This May the MIC.PT In Focus section is dedicated to José Carlos Sousa, composer and professor, who in 2022 celebrates his 50th anniversary.
José Carlos Sousa studied Composition and Electroacoustic Music with Evgueni Zoudilkine, João Pedro Oliveira and Isabel Soveral, having attended seminars led by Jorge Antunes, Alain Sève, Tomás Henriques, Flo Menezes, François Bayle and Emmanuel Nunes. Together with Paula Sobral he's organiser and artistic director of the International Classical Guitar Festival and Competition in Sernancelhe. Since 2008 he has been the organiser and artistic director of the International Spring Music Festival in Viseu. Many of his works have been commissioned by Portuguese and international institutions and his music has been performed at various Portuguese and international festivals in Europe and America. One of his most recent works The 7 Trumpets and the New Jerusalem (2021-2022), resulting from a joint commission by the Miso Music Portugal and the International Spring Music Festival in Viseu, was premiered in April by the Portuguese Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Osvaldo Ferreira. Presently José Carlos Sousa is professor of Composition and pedagogical director at the “Dr. José de Azevedo Perdigão” Regional Conservatory in Viseu.

A concert with the participation of various young pianists from the Music Conservatory in Paredes (class of professor Enóe Ferrão), who will be performing the music by Ângela Lopes and Cândido Lima (composers published by the MIC.PT), will take place on May 18 at the Conservatory. The concert will be preceded with a short presentation realised by the composers. Also this month, on May 27, Ângela Lopes' piece for flute and electronics, Mahâr_two minutes, will be premiered in the context of the NMpNM – New Music for New Musicians concert integrated in the programme of the Aveiro_Síntese 2022 Electroacoustic Music Biennale, organised by the Arte no Tempo Association. “For me ‘to create’ music and art is, in general, a synonym for invention. Either in experimental music and in the one of pure research, or still in the formal music, art is always invention where the ‘attempt and error’ and the search for new paths lives side by side with the knowledge. It’s a matter of balancing research and invention (or innovation!) of new harmonies, new colours, new timbres...” – said Ângela Lopes in the Interview published in the MIC.PT in March 2022.

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 (Porto). ‘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 have never seen. 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). The work will be performed again by the Sond'Ar-te Electric Ensemble, on May 23 at the O'culto da Ajuda in Lisbon.

On May 27 & 28, at the O'culto da Ajuda in Lisbon and at the Teatro da Rainha in Caldas da Rainha, Bruno Gabirro (composer published by the MIC.PT) and Rui Silva (percussionist) will present in concert the project Aduf&lectrónica, in the context of which they have been working on the adufe and live electronics in the form of written and improvised music. ‘Aduf&lectrónica takes the adufe to the classical music tradition’ – say Bruno Gabirro & Rui Silva; and they continue: ‘despite making part of our collective imagination, even outside the regions where it's autochthonous and with the exception of one or another situation, the adufe has been circumscribed to traditional music. If this condition has granted it an almost mythical aura, it has also taken from it the true possibilities of development and expansion as an instrument on its own. Thus we offer a project encompassing research, experimentation, and writing & performance of new pieces. Given the project's original, investigative, and work-in-progress character, it has been developed since 2019.’

Two works by Cândido Lima, composer published by the MIC.PT, will be presented in the context of the Aveiro_Síntese 2022 Electroacoustic Music Biennale, organised by the Arte no Tempo Association (May 19-29, Teatro Aveirense). The first one, Lendas de Neptuno (1987) for 2-channel electronics (tape), is included in the concert Around Varèse, which will take place on May 20, and whose programme was conceived by Pedro Bento, researcher in the areas of Music Organology and Acoustics. The world premiere of Cândido Lima's second work CADENZA-MONODIA-quando se abrir o sol (2021-2022) for viola and electronics, will be performed at the Aveiro_Síntese 2022 by Ana Margarida Lamelas (viola) and Luís Antunes Pena (electronics) on May 28. Additionally, on May 29 at the Lisboa Incomum, Cândido Lima will give a conference The Voice and the Sound. Xenakis, May 29, 1922 – May 29, 2022, which will be followed by an acousmatic music concert with two works in the programme: BOHOR (1962) by Iannis Xenakis and A-MÈR-ES (1978-1979) by Cândido Lima.

Igor C. Silva's multimedia opera, Follow (2021) for singer/ performer, ensemble and electronics, will be presented on May 21 in the framework of the Dag in de Branding Festival (the Hague, the Netherlands). With the libretto by Aaron Landsman, this new work was created for the performer Stephanie Pan and for the Klang Ensemble, having been commissioned by the Gaudeamus and the Miso Music Portugal. Follow is a one-woman opera exploring the shifty language of the truth... The opera's creators explain in the programme notes: ‘News spreads quickly: it accelerates, goes viral and soon nobody has control over it. We swipe and follow and try to reflect on how it relates to us. How does it feel to seek a truth, find it, lose it, and end up losing yourself in the process? In Follow voices, sounds, and lights bounce around in a dizzying spectacle that wraps the audience in waves.’ Additionally this month, the work Drive_! (2013) for vibraphone, multipercussion, and electronics, by Igor C. Silva (composer published by the MIC.PT), will be performed by Johathan Silva on May 22 at the Aveirense Theatre, in the context of the electroacoustic music biennale Aveiro_Síntese 2022 organised by the Arte no Tempo Association.

On May 22 & 23, at the Casa da Música in Porto & at the O'culto da Ajuda in Lisbon, the Sond'Ar-te Electric Ensemble conducted by Pedro Carneiro will perform a portrait-concert dedicated to Isabel Soveral. Its programme will include five works by this composer published by the MIC.PT, written since the 1980s until today: Fragmentos I (1984) for piano, Fragmentos I, II e III (2019) for cello and piano, Mémoires d'Automne – Tableau I (1999) for marimba, Le Navigateur du Soleil Incandescent – Quatrième Lettre (2010) for ensemble & electronics, and the world premiere of Salsugem – 2.º quadro (2021) for soprano & ensemble, commissioned by the Miso Music Portugal. The concert's programme will be complemented with the world premiere of the work Suite Pentolítica (2021) for seven instruments by António Chagas Rosa (composer published by the MIC.PT), commissioned by the Sond'Ar-te. Additionally, on May 15 at the Municipal Auditorium in Ferrol (Spain), the programme of the VII Mostra Musical organised by the Eixo Atlântico, will include an homage to Isabel Soveral. “Music is the place where I know who I am, where I find the sense of my existence and peace” – said Isabel Soveral in the MIC.PT Interview from April 2021.

During the month of May, Hugo Vasco Reis' music, will be presented in Finland, Switzerland and Portugal. The work Labyrinth of Stillness (2021), for harpsichord, harp, and kannel, will be performed by the Una Corda Ensemble on May 15 in the context of the Nordic Historical Keyboard Festival (Kuopio, Finland). On the same day, the world premiere of Som Manifesto (2022), for Portuguese guitar, objects, electronics and loudspeakers in movement, will be performed by the composer at the Toni Areal – Konzertsaal 2 (Zurich, Switzerland). Also in Zurich (Toni Areal – Konzertsaal 1), on May 21, Hugo Vasco Reis will perform and diffuse his acousmatic work Polyphonic Mass (2021). Finally, on May 29 at the Loreto Church in Lisbon, the choir Nova Era Vocal Ensemble, conducted by João Barros, will give the premiere performance of Hugo Vasco Reis' work Sleeping Landscapes (2020), which's included on the composer's most recent CD entitled Voices and Landscapes.

This month Jaime Reis, composer published by the MIC.PT, will give two conferences at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (France): on May 9 a presentation entitled Short overview in parametric loudspeakers array technology and its implications in spatialisation in electronic music; and on May 10 a conference dedicated to the theme Exploring polyphony in spatial patterns in acousmatic music. Additionally, in April, in the context of their tour in the United States of America, the Contracello Duo – constituted by Miguel Rocha (violoncello) and Adriano Aguiar (double bass) – premiered Jaime Reis' work entitled noeud.navire. (2020-2021). ‘In 2018 I have taken an approach to composition making reference to autotelic processes. The development of the materials comes from the work's intrinsic elements. The knot (nœud) faces the path's essence, giving orientation to the ship (navire)’ – explains the composer in the programme note.

Ludi Aeterni (2022) for piano, flute, scenery (swing), performance and video, using ‘disguised quotations as childhood memories’, is the new work by Patrícia Sucena de Almeida, which will be premiered by the Sond'Ar-te Duo – Sílvia Cancela (flute) and Elsa Silva (piano), on May 30 at the O'culto da Ajuda in Lisbon. ‘In addition to a relation with the memories of the childhood plays/ games (Ludi), in this work I explore the idea to preserve them eternally (Aeterni), with nostalgic returns leading us to the children's imagination of the lived experiences and to the past memories relived either via participation and physical recovery or solely being a spectator’ – reveals this composer published by the MIC.PT in the programme note. Additionally, one of the projects, entitled Illusions, recently co-created by Patrícia Sucena de Almeida who's also a photographer and multidisciplinary artist, makes part of the Caiu a Noite – Pescada N.º 5 exhibition, open until June 26 at the Municipal Museum in Coimbra and integrated in the Convergent Programming of the Anozero 21-22 Contemporary Art Biennale of Coimbra. The project Illusions (photography/ text) has been developed with Ana Paula Inácio, and it is focused on the exploration of the limit between the reality and illusion.

Two works by Miguel Azguime, composer published by the MIC.PT, will be presented at the O'culto da Ajuda in Lisbon in May. The first one, Aliterações de Água (2017) for soprano and electronics, will be performed by Camila Mandillo on May 7, in the context of the concert whose programme will include the winning work of the 11th Sond'Ar-te Electric Ensemble Composition Competition (Xénolithe by Daniel Arango-Prada), as well as works by the members of the competition's jury, which apart from Miguel Azguime also included the composers, Stefano Gervasoni and Philippe Leroux. At this concert the Sond'Ar-te will be conducted by Pedro Neves. The second Miguel Azguime's piece, Par ce chemin de rien (2020) for flute and piano, will be performed by the Sond'Ar-te Duo – Sílvia Cancela (flute) and Elsa Silva (piano), on May 30 (Antena 2 Recital). ‘Par ce chemin de rien is being prepared while tuning the out of tune; it seems like a joke, but it actually opens the sharp perception of the flute's base feature and one of its blind angles: the angle of such a variable woodwind, here combined with a displaced tuning, a kind of woodwind scordatura’ – wrote Tiago Schwäbl about the work's premiere at the Música Viva 2021 Festival (Espaço Crítica para a Nova Música).

The sessions no. 3 and 4 of the cycle Behind Sound and Image will take place on May 14 and 15 at the O'culto da Ajuda in Lisbon. This cycle 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. On May 14, the session moderated by Pedro Boléo will be dedicated to the sound in the documentary Fordlândia Malaise (2019) and it'll include the participation of the creative double, Susana de Sousa Dias (director) and António de Sousa Dias (composer published by the MIC.PT). At the cycle's last session, on May 15, Pedro Boléo will be talking with the Miso Ensemble (Paula Azguime and Miguel Azguime, composer published by the MIC.PT) about the music and sound in Joaquim Pinto's film Uma pedra no bolso (1987).

The 2022 edition of the Aveiro_Síntese biennale will be taking place between May 19 and 29 at the Teatro Aveirense in Aveiro (Portugal). As in the past editions, the biennale's programme will include installations, films, as well as acousmatic and mixed music concerts, with works by various composers published by the MIC.PT, such as: Ângela da Ponte, Ângela Lopes, Cândido Lima, Igor C. Silva or João Pedro Oliveira. The Aveiro_Síntese 2022 biennale is a project by the Arte no Tempo Association, produced in partnership with the Teatro Aveirense, with the support of the DGARTES and the Aveiro Municipality.

On May 30 the O'culto da Ajuda in Lisbon will host another Antena 2 Live Recital, with Portuguese exceptional musicians performing the music by Portuguese contemporary composers. This time the O'culto's stage will receive the duo constituted by the Sond’Ar-te Electric Ensemble Soloists – Sílvia Cancela (flute) and Elsa Silva (piano). They will perform a programme dedicated to the music of various composers published by the MIC.PT. The works included in the programme are: My shadow walks home with me (2011) by Sara Carvalho, Três quadros sobre o fado (2013) by Rui Penha, Par ce chemin de rien (2019-20) by Miguel Azguime and Ludi Aeterni (2022) by Patrícia Sucena de Almeida (world premiere).

In April the New Music Review lounge/ Espaço Crítica para a Nova Música has published the text by Cândido Lima – Crónica de uma viagem a sons de invenção humana –, dedicated to the exhibition OBJECTOS SONOROS MALcriados by João Ricardo, open to the public between April and May 2021 at the Old Palaces of the Viana de Castelo Municipality.

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 Lisbon OperaFest festival and the MPMP Património Musical Vivo, have announced the 3rd edition of the contemporary opera competition Opera XXI Marathon. This year the challenge is to disseminate small-format contemporary repertoire and to promote new talents dedicated to staging operas, coming from theatre, dance, cinema or performance. The competition involves two selections: in the first moment, one will chose short operas by contemporary composers, written in the last thirty years; in the second moment, on will select the young stage directors (up to 35 years old), who will revisit the operas within a public performance. The best staging will receive the Carlos de Pontes Leça Award. The Opera XXI Marathon aims at invigorating the Portuguese music life in order to create the opera of the future, bringing it closer to the contemporary world.

The International Music Festival of Póvoa de Varzim (FIMPV) has announced the fifteenth edition of the International Composition Competition of Póvoa de Varzim (CICPV). The CICPV is open to composers of all nationalities born after December 1, 1985. The chamber music ensemble invited to perform for this year’s competition is the AVA Ensemble (two violins, viola, violoncello, and soprano), and the competing works should use at least three instruments of this formation, always including the voice. The works should have a duration between 8 (eight) and 15 (fifteen) minutes, and they must be strictly unpublished; all works made public or commissioned by any other entities will be excluded. The jury is constituted by Anne Victorino d’Almeida (President), Nuno Côrte-Real, and Daniel Bernardes. The deadline for submitting the works is May 25, 2022.

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.