selected for the Psychedelic Film and Music Festival in New York, starting on May 17. And the video-music Tesseract (2017) has been selected for the VIS Vienna Shorts 2019 Festival in Austria (May 28 – June 2), having also been nominated for the ASIFA Austria Award and the European Film Awards in the Animation Avant Garde section. The same piece is also included in the programme of the Visible Bits, Audible Bytes Festival in Leicester in the UK (May 31).

Lume de Chão (2003-04), is the cycle for piano solo by Amílcar Vasques-Dias – composer published by the MIC.PT –, included on the new CD by the pianist Joana Gama. It is released under the Grand Piano Record label (Naxos Group). Being result of a research work developed in the context of the pianist's Doctorate, this CD entitled Travels in my Homeland also includes the homonymous cycle for solo piano by Fernando Lopes-Graça – Viagens na Minha Terra (1953-54). The release of the CD will be accompanied by the premiere of two new scores with the piano cycles, edited in collabo-ration with the MPMP – Patrimonial Movement for Portuguese Music. The release events will be taking place between May 10-13 in Braga, Lisbon, Monte Estoril and Évora. They will include the participation of Teresa Cascudo, Amílcar Vasques-Dias, and Joana Gama at the piano. In May Joana Gama will also give two concerts with the music by Amílcar Vasques-Dias, Fernando Lopes-Graça, João Godinho, Marco Franco and Vítor Rua: at the Pianola Museum, Amsterdam (May 24) and at the Q.art-Festival – Ruïnekerk in Bergen in the Netherlands (May 25).

Fluxus, Transitional Flow​ (2013) for viola and electronics is the piece by Jaime Reis, making part of the concert programme by the Ensemble Modern viola performer Aïda-Carmen Soanea. The events will take place on May 10 and 11 at the Music College of Lisbon and the Mechanic Music Museum in Pinhal Novo. The repertoire of these performances also includes other three pieces by the composers published by the MIC.PT: Christopher Bochmann, João Madureira and João Pedro Oliveira. "My work belongs to the Fluxus cycle, whose pieces are in-spired in elements of physics and where I develop musical elements related with certain phenomenons in fluid me-chanics" – says Jaime Reis. Still this month, the work A Om-nisciência é um Colectivo – Parte IV by this composer published by the MIC.PT will be performed at the concert Em Louvor da Água (In Praise of Water), on May 17 at the Mãe d´Água das Amoreiras Reservoir in Lisbon. And on May 30, in the context of the Música Viva 2019 Festival at the O'culto da Ajuda in Lisbon, Clara Saleiro (flute) and Ángel Faraldo (electronics) will perform the piece Fluxus, Dimensionless Sound (B) (2016).

Bucolicae (2019), for four hand piano, violin and cello, is a new work by Paulo Bastos. It will be premiered on May 12 in Dijon (France), in the context of the Le Printemps de l’Europe Festival, by the musicians: Yseult Jost e Domingos Costa (piano), Anne Mercier (violin) and Sébastien Paul (cello). This work, commissioned by the Le Printemps de l’Europe Festival, "is a cycle of six nostalgic pieces" – revelas Paulo Bastos. And he continues: "the narrative is created upon the musical memories, which I keep in my ears since childhood. They are sounds from my ideal, merged between a bucolic village of Serra do Alvão, and the musical themes from the Trás-os-Montes province in Portugal". This month the music by this composer published by the MIC.PT will be also performed on two other occasions: by the Kla-Vier Duo, on May 7 in the context of the 13th Síntese – Contemporary Music Cycle of Guarda (the piece Adsum [2004] for four hand piano); and on May 24, by the Jost Costa Duo, in the framework of the Kulturraum Die Flora in Gelsenkirchen, Germany (the recently composed piece – Sou já do que fui [2019] for four hand piano).

Construções na areia (2018) for four hand piano is a new work by Helder Gonçalves – composer published by the MIC.PT –, which was premiered in the second half of April at the Calouste Gulbenkian Music Conservatoire. The concert was organised on the occasion of the release by the AvA Musical Editions of new score volumes with Portuguese repertoire for pianists – 4 Hand Piano and Pieces of the Left Hand (coordination / selection by Bruno Belthoise and João Pedro M. Santos). This event, with the participation of 40 young Portuguese and French pianists, will repeat on May 17 at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Paris.
"The piece Construções na areia was composed after the Summer holidays. For somebody who lives in Portugal's interior, going to the beach is always something special. The obtained sonorities have been inspired by playing with children, by the naughtiness of the sea and particularly of the sand" – says Helder Gonçalves.

Storyboard (2003) is the title of the work for four hand piano by Fernando C. Lapa, included in the programme of the concert by the Kla-Vier Duo, taking place at the Municipal Theatre in Guarda on May 7, in the context of the 13th Síntese – Contemporary Music Cycle. This month the same piece by this composer published by the MIC.PT will be also presented on May 17 at the Gulbenkian Foundation in Paris, at a concert organised on the occasion of the release by the AvA Musical Editions of new volumes with Portuguese repertoire for pianists – 4 Hand Piano and Pieces of the Left Hand (coordination by Bruno Belthoise & João Pedro M. Santos). And at the end of the month – on May 31 at the Carlos Alberto Theatre in Porto, within the project Coisas que não há que há by the Teatro do Frio, with the participation of Portuguese com-posers – the Coro Lira, conducted by Raquel Couto, will perform Fernando C. Lapa's work: Canção dos adultos (poem by Manuel António Pina), for voices, violin & piano.

Various works by Ricardo Matosinhos – composer published by the MIC.PT – are indicated as obligatory pieces at the 1st Com-petition of the APTE – Portuguese Tuba & Euphonium Association. The pieces are: Quatro peças op. 76b and Low Horn Suite No. 1 in the Children Category; Low Horn Suite No. 2 in the Youth Category; Siegfried & Fafnir in the Junior Category. The Competition, destined at the Association's members, will be taking place in May and June. It will be carried out on-line, by means of video recordings on the YouTube platform (private session). The aim of the Competition is, above all, the development and dissemination of the performance technique on the instruments, to which the APTE is dedicated – tuba and euphonium. The organisers also intend to give to the associates new opportunities to present their work.

The registration for the Intensive Course of Electroacoustic Composition and Spatialisation, taking place between July 22 and 26 at the O'culto da Ajuda in Lisbon, is open until June 30. It will be conducted by the three composers published by the MIC.PT: António Ferreira, António de Sousa Dias and Miguel Azguime. At this course the participants can benefit from the broad experience of the tutors, aesthetic pluralism and the logistics / technology available at the O'culto da Ajuda, with its Loudspeaker Orchestra composed of 40 elements. This instrument for sonic diffusion gives the course's students excellent conditions for musical and compositional practice. A max-imum number of 12 participants will be admitted for the course, which in its final will have a concert presenting the works developed by the students.

A Light at the End of the Tunnel is the title of the 25th edition of the Música Viva Festival, which will be taking place between May 24 and June 1 at the O’culto da Ajuda in Lisbon. The organisers, form the Cultural Association Miso Music Portugal, emphasise that: “the MV 2019 are eight days of intense activity, including courses and double concerts (16 Meetings in total). The MV 2019 aims at affirming the music creation of our time, when the Art needs to persist on being free, resisting the hegemonic quantification and valorising the qualification of the human intelligence and sensitivity”. As in the previous editions the MV 2019 distinguishes itself by the presence in the programme of the music by various Portuguese contemporary composers, many of them published by the MIC.PT: António Chagas Rosa (Cicuta), António Ferreira (premiere of the piece Amok), Cândido Lima (premiere of the piece Ode ao Tejo – regresso de um piano de guerra), Carlos Caires (premiere of a new piece), Christopher Bochmann (premiere of the piece From Head to Toe, among others), Eduardo Luís Patriarca (premiere of the piece Broken – José Luís Ferreira In memoriam), Hugo Vasco Reis, Jaime Reis, João Madureira, Miguel Azguime (premiere of the piece D’un horizon tendu, among others) and Pedro M. Rocha (premiere of the piece 2 Vislumbres da Ascensão). Within the MV 2019 one should also highlight two Meetings (2nd and 4th) dedicated to the work of Álvaro Salazar and the 14th Meeting entitled Infinito Azul (Endless Blue), during which the pianist Ana Telles will premiere various pieces in memory of the composer published by the MIC.PT José Luís Ferreira (1973-2018). As in the previous years the Música Viva will also include the participation of various renowned performers: Clara Saleiro (flute), Tágide Duo, Kwartludium, Paulo Jorge Ferreira (accordion) & Stretto Duo, Pedro Neves (musical direction) and the Sond'Ar-te Electric Ensemble, among others.

Inaugurated in April, the 13th Síntese – Contemporary Music Cycle of Guarda continues in May and June with performances and other events dedicated to new music creation and focusing on the music by Portuguese contemporary composers. In this sense, on May 3, 4 and 5 (Guarda, Viseu and Castelo Branco) the Síntese – Contemporary Music Group will premiere four new works; three of them have been composed by the composers published by the MIC.PT: Ângela Lopes (Dargua – de Poemas Helénicos), Hugo Vasco Reis (Some Lines Mixing a Color) and Pedro Rebelo (Ambos); and also a piece by Edward Luiz Ayres d'Abreu (Duas Mulheres). Then, the 13th Síntese Cycle will come back to Guarda where the Kla-Vier Duo (Patrícia Ventura and Sónia Amaral) will present a programme of works for four hand piano, including the music by the three composers published by the MIC.PT: Sofia Sousa Rocha (Por um dia igual), Paulo Bastos (Adsum) and Fernando C. Lapa​ (Storyboard). The Cycle has also invited to Portugal various foreign performers, including the Italian MIDI Ensemble and Dimitri Bokolishvili form Georgia. On May 10 and 11 (Castelo Branco and Guarda) this clarinetist will give a recital whose programme includes the piece Paradox I by Eduardo Luís Patriarca (composer published by the MIC.PT). Still this month, on May 19 at the Municipal Theatre of Guarda, the Cycle will host the 3rd National Competition of Contemporary Performance, dedicated to students of professional artistic schools. The 13th Síntese Cycle will have its final in the beginning of June (days 1 and 2), at the Síntese – GMC headquarters in Aldeia do Bispo. There, in the context of the performance entitled Vanguarda na Aldeia (Avant Garde in the Village), Sara Carvalho (composer published by the MIC.PT) will premiere her new work with the participation of the habitants of Aldeia do Bispo.

Amílcar Vasques-Dias (AVDias0015)
A-MARIS (2017) · piano and tape (or solo piano)

Hugo Vasco Reis (HVReis0009)
O horizonte de uma borboleta (2014) · flute, violin & piano

Miguel Azguime (MA0024)
Yuan Zhi Yuan (1998) · soprano, tenor, six traditional Chinese instruments, chamber choir and electronics

Through the Forest of Songs is the title of the World Music Days 2019 Festival by the ISCM – International Society for Contemporary Music, co-organised by the Estonian Composers' Union. It'll be taking place between May 2 and 10 in Tallinn and Tartu in Estonia. As in the Festival's previous editions, one of the objectives of the World Music Days 2019 is to present a repertoire “reflecting contemporary music in as rich and extensive spectrum, as possible”. This year the Portuguese representation at the World Music Days is composed of three works by the composers published by the MIC.PT: Clotilde Rosa, Hugo Vasco Reis and João Castro Pinto. The piece by the first composer – Peaceful Meeting (2016) for cello and double bass – will be performed by the CoPeCo Collective on May 3 at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre. Metamorphosis and Resonances for Harp Solo (2017)is the title of the piece by Hugo Vasco Reis, included in the concert programme by the Ensemble Una Corda, on May 4 at the Estonian Academy of Sciences. And on May 5, at the studios of the Estonian National Broadcaster, during the concert by the Estonian Electronic Music Society's Ensemble, João Castro Pinto will realise the spatialisation of his acoustic work Obsidia – of the Invisible Sounds or of the Audible Images (2017). Every year the Miso Music Portugal and the MIC.PT, as the Portuguese ISCM Section, invite various Portuguese composers to include their works in the official applications for the World Music Days, thus ensuring the presence of new Portuguese music creations at this annual contemporary music feast.

The registration for the Electroacoustic Composition Masterclasses in the framework of the Música Viva 2019 Festival (May 24 – June 1, O’culto da Ajuda in Lisbon), are still open. The first Masterclass, on May 25 and 26, will be conducted by the Canadian composer Gilles Gobeil, and the second one, where the tutor will be the English composer Trevor Wishart, will be taking place on May 27 and 28. Each of the Masterclasses will have a maximum number of 12 students. This is a unique opportunity to explore the secrets of Electroacoustic Composition with the global renowned titans of this genre.

As the Portuguese Federation of the CIME / ICEM – International Confederation of Electroacoustic Music, the Miso Music Portugal / MIC.PT communicates the sad news on the passing away of the French composer, writer and editor, Françoise Barrière. This artist, essentially dedicated to electroacoustic music creation, was author of numerous important works. Together with Christian Clozier, she was founder of various projects of unquestionable significance for the development and dissemination of this musical genre: the IMEB – Institute for Electroacoustic Music in Bourges with its renowned Festival, Competition and Academy; as well as the CIME / ICEM, official UNESCO partner.