Due to the new lockdown caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the MIC.PT February Newsletter disseminates virtual initiatives by the Composers Published by the MIC.PT – on-line concerts/ performances/ conferences, new creations, on-line premieres of new recordings, new CD releases, competitions, calls, ...

I'm bored at home (2020) is a new multimedia project for flexible trio, electronics and video by Igor C. Silva, which since January is available on the composer's >> YouTube Channel. Performed by the United Instruments of Lucilin, the work I'm bored at home is a commission by the Philharmonie Luxembourg, constituting Igor C. Silva's response to the present pandemic context, when it's not possible to make live music, give concerts, interact with the audience ... «For me it's completely impossible to be isolated from the massive quantity of stimuli to which we are being exposed every day. To ignore these stimuli, making them completely inexistent in my music, would mean to ignore the present and the world where I live. It would make my music completely decontextualised from the surrounding soundscape» – said this composer published by the MIC.PT in the MIC.PT Interview from 2015.

Recently Miguel Azguime has released six new videos on his >> YouTube Channel. Four of them constitute recordings of four works by this composer published by the MIC.PT, performed by the Sond'Ar-te Electric Ensemble conducted by Pedro Neves, with Camila Mandillo (soprano), Miguel Azguime (speaker) and João Dias (percussion). These video recordings were realised in the context of the performance Miguel Azguime – Portrait, which took place on October 22, last year, at the São Luiz Municipal Theatre in Lisbon; the videos are: >> Icon I; >> Trabalho Poético I: Árvore; >> Mestre Gato ou o Gato de Botas; and >> De part et d'autre. The other two new videos on Miguel Azguime's >> YouTube Channel are in the Score Follower Format, giving the possibility to simultaneously listen to the music works and to follow the scores/ music texts; the videos are: >> ConCordas
and >> (ThS)inking Survival Kit.

The work Micro Images (2020) for solo accordion by Hugo Vasco Reis, composer published by the MIC.PT, is included in the on-line recital, Quarantine Diaries – new and «old» music, by the accordionist Ghenadie Rotari, which will take place on February 7 (>> link). Quarantine Diaries is a project initiated by Ghenadie Rotari in March 2020, during the first lockdown caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The project is composed of miniatures for solo accordion, written by composers from the world over. The programme of this on-line recital, with live streaming from Trieste (Italy), will also include the music by Jean-Philippe Rameau, Astor Piazzolla and Petri Makkonen. Also in Italy, this time in Milan, the musicians of the Azione_Improvvisa Ensemble will make a video with Hugo Vasco Reis's work, The Poetry of an Impulse (2020) for electric guitar, theorbo, accordion and electronics.

Two CDs which include the music by Fernando C. Lapa, composer published by the MIC.PT, were released in December and January. The first one, Saber Ouvir – Obras Portuguesas para Guitarra Clássica, contains three of his works – Três melodias tradicionais transmontanas, Melodia tradicional de Vila Real & Duas melodias tradicionais de Miranda do Douro –, performed by the guitarists: Artur Caldeira, Daniel Paredes & Artur Gil Godinho. The second album Portuguese Music for Piano Duo by Luís Duarte and Lígia Madeira (piano 4 hands), includes Fernando C. Lapa's work Storyboard (2003), and the music of Fernando Lopes-Graça, Sérgio Azevedo, Vianna da Motta & António Victorino d'Almeida. Additionally, the percussionist Tiago Manuel Soares has released on YouTube two videos with his interpretations of Fernando C. Lapa's works: >> Maragato Son & >> Agora Baixou o Sol.

On February 19 the José Luís Ferreira Mixed Music Lab of the Music College of Lisbon, will participate in the on-line event, Hypersounds V – Mixed Music, a MusicDesk initiative organised by Marco Bidin and Jaime Reis and realised in partnership with the Music College of Stuttgart (Germany) and the Music College of Lisbon. The programme of the concert by the JLF Mixed Music Lab will include the music by: Ricardo Almeida, Francisco Plantier, Marta Domingues, Mariana Ribeiro, Ana Roque, Mariana Vieira, as well as by João Pedro Oliveira and Jaime Reis (composers published by the MIC.PT).

The 5th GMCL/ Jorge Peixinho International Composition Competition is organised by the Lisbon Contemporary Music Group. Its main objective is to encourage the creation and dissemination of new music, thus contributing to the proliferation of chamber music contemporary repertoire. The Competition's jury in constituted by: Ivan Fedele (president), Gerhard Stabler, João Madureira, Carlos Caires and Jaime Reis (composers published by the MIC.PT), Jorge Sá Machado and Ada Gentile (special guest). The Competition's rules include two categories: A – Ensemble, B – Chamber Music (with or without electronics). The deadline for submitting the works is August 20, 2021.

In January the MIC.PT activated a new Composer's Page dedicated to Miguel Resende Bastos, a young composer from Porto who's presently based in Germany. His main influences are the art movements and composers from the 20th and 21st centuries. He has been awarded twice for his works exploring the relationship between music and literature, having also composed works for orchestra, chamber music, spoken text, opera and electronic music, as well as music for dance. Miguel Resende Bastos cultivates a special interest for cinema. He also keeps a regular activity as flutist, performing mainly with groups dedicated to free improvisation, and makes part of the Coral de Letras at the University of Porto. During the 2020-21 season he is Composer in Residence with the MPMP – Patrimonial Movement for Portuguese Music.

From now on the MIC.PT has a new Composer's Page dedicated to Pedro Lima, young composer whose music has already been performed at the Konzerthaus Berlin, Milton Court Theatre, Casa da Música, Gulbenkian Foundation, Theatro Circo, MIRA Forum, GNRation, ... He was awarded at some of the most important national competitions, including the BSP Composition Competition for the work Sopro do Côncavo (2015); and the SPA/ Antena 2 Prize for the work (…) e tu, de mim voaste (2016). Young Composer-in-Residence at the Casa da Música in 2019; Associated Composer at the Victor Córdon Studios in 2020; and Composer within the European project Traction – Opera in Prison, co-creating a new opera (to be premiered at the Gulbenkian Foundation, 2022) with professional musicians and the prison community of the Leiria Youth Prison.

Amílcar Vasques-Dias (AVDias0019)
Duas cantigas d'amigo (2003) · soprano choir

Cândido Lima (CL0181 · didactic score)
rev. Antonio Fruscella
Workbooks of Inventions – Guitar II (2007-11) · guitar

Recently the >> MIC.PT Score Catalogue has been enriched with new scores by: Amílcar Vasques-Dias (Duas cantigas d'amigo), Lino Guerreiro (Uttalanden), Paulo Ferreira-Lopes (Die sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz) and Cândido Lima (Workbooks of Inventions – Guitar II · rev. Antonio Fruscella · didactic score). The last edition, Workbooks of Inventions – Sounds to Discover – Titles to Invent – Guitar II, constitutes the revision, by the guitarist Antonio Fruscella, of this Cândido Lima's didactic score. «The Portuguese composer Cândido Lima has honoured me greatly by sending and dedicating to me his work for guitar, Cadernos de Invenções – Sons para descobrir – Títulos para inventar, volume I and volume II, in April 2020. Although Lima’s knowledge of the guitar is both wide and imaginative, this specific work hadn't been previously revised by any classical guitarist. I have revised both volumes in order to promote fluent playability from the perspective of a guitarist’s technical possibilities. Consequently, I revised the score’s layout, so as to include more technical instructions and hence facilitate reading» – explains Antonio Fruscella in the introduction to this revision. This Cândido Lima's piece makes part of the series Workbooks of Inventions – Introduction to Contemporary Music – Sounds to Discover – Titles to Invent, constituted by short and abstract compositions, like aphorisms or epigrams in the fashion of Bach’s Preludes and Inventions, or miniatures which various 20th century composers were writing in between other works of greater proportions.

The jury comprised of the composers Clemens Gadenstätter, Pierre Jodlowski and Miguel Azguime, has decided to give the First Prize of the 10th Sond’Ar-te Electric Ensemble Composition Competition – New Chamber Music with Electronics, to the French composer Nicolas Brochec for his work the eye for ensemble, video, electronics and metal plates. This piece will be performed in Portugal during the 2021 Concert Season of the Sond’Ar-te Electric Ensemble.

From now on, three new In the 1st Person Interviews (in Portuguese) – with the composers Pedro Amaral, Vítor Rua and Miguel Azguime (in three parts) –, are available on the >> MIC.PT YouTube Channel.
Presently the >> MIC.PT YouTube Channel contains 18 New Interviews to composers residing in Portugal, realised since 2019; as well as eight Interviews from the MIC.PT Archive, realised between 2003 and 2005.
The New Interviews were filmed at the O'culto da Ajuda in Lisbon and realised in the context of the In the 1st Person cycle of the Música Hoje radio broadcast, produced by the MIC.PT and Miso Music Portugal for the >> Antena 2. They constitute a (re)visit to the creative universe of various composers published by the MIC.PT, following the Historical Interviews recorded by the MIC.PT more than 15 years ago. Today they are unique registers of the artistic evolution of each interviewed composer.
In order to access the Interviews follow the links below and/ or visit the >> MIC.PT YouTube Channel, which during the following months will be regularly updated with new videos.