The world premiere of Christopher Bochmann's new work, Canzona V (2022) for saxophone orchestra, performed by the Dão Saxophone Orchestra under the baton of Henrique Portovedo, will take place in the context of the International Spring Music Festibval in Viseu, on April 13 at the Aula Magna – Politécnico de Viseu. The Dão Orchestra was founded in 2018 by the three saxophonists – Dulcineia Guerra, Jorge Oliveira and José Magalhães. It is formed by musicians from various generations grouped into different-level orchestras, “where everybody teaches everybody”. Another work by this composer published by the MIC.PT, Canzona III (2010) for instrumental ensemble, is included in the programme of the concert by the Lisbon Contemporary Music Group conducted by Christopher Bochmann. It will take place on April 8 & 11 at the São Teotónio School in Coimbra and at the Ourearte School in Ourém.

The street art performance A Feira by the RADAR 360º company, with sound design by Filipe Lopes (composer published by the MIC.PT), was premiered on March 25 in Pombal. Inspired by the nomadic and itinerant fluxes of the Fetes and Marches, this project is an original Circus-Fair with artistic direction by Julieta Rodrigues. Until June it will be on tour in 11 Portuguese municipalities: Abrantes, Alcanena, Alcobaça, Almada, Montemor-o-Novo, Montijo, Palmela, Santarém, Sobral de Monte Agraço, Tomar & Torres Vedras. Another multidisciplinary project which includes Filipe Lopes' sound creation, is the installation Selva Coragem (Jungle Courage) by the Teatro do Frio, open to public at the Casa da Memória in Guimarães until April 25. Selva Coragem is a community project constructed from plants borrowed from the local inhabitants. For this installation Filipe Lopes has developed electronic devices and a part of the music composition.

José Afonso: de ouvido e coração (José Afonso: by ear and heart) is a project recomposing various songs of José Afonso, and cocreated by Amílcar Vasques-Dias (composer published by the MIC.PT), which this month will be presented on April 23, 25 and 29, respectively, at the Capuchos Convent in Almada, at the Musibéria Culture Centre in Serpa, and at the Regional Culture Centre in Santarém. These concerts – between classical music, jazz, flamenco, and traditional music – will include the participation of Amílcar Vasques-Dias on the piano, Luís Pacheco Cunha on the violin, of the flamenco singer Esther Merino, the tenor Carlos Guilherme, the soprano Natasa Sibalic, and the fado singer Ricardo Ribeiro.

Premiered in the end of March, the theatre piece Corpsing by the British playwright Peter Barnes, with staging by Gil Salgueiro Nave and music/ sound design by Helder Filipe Gonçalves (composer published by the MIC.PT), is presented at the Beiras Theatre in Covilhã until April 3. On April 8 this piece, performed by the the actors Sílvia Morais, Tiago Moreira and Victor Santos, will be presented at the Avenida Cine-Theatre in Castelo Branco. Corpsing is a generic name of the performance which's composed of four short pieces in one act. It's a meta-theatrical game anchored in the contrast between the opposites, combining the absurdly tragic and the tragically absurd.

In April Igor C. Silva's music will be performed in Europe and in the United States of America. The new sound installation by this composer published by the MIC.PT, You Erase Yourself, whose first presentation is scheduled for April 21 in Spain, will be developed and created during Igor C. Silva's residency with the Arxis Ensemble musicians – Patricia Cadaveira (saxophone) and Noè Rodrigo Gisbert (percussion). It will be taking place between April 14 and 18, in the context of the programme City of Culture – Santiago de Compostela (REGA 22 · Artistic Residencies at the Museo Centro Gaiás). This residency is organised in collaboration with the Luis Seoane Foundation (A Coruña, Spain) and the Resis Festival. You Erase Yourself is an immersive sound installation exploring the concept of time and space dematerialisation, in order to construct, by means of sound and image, an interactive play of perception. During the 2022 Season Igor C. Silva is the Arxis Ensemble Composer-in-Residence. Additionally, on April 9 and 19 at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, and Dance (USA), the JORF Quartet will perform Igor C. Silva's' piece, My Empty Hands (2018) for flexible percussion ensemble, electronics and video. And in the beginning of the month, on April 3, the percussionist Bartłomiej Sutt will perform the piece Zone#1 (2019), an installation for percussion, electronic and video, in the framework of the Nowa Muzyka Festival in Bydgoszcz (Poland).

Four recitals of the opera A Laugh to Cry (2013) – with music, libretto and co-staging by Miguel Azguime (composer published by the MIC.PT) and with video composition/ co-staging by Paula Azguime –, will take place between April 7 and 10 at the O'culto da Ajuda in Lisbon. A Laugh to Cry in a metaphysical theatre reflecting on the devastation of the Earth and the barbarity of the war, on the destruction of the Nature and the loss of civilisational memory, on the hegemonic power of the “market” and the consequent annihilation of the cultures. This work confronts us with the possible collapse of the humanity, but also with its eventual rebirth. The opera's performance, under the baton of Pedro Neves, will be realised by Camila Mandillo and Andrea Conangla (sopranos), André Henriques (bass baritone), Miguel Azguime and Jade Mandillo (speakers); and by the Sond'Ar-te Electric Ensemble. Additionally, a meeting, Music transforms our time, associated with the recitals and around the opera A Laugh to Cry, will take place on April 9 also at the O'culto. Still this month – on April 22 Miguel Azguime's orchestral work La Transfiguration de l’Impossible will be premiered during the International Spring Music Festival in Viseu; and between April 6 & 9 the Teatro-Estúdio Bonifrates in Coimbra will host the Teatro da Rainha's artistic team to present the piece Discurso sobre o Filho-da-Puta by Alberto Pimenta, with staging by Fernando Mora Ramos and with Miguel Azguime's music composition.

The piece nimbos (2021) for soprano saxophone and string orchestra by Lino Guerreiro (composer published by the MIC.PT), will be premiered by João Pedro Silva (saxophone) with the MPMP Ensemble conducted by Jan Wierzba, on April 15 at the São João Cine-Theatre in Palmela. “As said by the performer for whom it is intended, João Pedro Silva, ‘it will be what it has to be’. nimbos is effectively a work that could only be made this way. It tells a story (of our continued collaboration), through a short journey, that by a fine line leaves us in doubt, and that has the purpose of showing that there are no right answers or absolute truths” – explains Lino Guerreiro in the programme note. Another work of his, d’A Volta ao Mundo em 80 Dias (2019), will be performed for the first time in the concert band version, on April 3 at the Culture and Congress Centre in Caldas da Rainha. This concert will be performed by Susana Henriques (speaker, responsible for the text adaptation), and by the Banda Comércio e Indústria conducted by Adelino Mota.

This month Patrícia Sucena de Almeida – composer published by the MIC.PT, multidisciplinary artist and photographer, who in her creative activity is particularly interested in the transversality between various arts –, will present two projects at the exhibition-fete É Primavera no Paço (Spring in the Court), taking place on April 2 at the Paço dos Condes de Tentúgal, an important place in the life of the Baixo Mondego habitants, and in the history of Portugal. The first project Insomnia (video/ photography), created in collaboration with Daniel Antero, reflects on the despair and pain, exploring the “movements” of an eye and its iris. The second project Illusionis (photography/ text), developed with Ana Paula Inácio, is focused on the exploration of the limit between reality and illusion. Organised by the Pescada n.º 5 group, the exhibition-fete É Primavera no Paço will feature in this residential yet abandoned space, more than 50 artistic creations and performances, occupying the ducal palace and the surrounding territories.

Three works by Paulo Bastos (composer published by the MIC.PT) will be performed in concert during this month. On April 9 at the Lisboa Incomum (Portugal–France 2022 Season), the pianist João Tiago Magalhães will perform the piece Ad-sum (2014) in the context of the programme, Portuguese Music for Piano. On the same day at the Apúlia Church in Esposende, the Pequenos Cantores de Esposende Choir and the Ars Vocalis Choir, accompanied by an instrumental ensemble (string quartet, harp, percussion, piano), and under the baton of Helena Venda Lima, will perform a programme dedicated to Portuguese music. It will include Paulo Bastos' Agnus Dei (from Missae Breves, 2015), and works by Telmo Marques, Osvaldo Ferreira, and Pedro Santos (premiere of Pater Noster). Lastly, Paulo Bastos' work Estudos Irreflexivos (2019) makes part of the concert programme, which will be performed by the Kinetix Duo (Fernando Ramos, saxophone; Jeffery Davis, vibraphone), on April 23 at the II Encuentro Inrenacional de Saxofón de La Palma.

Three new works for orchestra by Sara Carvalho, José Carlos Sousa and Miguel Azguime (composers published by the MIC.PT), will be premiered by the Portuguese Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Osvaldo Ferreira, on April 22 at the Pavilhão Multiusos in Viseu, in the context of the International Spring Music Festival in Viseu. The title of the first work, Naked Lunch by Sara Carvalho (written between September 2021 and March 2022), was “taken from a novel by William S. Burroughs published in 1959” – says the composer in the programme note; and she continues: “as it happens in the novel, I've used a sometimes disconnected narrative. In my piece, the music episodes are presented in a way that they don't follow a directly causal pattern, functioning as if they were a sudden immersion into a dream...”. The concert's second work, As 7 Trombetas e a Nova Jerusalém by José Carlos Sousa (composed between December 2021 and March 2022), “draws inspiration from chapters 8, 9 and 21 of the book of Revelation where Seven Angels blow seven trumpets announcing suffering and pain through seven plagues meant to punish humanity; however God expects the conversion of man and for this reason humanity is not destroyed” – says the composer. Lastly, Miguel Azguime's work, La Transfiguration de l’Impossible (written between September 2021 and February 2022), is dedicated “to the entire humanity which today is looking for an alternative for the life on the Earth and for the life of the Earth, aspiring for a new civilisational paradigm, equally opening a new interior and ethical path towards the Being” – reveals the composer in the programme note. These three new works result from joint commissions by the International Spring Music Festival in Viseu and Miso Music Portugal.

Polychromies is a project dedicated to the dissemination of Portuguese and French contemporary music, as well as to specialised education within the performance of this music practice. The entities participating in this initiative, organised in collaboration with the DME Festival, are the French and Portuguese superior-eduction music institutions: the ESM Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, the Arts School at the University of Évora and the Music School of Lisbon (ESML). In the context of the Polychromies, a concert dedicated to Portuguese and French music will take place on April 5, simultaneously in Lisbon (at the Lisboa Incomum, with live streaming), and Dijon (at the ESM Bourgogne-Franche-Comté installations). In Dijon the ESM Bourgogne-Franche-Comté students will present works by the four composers published by the MIC.PT: Carlos Marecos, Christopher Bochmann, Jaime Reis and João Pedro Oliveira. In Lisbon, Monika Streitová (flute), Luís Gomes (clarinet) and Ana Telles (piano), will perform four works by the French composer Vincent-Raphaël Carinola, as well as pieces by Carlos Marecos, Christopher Bochmann and Jaime Reis. The Polychromies makes part of the Portugal-France 2022 Season.

On April 8 and 11, respectively, at the São Teotónio School in Coimbra and at the Ourearte School in Ourém, the Lisbon Contemporary Music Group conducted by Christopher Bochmann, will give two concerts whose programme (Caminhos d’Orfeo – Training) includes the music of the three composers published by the MIC.PT: Christopher Bochmann (Canzona III), Clotilde Rosa (Caminho d'Orfeu), Jorge Peixinho (Estudo II, Remake and Sine nomine), and Pedro Amaral (Étude II sur les colorations); as well as a piece by Alexandre Delgado (Os ingleses fumam cachimbo). These concerts also include the participation of the students from the São Teotónio Music School and the Ourearte Music and Art School, who will perform Jorge Peixinho's work Sine Nomine.

Portuguese Music for Piano is the title of the recital, which the pianist João Tiago Magalhães will perform at the Lisboa Incomum on April 9. The programme of this recital includes works ranging from popular & ethnographic to electronic inspiration, written by various composers published by the MIC.PT: Carlos Marecos (Terras por de Trás dos Montes), Eduardo Luís Patriarca (Mantra 3), Fernando C. Lapa (Variações sobre o “Coro da Primavera” de José  Afonso), Paulo Bastos (Ad-sum); as well as Fernando Lopes-Graça (Variações sobre um Tema Popular Português), João Carlos Pinto (Quatro Canções Tradicionais Portuguesas), and Mafalda Silva (Opiário, para piano e electrónica).

The two first meetings of the cycle Behind Sound and Image will take place on April 30/ May 1 at the O'culto da Ajuda in Lisbon. This cycle, constituted of four meetings, is dedicated to music and sound in cinema, with the aim to discover, explore and “hear” the possible interactions between sound and image in various films from Portuguese and international, classical and experimental cinematography. In this context on April 30, Jakub Szczypa will moderate the meeting with Daniel Moreira (composer published by the MIC.PT and researcher of sound and music in cinema), who will talk about the “musicality” in the cinema of David Lynch, focusing on the film Mulholland Drive (2001), named by the BBC in 2016 as the “best 21st century movie”. At the second Meeting, on May 1, Pedro Boléo will moderate the conversation with the musicologist Manuel Deniz Silva (expert in music and sound in Portuguese cinema), focusing on the use of Emmanuel Nunes' music in Manoel de Oliveira's film, Voyage to the Beginning of the World (1997). The cycle Behind Sound and Image will continue in May (May 14 & 15), and it'll include the participation of the creative double: Susana de Sousa Dias (director) and António de Sousa Dias (composer).

The works by the two composers published by the MIC.PT – Nuno e os Monstros (2008) by Isabel Soveral with the story by Ágata Mandillo, and Uma Mesa é uma Mesa. Será? (2008) by José Luís Ferreira with the story by Isabel Minhós Martins –, are included in the performance of the Sound Told Fairy Tales, taking place on April 27 at the O'culto da Ajuda in Lisbon. This performance, organised in collaboration with the National Arts Plan and involving live streaming to various primary schools in Portugal, also includes the pieces: O pássaro da cabeça (2015) with music by Joana Sá to the poem by Manuel António Pina, and A Velha e o Ladrão (2008) with music by Sérgio Pelágio and the story by António Torrado. This performance includes the participation of Ana Baptista and Miguel Azguime, as narrators, with the sound projection realised by Paula Azguime. The Sound Told Fairy Tales project – directed to young audiences and created by the Miso Music Portugal to give continuation to the disappearing tradition of storytelling – offers an innovative and enriched way of telling and listening to a story, with the sonic layer suggesting and complementing the semantic meaning of the words.

In March the New Music Review Lounge/ Espaço Crítica para a Nova Música has published a new text by Tiago Schwäbl – A arte não aflige ninguém… (in Portuguese) –, dedicated to the opera Manifesto Nada, premiered on February 17 at the Sobralinho Palace. With the music by António de Sousa Dias, and Alexandre Lyra Leite's staging and libretto (based on Tristan Tzara DADA Manifests), the recitals of this opera-manifest against and in favour of everything and decidedly about nothing, included the performance by Rui Baeta (baritone), Joana Manuel and Célia Teixeira (sopranos), Fábio Oliveira (trumpet), Philippe Trovão (tenor saxophone), Guilherme Reis (double bass) and António de Sousa Dias (electronics).

Do you know that there is a simple way to support the MIC.PT/ Miso Music Portugal activities? Each Portuguese citizen and resident can dedicate 0.5% from the IRS (Personal Income Tax) to a non-profit institution! This value isn't associated with any additional cost for the taxpayer, since it's taken directly from the tax entering into the State coffers. In the IRS tax annual Statement (model no. 3 · table no. 11) simply chose the Instituições Culturais option and insert the tax number: 504 732 595. Supporting the MIC.PT/ Miso Music Portugal activities allows you to become the patron of new music within innovative projects, and to contribute for the research and dissemination of the music created by composers residing and active in Portugal.
Thank you for your support!

Joining the various and multiple voices already manifested by the international music community, the MIC.PT – Portuguese Music Research & Information Centre and the Miso Music Portugal express their complete solidarity with Ukraine, its People, Artists, Musicians, and Composers. We denounce all acts of aggression and war cruelty threatening Life, Civilisation, Art and Culture. Culture, Art and Music stand for such values as Peace, Freedom, Creation and Development, which are in the core of our whole activity. The brutal attacks presently happening in Ukraine are the total antithesis of these values. Quoting the words of Dr. Glenda Keam, President of the ISCM – International Society for Contemporary Music, this horrible aggression destabilises Peace and destroys Musical Life. ‘Without Musical Life there is no Real Living’. We fervently hope that this unjust and pointless war will be urgently brought to an end.

The Cultural Association Francisco de Lacerda – A Música e o Mundo has announced the first edition of the Francisco de Lacerda Composition Prize, whose aim is to award orchestral works, and to promote young music creation in Portugal. The winning work will be performed by the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra, and the Prize organisers guarantee its recording and premiere at the final concert of the Francisco de Lacerda Sonic Atlantic Meetings 2022 in Lisbon. The Prize is dedicated to composers up to 35 years of age, and residing in Portugal (Portuguese citizens or foreigners). The competition works should be submitted until July 1, and the winning piece will be announced after July 15. The Prize's jury is presided by the composer Vasco Mendonça, who is also artistic director of the Atlantic Meetings 2022. The jury also includes the composers Felipe Lara, Andreia Pinto Correia and Carlos Caires, as well as Pedro Neves, artistic director of the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra.

In order to encourage the creation and diffusion of new electroacoustic works, the Miso Music Portugal promotes the 23rd International Electroacoustic Composition Competition – Música Viva 2022. This initiative is directed to composers of all ages and nationalities. Each participant can submit only one work, which hasn't been comercially released and which hasn't been awarded at any other national or international competition. The deadline for the works’ submission is August 31, 2022. The winning work will be announced during the Música Viva 2022 Festival, which will be taking place at the O’culto da Ajuda in Lisbon between November 18 and 27. The International Jury of the Música Viva 2021 Competition is comprised of the composers: Jonty Harrison (United Kingdom) · Kees Tazelaar (the Netherlands) · Miguel Azguime (Portugal).

Since February, two new In the 1st Person Interviews (in Portuguese) – with the composers Ângela da Ponte and Filipe Esteves –, are available on the MIC.PT YouTube Channel.
Presently the MIC.PT YouTube Channel contains 16 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, conducted by Pedro Boléo, were filmed at the O'culto da Ajuda in Lisbon and realised in the context of the In the 1st Person cycle of the Music Today and Research & Invention Music radio broadcasts, 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 (in Portuguese) follow the links below or visit the MIC.PT YouTube Channel.