In May visit the In Focus section on the MIC.PT with a new Interview to the composer Isabel Soveral.
Isabel Soveral is associate professor with aggregation at the University of Aveiro and member of the INET-MD (Institute of Ethnomusicology – Music and Dance Research Centre). In 2014 she created the EAW – Electroacoustic Winds Platform, in the context of which two International Congresses were organised in 2015 and 2017. Since 2008 Isabel Soveral has been member of the Scientific Council of the Portuguese Music Research & Information Centre – MIC.PT.
The distinctive factor in Isabel Soveral’s music is the sense of morphosis, constant transformation from one piece to another – the composer has a particular taste for joining her works in cycles. Her music creation, where one can find strong modernist influences, also possesses a “visual” component, being reflected in Isabel Soveral’s way of working with the sound “masses” and “fabrics”, analogically to visual-art pieces.
This In Focus dedicated to Isabel Soveral anticipates and marks the 60th anniversary of this composer published by the MIC.PT, coinciding with the reedition of her Notebook, whose release in the context of the MIC.PT series, Portuguese 20th and 21st Century Music Notebooks, will take place in May.

António Pinho Vargas' work for cello and ensemble Six Portraits of Pain (2005), is included in the concert programme Estado da Nação (State of the Nation), by the Porto Symphony Orchestra Casa da Música conducted by Pablo Rus Broseta and with the soloist Lucas Fels (cello), which will take place on May 7 at the Casa da Música in Porto. “In its essence, composing involves a determined stance towards the history. It implies essential choices regarding the music language in a given decade or phase. Whether one wants it or not, every composer belongs to a genealogy orienting his or her path. Yet I should say that what I consider as my «elective affinities», has been changing according to the particular time. What has always remained is perhaps the manner of doing things” – said António Pinho Vargas, composer published by the MIC.PT, in the Interview published in the MIC.PT In Focus section in March. The programme of the Estado da Nação concert also includes the premiere of Epóxi (2021) for orchestra by Carlos Lopes (Young-Composer-In-Residence at the Casa da Música) and the Sinfonieta, homenagem a Haydn (1980) by Fernando Lopes-Graça.

Two premieres of the works (commissions – Sond’Ar-te) – Untitled#2 (2021) by Ângela da Ponte (composer published by the MIC.PT) and Lutar contra a voz que esmorece (2021) by Nuno Peixoto de Pinho (composer published by the MIC.PT) – make part of the concert by the Sond’Ar-te Electric Ensemble conducted by Pedro Carneiro, which will take place on May 3 at the O'culto da Ajuda in Lisbon. The concert's programme, with live broadcast on the Antena 2 and on the Miso Music Portugal YouTube Channel, also includes the work D’un Horizon Tendu (2019) by Miguel Azguime (composer published by the MIC.PT) and two more premieres (commissions – Sond’Ar-te): Retracement (2021) by Mariana Vieira and Desdobragem (Não é fácil falar das coisas que nos matam) (2021) by Pedro Junqueira Maia. Since its foundation in 2007, one of the main objectives of the Sond’Ar-te Electric Ensemble has been performing premieres and disseminating new music created by composers residing in Portugal, thus marking and affirming this period of richness and excellence which contemporary music created in Portugal is presently experiencing.

The piece Trio (2021) by Ângela Lopes will be premiered on May 15 by the percussionist Nuno Aroso, at the XI Festival Internacional SoXXI Cultura i Arts Comtemporànies taking place at the Centre Cultural Papa Calixte III in Valencia (Spain). Trio (commission – Arte no Tempo) proposes a short dialogue between various sonic entities which get together and separate, and inevitably end up disintegrating and converging. Other two works by this composer published by the MIC.PT will be premiered during the 3rd edition of the Contemporary Music Reencounters: DITTY-DITTY (2021) for viola and electronics by Ricardo Gaspar and Tempo de Diana (2021) for instrumental ensemble and electronics in the context fo the New Music for New Musicians cycle. The Reencounters are programmed by the Arte no Tempo and organised in partnership with the Aveirense Theatre and with the support of the Direcção-Geral das Artes. The event will be happening between May 20 and 30, visiting different spaces of the city of Aveiro and proposing installations, solo, chamber-music and orchestral concerts, as well as various premieres of works by Portuguese composers.

The presentation of the piece Auto da Barca do Inferno with original music by Fernando C. Lapa, composer published by the MIC.PT, will take place on May 28 at the Trancoso Castle, in the context of the cycle As Barcas de Gil Vicente nos Castelos. “The particular focus of this project is put on the convocation of music to a theatre territory, letting it actively participate in designing each moment and assume the role of the performance's conducting vehicle. In this way, the text, the spoken word, the actors and the theatre become intruders which disrupt, provoke and potentiate the sonic dramaturgy” – says Sara Barros Leitão, responsible for the conception of the performance. Auto da Barca do Inferno (1571) is the first piece of this triptych by Gil Vicente, which also includes: Auto da Barca do Purgatório and Auto da Barca da Glória. The performance on May 28 includes the participation of Ângela Marques (actress), João Mário Alves (tenor and actor) and of the Toy Ensemble: Ricardo Alves (clarinet and bass clarinet), João Moreira (clarinet), Jed Barahal (cello), Christina Margotto (piano), David Lloyd (viola and violin) and Magna Ferreira (voice and percussion).

City Walk (2021), the new work by João Pedro Oliveira (commission – Arte no Tempo) will be premiered on May 15 by the percussionist Nuno Aroso, in the context of the XI Festival Internacional SoXXI Cultura i Arts Comtemporànies, which will be taking place at the Centre Cultural Papa Calixte III in Valencia (Spain). Additionally, this month the music by this composer published by the MIC.PT is included in the programme of two more events: on May 1, the audio-visual piece Tesseract (2017) will be presented in the framework of the Turn Up Multimedia Festival 2021 (virtual event; USA); and the work In Tempore for piano and electronics is included in the programme of the concert on May 7, organised in the context of the Society of Composers (SCI) 2021 Online National Conference (May 6-9).

The piece Sangue Inverso – Quartzo (2020) by Jaime Reis, will be preformed at the concert, Beethoven – e a sua época – Bomtempo, organised by the Musicamera Produções on May 14 at the Casa da Cultura in Seia (Portugal). This piece dedicated to Beethoven constitutes one of the parts of the work Sangue Inverso – Inverso Sangue. “The title of each part is inspired in mineral elements. All the micro and macro, structural elements are based on the ideas of symmetry” – says this composer published by the MIC.PT. During the concert the musicians – Taíssa Poliakova (piano), Katherine Rawdon (flute), Bethany Akers (oboe), Paulo Gaspar (clarinet), Luís Vieira (horn), Franz-Jürgen Dörsam (bassoon) and Luís Pacheco Cunha (violin) – will also perform the music by Beethoven, Bomtempo and Ligeti.

The work You Should Be Blind to Watch TV (2013) for ensemble and electronics by Igor. C Silva, composer published by the MIC.PT, is included in the programme of the concerts by the Remix Ensemble Casa da Música conducted by Peter Rundel, which will take place at the Casa da Música in Porto (May 11) and at the Acht Brücken – Musik für Köln Festival (May 15; on-line). The programme of these performances will also include the premiere of the piece Das Gedächtnis Gebrauchsanweisung (2021) by Luís Antunes Pena, joining the Remix Ensemble with the Ruído Vermelho Trio [Francesco Dillon (cello), Nuno Aroso (percussion) and Luís Antunes Pena (electronics)]. Additionally, in May Igor. C Silva's piece Your Trash (2016) for percussion, electronics and video, will be presented in the context of two recitals at the Musik-Akademie Basel (Switzerland) – on May 10 by Kalle Hakosalo (masterrezital) and on May 12 by Pedro Soares Tavares (masterrezital).

Various premieres of pieces by Hugo Vasco Reis, composer published by the MIC.PT, will take place this month. On May 9, the saxophonist Henrique Portovedo will premiere the work Dimensions II (2021) for saxophone and electronics at the Lazaro Galdiano Museum in Madrid (Spain). On May 16 at the ZHdK – Zürcher Hochschule der Künste (Zurich, Switzerland), Hugo Vasco Reis assisted by Peter Färber, will premiere the piece Cordas em Ruínas (2021) for Portuguese guitar, stones, electronics and 16 loudspeakers. Finally, on May 21 at the Maison du Portugal (Cité Universitaire Internationale de Paris), the French premiere of Hugo Vasco Reis'' piece Metamorphosis and Resonances for piano solo (2014) will be integrated at the concert organised by the pianist Bruno Belthoise on the occasion of the release of the 6th Volume – Portuguese Composers · Repertoire for Pianists and the 2nd Volume – Piano 4 Hands (AVA Musical Editions).

In May Manuel Brásio, composer published by the MIC.PT, will participate in the presentations of the piece Quem fala assim, a multidisciplinary project produced by the Interferência Association, uniting two composers (José Tiago Baptista and Manuel Brásio) within a performance on the artistic and sonic potential of stuttering. The presentations will take place at the Casa das Artes in Porto (May 14) and at the Sá de Miranda Municipal Theatre in Viana do Castelo (May 28). “If one takes speech as music expression, with gesture, melody, rhythm and harmony of its own, then stuttering is a medium of parametrical variation. If one also considers the fact that there are no identical ways of stuttering, each one of them with different type of pauses, repetitions and interjections, the palette of possibilities becomes immense. This performance aims at valorising and recognising the differences among humans, through a narrative approaching the origins of stuttering, its constraints, prejudices, inhibitions, myths” – reveal the project's creators.

The Turning Backs project by Lígia Soares and Rita Vilhena and by Diogo Alvim (co-creation), will be presented on May 4 at the Condeduque – Contemporary Culture Centre in Madrid (Spain). “Turning Backs works as a participatory installation that combines body, voice, text and scenic devices to orchestrate two rows of audience in opposing fronts. With their backs turned to each other, the audience constitutes a kind of a coral body, giving voice to subtitles, movements, sounds and representing together a world where realities constantly oppose” – reveal the project's creators. Additionally on May 7, Diogo Alvim and Matilde Meireles will be participants at the Nova Contemporary Music Meeting 2021 (NCMM 2021), where they will present their project Campo Próximo. Campo Próximo (Near Field/ Next Field) is a sound work playing with the perception and construction of places. The artistic objective of the project is to create dialogues between a remote place and the space where it is being presented.

The piece Íris-abandono… (2016) by Paulo Bastos, composer published by the MIC.PT, will be premiered by the percussionist Justin DeHart in the context of the concert organised within the University of Canterbury’s New Music Central Concert Series, on May 31 in Christchurch (New Zealand). ”Íris-abandono… for vibrafone solo is a cycle of seven miniatures inspired in the poem Anto by the Portuguese poet Mário Sá-Carneiro. Written in an intimate atmosphere, each instant of this cycle chooses a dreamlike moment of the poem. The cycle's title – Íris-abandono… – conveys the heady aura of the poet's words” – reveals Paulo Bastos in the programme note. The programme of this concert will also include various other premieres of new pieces for percussion by Glenda Keam, Reuben de Lautour and Mark Menzies, among others.

The new CD Postcards by the horn player João Gaspar was released on April 25 at the Chãs Auditorium in Regueira de Pontes (Portugal). Among other works, this edition includes the piece Pastoral, op. 81 (2019) for solo horn by Ricardo Matosinhos, a pedagogue, horn player and composer published by the MIC.PT. In total this album, released with the support of the RTP – Antena 2 and Paxman London, contains nine pieces divided into 15 tracks. «Some of them are virtuosic works, others are more pedagogical, written for my and other pupils who are studying music in Portugal» – said João Gaspar to the Região de Leiria Jornal. Additionally, another work by Ricardo Matosinhos, 7 Horn Duos (2015), is included in the eliminatory-phase programme of the Phoenix Music Competition 2021, taking place during the month of May.

The piece Regalo I-Ie klaxon des voleurs (2016) for piano and electronics by Cândido Lima, commissioned to this composer published by the MIC.PT by the Arte no Tempo Association, will be premiered by the young pianist Maria Pinto during the Contemporary Music Reencounters 2021, which will be taking place between May 20 and 30 in different spaces of the city of Aveiro. The programme of the 3rd edition of the Contemporary Music Reencounters, organised by the Arte no Tempo with the Aveirense Theatre, will include the premieres of various solo-instrumental, chamber-music and orchestral works.

The premiere performances of the new choreographic creation by Sofia Silva, Interior Presente, with the music by Carlos Marecos, composer published by the MIC.PT, will be taking place between May 6 and 9 on the stage of the Sobralinho Palace in Vila Franca de Xira (Portugal). This project, performed by José Grossinho and Marta Cerqueira, has been produced by the Inestética Theatre Company and was conceived “around the «internal noise», our internal noise when we are alone, all by ourselves, listening to the external silence» – says Sofia Silva.

Carlos Alberto Augusto, composer published by the MIC.PT, is one of the keynote speakers at the NCMM 2021 – Nova Contemporary Music Meeting, which will be happening between May 5 and 7 at the Colégio Almada Negreiros in Lisbon (Nova University campus). In the context of this event, organised by the Contemporary Music Research Group (GIMC) of the CESEM (Centre for the Study of the Sociology and Musical Aesthetics at the Nova University), on May 5 at the Meeting's opening Carlos Alberto Augusto will make a presentation dedicated to the subject, Music and responsible design. The second keynote speaker at the NCMM 2021, an initiative focused on a variety of questions relating to music since the beginning of the 20th century until today, is the American musicologist and researcher Philip Auslander.

On May 7 the Lisbon Contemporary Music Group conducted by Christopher Bochmann, will give an online concert-workshop organised with the São Teotónio Music School in Coimbra. The event's programme includes the presentation of works by Clotilde Rosa, João Madureira and Jorge Peixinho (composers published by the MIC.PT), Christopher Bochmann's commentary on the work a silenciosa Rosa/ Rio do tempo by Jorge Peixinho, and a conversation between Christopher Bochmann, Jorge Sá Machado and the participating pupils. Also this month, on May 21 and 22 (Reguengos de Monsaraz and Alandroal), in the context of the New Conductors, New Paths (3) cycle, the GMCL conducted by João Defeza will perform the music by: Ana Seara, Clotilde Rosa, João Madureira and Jorge Peixinho.

The 6th online Meeting of the riZoma – Portuguese Platform for Intervention and Research in New Music, will take place on May 3 and 7. This Meeting will be another step in the development of this network involving various music entities and organisations. This network intends to foment the approximation with the audience, to stimulate a critical mass for intervention, to create dialogue with the trusteeship and to defend the richness and vitality of the contemporary-classical-music creation and practice. riZoma is a platform to give evidence to the richness and vitality of the new music milieu in Portugal, as well as to debate proposals and solutions that will improve in mid and long-term the situation of this music and consequently of its active agents – creators, performers, pedagogues, programmers and promoters.
All the entities from this music area in Portugal, which would like to integrate the riZoma, can communicate their interest via the following e-mail: mic[at]mic.pt.