In March the MIC.PT In Focus section is dedicated to Diogo Alvim, composer (published by the MIC.PT), sonic artist and architect.
Diogo Alvim composes instrumental and electroacoustic music and realises performances with live electronics. He's author (often in collaboration with other artists) of sonic art projects, as well as creator of music for dance, theatre and projects joining sound with moving images. He's interested in the relations between music and architecture, having developed research in this area in the context of his PhD.
This month, on March 19 in the context of the Open Lessons – Art and Science at the Porto Catholic University, Diogo Alvim, together with Ricardo Jacinto, will give the concert Fragmentação e Dispersão. On the next day, the performance Livro: Poema-Livre by Sara Vaz and Marcos Balesteros, where Diogo Alvim is responsible for the sonic creation, will take place at the Municipal Theatre in Guarda. And on March 21 the São Francisco Convent in Coimbra will receive the performance Da Nova Arte de Fazer Ruínas with choreography by Beatriz Cantinho as well as Diogo Alvim's and Ricardo Jacinto's music.
In March visit the MIC.PT In Focus section with the Questionnaire / Interview to Diogo Alvim.

Tragödie der Geburt eines / einer uninspirierten Komponisten / Komponistin​ (2010), for violin, viola, cello and piano, is the work by [ka'mi] making part of the concert Reaktorin by the Platypus Ensemble. The repertoire of this performance, organised to celebrate the International Women's Day and which will take place on March 8 in Vienna, also includes the music by: Anahita Abbasi, Helga Arias, Laura Bowler, Tamara Friebel, Damián Gorandi, Reinhold Schinwald and Roberta Lazo Valenzuela. "At a personal level I believe experimentalism to be one of the main creative factors in what I do. To experiment for me means to search for something that I still have not experienced, and for this it does not need to be innovative. I believe that one often confuses these categories... for me experimenting could even include something explicitly considered (by others) as conservative..." – said this composer published by the MIC.PT in the Interview from May 2013 / June 2018.

The second session of the MUSIVUS cycle no. 5, on the importance of the composer published by the MIC.PT Jorge Peixinho, taking place on March 3 at the SPA – Portuguese Authors' Society in Lisbon, includes the participation of Isabel Soveral (composer published by the MIC.PT), Evgueni Zoudilkine (composer), Jorge Sá Machado (cellist) and João Coutinho (flutist). This is also the second session of the new segment, of this initiative by the Portuguese Association of Composers (APC) – MUSIVUS in memoriam. This new segment concentrates on presenting the work by already deceased composers from the 20th and 21st centuries, through a public and informal conversation between artists who had direct contact with the composer in focus. The MUSIVUS project promotes avant-garde contemporary music, taking into account both the compositional and the interpretative perspective, and focusing on Portuguese music creation.

Par ce chemin de rien (2020) for flute and piano is the title of the new work by Miguel Azguime which will be premiered on March 17, in the context of another Antena 2 Recital at the O'culto da Ajuda in Lisbon, by the Sond'Ar-te Duo: Sílvia Cancela (flute) and Elsa Silva (piano). Additionally, in the context of the 60th anniversary of this composer published by the MIC.PT, celebrated throughout 2020, the Casa da Música in Porto will receive a monographic concert with Miguel Azguime's music, performed by the Sond'Ar-te Electric Ensemble and Guillaume Bourgogne (musical direction). The repertoire of this concert will include six works: Ícone I (1992); Trabalho Poético I: árvore (2016); Conver(say)tions (2011); De Part et d'Autre (2011); Intermezzo from the opera A Laugh to Cry (2013); and Mestre Gato ou o Gato de Botas (2009). The composer's March activities will also include two performances of the multimedia opera Salt Itinerary by the Miso Ensemble – with Miguel Azguime responsible for the conception, composition of music / texts and interpretation; Paula Azguime for the staging, video composition, electronics and sonic diffusion; Perseu Mandillo for the video direction and IT assistance; and Andre Bartetzki for the video programming. The concerts will take place at the Stanford University in San Francisco (March 6) and in Santiago de Compostela at the Alguen que Respira Festival (March 20).

This month the music by David Miguel, composer published by the MIC.PT, will be performed in the framework of two concerts. On March 9, on the first Super Moon Night in 2020 at the Major Seminary of Coimbra, the University of Coimbra Mixed Choir will perform his work O Silêncio (2013), with the text by Eugénio de Andrade. This event entitled Art: A Universe Without Limits, whose programme also includes the world premiere of the work Noite Trágica by Gonçalo Lourenço (composer published by the MIC.PT), is integrated in the 22nd Culture Week at the University of Coimbra. This initiative aims at transcending the limits of the space with different types of art, having as the main theme the universe, the night and the light. Another concert which includes the music by David Miguel in its repertoire, will take place on March 21 at the Martiz Church in Golegã. In this context, the Cantar Nosso Chamber Choir conducted by Miguel Galhofo will also perform David Miguel's work O Silêncio, as well as the piece Soneto do Amor e da Morte (2014) to the poem by Vasco Graça Moura. This programme also includes various other works composed by: Eurico Carrapatoso (Pequeno Poemário de Sophia), Miguel Diniz (Durmo), Gonçalo Lourenço (Da Vinci's Sketches), Mário Ribeiro (Por esta Solidão, que não Consente), Eric Whitacre, Ēriks Ešenvalds and Ola Gjeilo.

The work A Poética de um Impulso (2020), for electric guitar, theorbo, accordion and electronics, by Hugo Vasco Reis, will have its premiere performance on March 21 at the Salotto in Prova (Milan, Italy) by the Azione_Improvvisa Ensemble. Additionally, after its premiere in February, the work Colors Seen in Silence II (2020), for flute and piano by this composer published by the MIC.PT, will be presented again on March 6 and 7 at the Auditorium of the Felgueiras Secondary School and at the Municipal Auditorium of Póvoa de Varzim, by Marco Pereira (flute) and Lígia Madeira (piano). "I don't feel close to any school or aesthetics from the past or the present. My works aren't sufficiently consistent in terms of unity in order to close them within a given style or tendency. Actually, I'm also not concerned with it when I compose" – said Hugo Vasco Reis in the Interview given to the MIC.PT in October 2019.

The German premiere of Jaime Reis' work Fluxus, Vortex – Schubkraft (2019) by the Aleph Guitar Quartet, will take place on March 20 at the ZKM – Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe. The programme of this concert will also include the music by Oliver Rappoport, Jörg Mainka and Núria Giménez Comas. "I need to have an idea, yet it doesn't mean that this idea cannot originate from experimentation lived in a more or less methodic manner. However, there's a principle which interests me: the capacity of reproduction of what I make. Thus one needs a method. In other words, even starting with something which I initiated without a permanent consciousness of what I was doing, this initial moment has to become conscious in order to gain control" – said this composer published by the MIC.PT in the Interview from October 2016. The piece Fluxus, Vortex – Schubkraft has been commissioned by the ZKM and the Aleph Quartet.

On March 5 João Pedro Oliveira will participate at the University of Tennessee Contemporary Music Festival, where the Transient Canvas Duo will perform his work Angel Rock (2011) for marimba, bass clarinet and electronics. On the following day this composer published by the MIC.PT will give a lecture on his music, at the University of California in Berkeley. Additionally, on March 3 at the National Museum of Ancient Art, the Lisbon Ensemble 20/21 conducted by Pedro Pinto Figueiredo will give another concert in the framework of the Portuguese Composers' Cycle, whose programme includes João Pedro Oliveira's work Tensão-deformação (2017-19) for instrumental ensemble. And finally his video-music works – Neshamah (2016) and Things I Have Seen in My Dreams (2019) – will be presented, respectively, at the ANAMORPHÒSIS Festival in Lecce – Italy (on March 18) and at the Turn Up Festival in the USA, Tucson – Arizona (March 26).

A Special Night of music and poetry whose central themes will be the Encantante recital by Amílcar Vasques-Dias, composer published by the MIC.PT, and Passos da Cruz by Fernando Pessoa, will take place at the Q.Festival 2020 in Amsterdam. In this context, the translator Harrie Lemmens and the Q.Festival director Teresa Pinto will recite Pessoa's poems in Portuguese and Dutch – Lemmens' translation of the Passos da Cruz sonnets (Een spoor van mezelf). The poems will be interspersed and / or accompanied with Amílcar Vasques-Dias' piano works. "Music is the «result» of the organisation in intervals, scales, harmony, timbre, dynamics, and rhythm… in a determined tempo… However, within the surrounding vibrating field the ear «selects» the significant sounds, while rejecting other ones, and so what music actually can express or mean is very subjective" – said Amílcar Vasques-Dias in the MIC.PT Interview from November 2015.

The work 3 Miniatures for horn quartet op. 79 by Ricardo Matosinhos will be premiered by the musicians of the Horn Studio of the University of Iowa, on March 29 at the University of Iowa Music School (Iowa City, USA). It's a work which Ricardo Matosinhos composed in January 2019 and dedicated to the students of professor Jeffrey Angel (Horn Studio of the University of Iowa), to express his gratitude for the work Gallimaufry Suite, dedicated to this composer published by the MIC.PT and horn player, and premiered by him last year in November. In the area of composition Ricardo Matosinhos is author of diverse pedagogical materials within horn performance, as well of compositions for diverse instrumental sets. Some of his works have been recognised at national and international competitions. Presently Ricardo Matosinhos integrates the PhD programme in Music, Musicology and Performance at the University of Évora.

Beyond the Void (2020) is the title of the new work by Daniel Martinho, composer published by the MIC.PT, which will be premiered on March 10 at the Casa da Música in Porto by the Pulsat Percussion Group (André Dias, Nuno Simões, Pedro Góis and Eduardo Cardinho). The programme of this concert, which includes the participation of the mezzo-soprano Joana Valente, is also composed of the music by Mátyás Wettl and Christopher Cerrone. "My language aims at a musical syntax similar to the one in tonal music, but using quite different processes and rules. Essentially, I intend to have one or various gravitational centres and a set of other surrounding harmonic structures. In this approach every structure reveals a determined level of attraction between one and another, as well as in relation to the central pole(s). For this effect I frequently resort to the techniques used by spectral music composers" – said Daniel Martinho in the Interview given to the MIC.PT in June 2015.

Nel Mezzo del cammin (2017; world-premiere) for violin, cello and piano and From Head to Toe (2017) for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano – are the two pieces by Christopher Bochmann included in the repertoire of the concert by the Lisbon Ensemble 20/21 conducted by Pedro Pinto Figueiredo, which will take place on March 3 at the National Museum of Ancient Art in Lisbon. Another piece by this composer published by the MIC.PT – Aria (1976) for strings – will be performed by the joint student orchestras of Brasília, on March 22 at the Adventist Church in Brasília.

On March 17 the SPA – Portuguese Author's Society in Lisbon will host the third session of the fifth MUSIVUS cycle, with the participation of the composer published by the MIC.PT Eduardo Luís Patriarca and of the percussionist Nuno Aroso. In this context, these artist will have a conversation on Eduardo Luís Patriarca's cycle Mayahana and they'll premiere the cycle's 3rd piece entitled Kōdō, for suspended cymbal, incense and live electronics. MUSIVUS is an initiative promoted and organised by the APC – Portuguese Association of Composers.

Anima Mea (my soul) is the title of the installation by Patrícia Sucena de Almeida – composer published by the MIC.PT, photographer and transdisciplinary artist –, making part of the exhibition Symphony for One Man Alone, whose inauguration will take place on March 7 at the Agrarian School of Coimbra. This exhibition constituted by 50 works within diverse disciplines such as installation, photography, drawing, painting, sculpture, video and performance, marks the premiere of Pierre Schaeffer's and Pierre Henry's Symphony for One Man Alone, electroacoustic work whose 70th anniversary is celebrated all around the world. "Taking into account the primordial source and the work's title, Symphonie pour un homme seul, every constituting word has its particular presence in the construction of the visual discourse of this 11-photo series. It refers «symphony» as a musical genre with various movements and specific form, «man» and his / her condition, and «alone» in his / her symphonic loneliness producing, joining and reuniting his or her own «sounds», «voices», «noises» and «gestures» – reveals Patrícia Sucena de Almeida in the programme note to her newest creation.

This month Carlos Alberto Augusto is one of the participants at the conference Things Founded in Silence, taking place on March 3 and 4 at the Culturgest in Lisbon. In this context, at the second session of the event's first day, this composer published by the MIC.PT will intervene with a presentation entitled Towards a Theory of Silence. "Sound and silence are two elements from the same chain of communication. The idea of non-sound and the evolution of silence's notion as an absolute reality, gave origin to a number of more or less mistaken interpretations, promoting or leading to analytical errors, nourishing sterile appreciations and contributing for an ill sonic environment, a first sign of a more profound environmental crisis. All this leads to the need of the theme's classification. To a theory of silence" – reveals Carlos Alberto Augusto in the synopsis. This 2-day conference at the Culturgest joins writers, artists, architects, astrophysics and philosophers within a conversation on the importance of silence. This initiative is integrated in a vaster programme, presented between March 3 and May 31 in Lisbon.

João Quinteiro (JQui0004)
Yule (2018) · woodwind octet

Lino Guerreiro (LGuer0003)
Interaction (2015) · clarinet and electronics

Paulo Bastos (PBas0006)
Annuntiatio (2019) · wind orchestra and percussion

The piece Clouds (2020) for saxophone and electronics by Lino Guerreiro will be premiered by the saxophonist João Pedro Silva in the context of the 4th Liceu Sax Festival 2020, taking place between March 6 and 8 in Barcelona. Additionally, two works by this composer published by the MIC.PT will be performed at the Antena 2 Concert by the MPMP Ensemble. The event will take place on March 26 at the São Carlos National Theatre in Lisbon and the works are: Solos (2015) for clarinet and Krone (2020) for clarinet and accordion (premiere).

The world premiere of Tríptico – a multidisciplinary creation by the composer published by the MIC.PT Carlos Marecos and the choreographer Sofia Silva, composed of three distinct musical "pictures", unified by an original choreography –, will take place on March 5-7 at the Sobralinho Palace in Vila Franca de Xira (Portugal). This project, produced by the Inestética – Cultural Association for New Ideas, has been created from countless reflections on the relation between music and dance. The event, involving different spaces of the Palace, includes the performance by the singer Margarida Marecos and the dancers Margarida Belo Costa and Teresa Alves da Silva.

Works by the four composers published by the MIC.PT – Christopher Bochmann (Nel Mezzo del cammin [world-premiere] e From Head to Toe), João Pedro Oliveira (Tensão-deformação), Nuno Figueiredo (Sofiando) and Ricardo Ribeiro (In Limine) – are included in the concert programme by the Lisbon Ensemble 20/21 conducted by Pedro Pinto Figueiredo. This Antena 2 Concert organised by the APC – Portuguese Association of Composers, in the context of the Portuguese Composers' Cycle will take place on March 3 at the National Museum of Ancient Art in Lisbon. The Lisbon Ensemble 20/21 has been created by a group of musicians whose aim is to get closer to more contemporary languages and aesthetics through challenging and developing themselves as performers and within the need to present new repertoires. The Ensemble's objective is to encourage music creation, to motivate composers and to disseminate Portuguese contemporary music.

Paisagens Sonoras (Soundscapes) is the title of the concert by the Kla-Vier Duo, which will take place on March 8 at the Machado de Castro National Museum in Coimbra and whose programme includes the piece Por um dia igual (2014) by Sofia Sousa Rocha and Storyboard (2003) by Fernando C. Lapa (composers published by the MIC.PT); as well as the music by György Kurtág, Inés Badalo, Claude Debussy and Louis Andriessen. Founded in 2013, the Kla-Vier Duo is a project by the pianists Patrícia Ventura and Sónia Amaral with the objective to disseminate the contemporary repertoire (20th and 21st centuries) for four hand piano and / or two pianos.

3 Quadros sobre o fado (2013) by Rui Penha, Par ce chemin de rien (2019-20; world-premiere) by Miguel Azguime and My shadow walks home with me (2011) by Sara Carvalho – are the three works by the composers published by the MIC.PT, included in the concert programme performed by the Sond'Ar-te Duo, with Sílvia Cancela (flute) and Elsa Silva (piano). Additionally the two performers will also present the music by Beat Furrer, Doina Rotaru and Jonathan Harvey. This concert is yet another Antena 2 Recital at the O'culto da Ajuda, with exceptional musicians giving voice to the music of our time.

The DME – Electroacoustic Music Days Festival organises a tour with the two composers published by the MIC.PT – Carlos Caires and Christopher Bochmann –, in Lisbon (ESML), Castelo Branco (ESART) and Porto (ESMAE), between March 25 and 27. In this context these two artists will give a series of conferences which will be accompanied with the release of the DME Ensemble's CD Fragments de Mémoire and various musical moments, where the music of Carlos Caires, Christopher Bochmann, Jaime Reis and Elliott Carter, will be performed by: Ana Telles (piano), Luís Gomes (clarinet), Carlos Silva (clarinet) and Mafalda Carvalho (flute).

In February the MIC.PT website has activated a new Composer's Page dedicated to Fátima Fonte , who studied composition at the ESMAE (Porto) and the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. She also went to India to study Hindustani Music with Aparna Gurav, as the Oriente Foundation scholarship holder. Some of her pieces were played at the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (United Kingdom), Gaudeaumus Music Week (the Netherlands), Atlante Sonoro Festival (Rome), and at numerous Portuguese concert halls and theatres. In 2017-18 she was a Young Associated Composer at the São Carlos National Theatre in Lisbon; in 2019 the Gulbenkian Orchestra performed her piece Breve Desassossego. She's currently starting a doctorate at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (London).

The SPA – Portuguese Authors’ Society has announced the list of nominees for the Authors’ Award 2020 in various categories, including the Best Classical Music Work. The nominees in this category are: the composer Pedro Faria Gomes (Sonata for violin and piano), the composer published by the MIC.PT António Chagas Rosa (Circumnavigare) and the composer Vasco Mendonça (Step Right Up). The names of the winners will be announced on March 26 during the award ceremony at the Belém Arts Centre in Lisbon, broadcast by the RTP 2. The Authors’ Award 2020 aims to distinguish the "most important authors and works which intensively marked the artistic and cultural life in Portugal" in the last year.

The jury of the 9th Sond'Ar-te Electric Ensemble Composition Competition – constituted by Philippe Leroux, Pedro Carneiro and Miguel Azguime (composer published by the MIC.PT) –, decided to award the Argentinian composer Demian Rudel Rey for the work Cuélebre y la muerte del impío (2019), for flute, clarinet, piano and electronics. This piece is inspired in Asturian mythology, making a connection with Jorge Luis Borges' text El Libro De Los Seres Imaginarios. As composer Demian Rudel Rey dedicates himself mainly to instrumental, mixed, electroacoustic and visual music. He has already been distinguished with more than 30 different awards at various international composition competitions.