In January the MIC.PT In Focus section is dedicated to Pedro Amaral – composer, conductor, musicologist and professor –, to mark his 50th anniversary.
With regard to Composition, three figures have marked his education in different moments: Fernando Lopes-Graça with whom he worked as a private student; Christopher Bochmann at the Music School of Lisbon (ESML); and Emmanuel Nunes at the Paris Conservatory. Pedro Amaral developed his conducting skills with Peter Eötvös and Emilio Pomàrico, but in this context he also emphasises the importance of Pierre Boulez's influence. Until 2020 he was Artistic Director of the AMEC/ Metropolitana, as well as Head Conductor of the Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa.
Pedro Amaral emphasises that the act of composition is always accompanied with the thought. In this sense the research of Karlheinz Stockhausen's music has marked him as musician and musicologist, enabling the historical reflection, and the framing of his own language, which, thtoughout the years and within the search for his own dimensions and sonorities, has become more personal.
This month visit the MIC.PT In Focus section dedicated to Pedro Amaral.

Suite Pentolítica (2021) for seven instruments (flute, clarinet, violin, viola, cello, piano and percussion) is the new work by António Chagas Rosa (composer published by the MIC.PT), which will be premiered by the Sond'Ar-te Electric Ensemble and Pedro Carneiro (conductor) on January 16 at the Casa da Música. ‘The title is a neologism and for me it has some humour. It makes reference to a set of five (penta) monoliths (from Greek: single stones), as the piece is constituted of five movements. Although it's not intentionally descriptive music, the five short movements emerged in my imagination as a memory of various sets of monoliths which can be found in abundance in the Alentejo. They've impressed me a lot since childhood. More than the stones on their own, what intrigues me are the rituals that took them there, and which we never saw. For this reason I decided to create a different sonic ritual for every monolith...’ – reveals António Chagas Rosa in the programme note about this new work (commission by the Sond'Ar-te Electric Ensemble).

Diogo Alvim, composer published by the MIC.PT, is author of the music for the cross-disciplinary project Swanography – Rewriting the Swan by Luiz Antunes (conception & direction). As a choreographic and music work, the project took the form of a challenge to recreate Le cygne from Saint-Säens’ Le Carnaval des animaux. The work results from the response of thirteen choreographers, interpreters, performers and one composer to the proposed challenge: an individual recreation of their own ‘death of the swan’, according to their personal languages and work codes. Each solo was filmed in a different room at the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, allowing for the creation of compositions closely related to the Museum's spaces and works of art. ‘What I've created is a rewriting of Saint-Säens' The Swan within an almost geometrical approach, expanding the timid experimentalism of the original piece and deconstructing its romantic “parthos”’ – says Diogo Alvim. The exhibition Swanography is open to the public until February 27, at the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga in Lisbon.

Voices and Landscapes is the monographic CD album by Hugo Vasco Reis, released in the final of 2021. This new author's edition includes five works by this composer published by the MIC.PT written for different instrumental sets, where the voice constitutes the common element. The central theme of this CD influenced by the poetry of Antero de Quental and Fernando Pessoa is the ‘landscape’, which has led the composer towards a research of diverse sounds ranging between nature and urban soundscapes, being the latter totally molded by human activity. This new CD edition includes the participation/ performances of the Síntese – Contemporary Music Group, Lisbon Contemporary Music Group (conducted by Pedro Neves), Nova Era Vocal Ensemble (conducted by João Barros), Borealis Ensemble, and the composer himself. The edition and release of the CD Voices and Landscapes has been supported by the Ministry of Culture in Portugal, DGArtes, SPAutores, and Antena 2. Additionally, the exhibition Num Único Acorde, a video-installation and painting by Pedro Vaz (the project's author) with Hugo Vasco Reis' music, is open to the public at the Centro de Arte Caja de Burgos in Spain, until January 23.

The premiere of the project Strange Smoke Over My Skin – with music by Igor C. Silva (composer published by the MIC.PT), choreography by Bruno Alexandre, light design by Carin Geada and performed by the Trash Panda Collective with Jan Wierzba (conductor) – will take place on January 21 and 22 at the Belém Arts Centre in Lisbon. ‘Strange Smoke Over My Skin is a multimedia performance exploring the dynamics of power and the silence of bodies in sociopolitical spaces. Body, light, sound carve a multi-sensorial space, creating a dense and immersive atmosphere, where the bodies are emancipated between the real and the virtual. This performance aims at deconstructing the dynamics of power, exposing the performers to different means in order to translate into sound and image the different artistic expressions possessed by each individuality on stage. It thus creates a new political space – where new power dynamics emerge or are completely deconstructed, potentiating the individuality and the difference. Within this deconstruction the conductor becomes only a performer and the performers free themselves from the central-power figure, depolarising the relations of coexistence...’ – reveal the project's creators.

In January João Quinteiro, composer published by the MIC.PT, will be in residence at the O'culto da Ajuda with the project Depurações para um Regresso. The residency will include the performance of three solo works with live spatialisation and performance: Hermes, nove da noite (2017), for tenor saxophone & video; Sísifo, cinco da tarde (2019; premiere), for accordion & speaker; Euridice, sete da manhã (2016), for percussion & dancer. These three works make part of the five pieces for spatialised solo instruments and performance, composing the universe of the ten satellite works of the opera Regresso, developed by João Quinteiro since 2016. They are five works attached to the opera's characters (Eurydice, Penelope, Sisyphus, Hermes & Prometheus) and five works involving the character's environment (four Dusks and one Dawn). The project's works are based on the poetry of José Mário Silva. The concerts, performed by João Quinteiro (spatialisation), Henrique Portovedo (saxophone), Sinem Tas (video), Fernando Brites (accordion), Júlio Mesquita (speaker), Marco Fernandes (percussion), Teresa Doblinger (dancer) & José Mário Silva (reciter), will take place on January 29 & 30 at the O'culto da Ajuda in Lisbon. This project is supported by the Miso Music Portugal and OU.TRA – Associação Cultural.

The premiere of the piece Au Revoir for soprano, whispers, percussion and electronics (binaural mixing) by Manuel Brásio, will take place on January 15. The piece makes part of the Sons de Bolso project by the Interferência Association, which includes a web application enabling the audition of new works created for a site-specific contexts of different Portuguese-Culture-Patrimony monuments. The piece Au Revoir by this composer published by the MIC.PT will be available to listen at the Boarder Point no. 1 in Cevide (Melgaço), making reference to the Portuguese emigration to France in the 1960s. Sons de Bolso transforms ‘the street’ into a concert hall, joining new music with a geographic space. It constitutes an unconventional and original way of exploring the Portuguese Culture Patrimony, giving the public exclusive artistic content, and enabling new ways of interaction with the surroundings. Century-old places are enhanced with an innovative dimension allied with the History, challenging the traditional and the classic. The geo-localised music pieces are original compositions by Portuguese composers (Rui Penha, Manuel Brásio, José Tiago Baptista & Nuno da Rocha), related with the themes of democracy, as well as individual and collective freedom conquered throughout time.

Two works by Miguel Azguime are included in the Art's Birthday 2022 concert with the Matosinhos String Quartet, which will take place on January 17 at the O'culto da Ajuda in Lisbon; the works are: Point Vermeil (2021) for violin and electronics, and Le Feu Qui Dort (2008) for string quartet. The Art’s Birthday 2021 – Euroradio Ars Acustica Special Evening, with direct broadcast from various countries (from Portugal via the Antena 2), is a celebration in homage to Robert Filliou who on January 17, 1963 declared that ‘Art had been born exactly 1.000.000 before, when somebody dropped a dry sponge into a bucket of water’. On this occasion the Quartet will also perform two other works: Catorze Anotações (1966) by Fernando Lopes-Graça and 15.ª Anotação (2011) by Álvaro Salazar. Additionally, three new live recordings of Miguel Azguime's works are available on the You Tube Chanel of this composer published by the MIC.PT: 3 Cantos para Libertar o Ar with the Neue Vocalsolisten (Música Viva 2021), Aliterações de Água with the soprano Camila Mandillo (December 2021; Antena 2 Recital, O'culto da Ajuda) and Par ce chemin de rien performed by the flutist Sílvia Cancela and the pianist Elsa Silva (Sond'Ar-te; Música Viva 2021).

The work Sou já do que fui (2019) for four hand piano by Paulo Bastos, will be performed in the context of the concert by the Kla-Vier Duo constituted by the pianists Patrícia Ventura and Sónia Amaral. It will take place on January 26 at the Casa Comum of the University of Porto Rectory. The recital's programme will also include various other pieces by Arvo Pärt, Claude Debussy, Fazil Say, Tomás Alvarenga and António Victorino d'Almeida. ‘Sou já do que fui emerges in the context of the Transmusica project, a transnational production by five composers form South Africa, Germany, France, Italy and Portugal, and the piano duo – Duo Jost-Costa (France and Portugal). The piece deals with the unifying theme of identity from an individual perspective – the identity of the “I”. Sou já do que fui (I am what I’ve already been) is an autobiographical work, approaching in a conscious way the sonorities and general features of my music during the last years. The title originates from the following eclogue by Luís de Camões: “I am what I have already been, so different, that when somebody calls my name I am amazed to realise that I am still like myself”’ – says Paulo Bastos (composer published by the MIC.PT) in the work's programme note.

In November the Espaço Crítica para a Nova Música/ New Music Review Lounge has published two new texts (in Portuguese) dedicated to the Música Viva 2021 Festival, which took place between November 6 and 20 at the O'culto da Ajuda in Lisbon; the reviews are: As 9 vidas da acusmática by Pedro Boléo and laboratório tintinabular em diferido by Tiago Schwäbl. The first review by Pedro Boléo is dedicated to the two concerts with the Loudspeaker Orchestra – the first one (on November 7) with works by Filipe Esteves on the occasion of the release of his new CD Sul e Sueste (ed. Miso Records), and the second one (on November 16) with pieces by Flo Menezes and Todor Todoroff (jury members of the Música Viva 2021 International Electroacoustic Composition Competition). The second review, by Tiago Schwäbl, is dedicated to the various concerts of the EASTN–DC – European Art Science Technology Network, organised in the framework of the Música Viva 2021 (November 12, 13 and 13).

In January, in the context of the series Portuguese 20th and 21st Century Music Notebooks, the MIC.PT will release two new Notebooks, #13 and #22, dedicated to the composers: António de Sousa Dias and Armando Santiago. This Series of bilingual editions constitutes an «introspection» into the work of each composer, published by the MIC.PT, at the same time being an incentive to explore and (re)discover not only their music, but also their reflection on music philosophy and aesthetics. Each Notebook is composed of a biographical note, questionnaire/ interview or musicological article, two catalogues of works – according to instrumentation and chronological –, as well as discography. Among 22 Notebooks 14 are already available in print: #1 · Paulo Ferreira-Lopes; #2 · Sara Carvalho; #3 · António Ferreira; #4 · António Chagas Rosa; #5 · Bruno Gabirro; #7 · Patrícia Sucena de Almeida; #8 · Miguel Azguime; #10 · Pedro Rebelo; #12 · João Madureira; #15 · Isabel Soveral; #16 · Tiago Cutileiro; #18 · João Castro Pinto; #20 · [ka'mi]; #21 · Álvaro Salazar.

The Jury comprised of the composers Stefano Gervasoni, Philippe Leroux, Miguel Azguime and maestro Pedro Neves, has decided to give the First Prize of the 11th Sond’Ar-te Electric Ensemble Composition Competition – New Chamber Music with Electronics to Daniel Arango-Prada, Colombian composer presently residing in France, for the work Xénolithe (2019) for flute, clarinet, piano, violin, viola, cello and electronics. This composition will be performed in Portugal during the 2022 Concert Season of the Sond’Ar-te Electric Ensemble, on May 7 at the O'culto da Ajuda in Lisbon. The programme of this concert will also include three works by the Jury members.