In September the MIC.PT In Focus section presents a new Questionnaire/ Interview with Patrícia Sucena de Almeida, marking the 50th anniversary of this composer, researcher, photographer, and multidisciplinary/ transversal artist.
Patrícia Sucena de Almeida's music embraces various music genres, but the distinctive element in her work is the multidisciplinary approach allying music with other forms of art. This interactive and interdisciplinary path, continued and developed by the composer in her most recent creations, is based on the research realised within her Postdoctoral Thesis (University of Aveiro, 2007-2013), in the framework of which Patrícia Sucena de Almeida created the Transversal Multi Art concept applied to compositional models.
Presently this composer published by the MIC.PT divides her activities between Composition teaching, and music writing. Among her ongoing projects one needs to highlight the revision of the piece Ludi Aeterni (2022) with regard to the video, and the finalisation of the the piece augurium #1, which emerged from the research of Olivier Messiaen's music. This new work for solo piano makes part of the Trio de Damas project promoted by the Musicamera Produções, paying tribute to the three Portuguese 20th-century pianists: Helena Sá e Costa, Nella Maíssa and Olga Prats.

The work Sem pedras não há arco (2019) by Ângela da Ponte, composer published by the MIC.PT, will be performed by the Famalicão Youth Orchestra (JOF) conducted by José Eduardo Gomes, during the 4th Edition of the JOF residency at the Casa das Artes in Vila Nova de Famalicão. The concerts, whose programme also includes Mahler's 1st Symphony, will take place on September 2 & 3. The work Sem pedras não há arco is based on Italo Calvino's book Invisible Cities, ‘exploring the arch concept in different manners, and the idea of stone as something rigid and immutable’, says Ângela da Ponte. Another creation, Uma curva francesa decide atravessar o Alentejo às escuras, realised in collaboration between Ângela da Ponte, Cristina Ataíde (plastic artist), and João Gesta (writer), makes part of the De casa para um mundo (From Home to a World) exhibition, open to the public until October 9 at the Casa da Cultura Mestre José Rodrigues in Alfândega da Fé (22nd International Cerveira Art Biennial). During the pandemic this project united creators from various artistic areas. Additionally, two Ângela da Ponte's works will be presented in the context of the project, 33,7 – a two-day festival of New Music by Lucilin, happening on September 17 & 18 at the Kulturfabrik Esch-sur-Alzette (Luxembourg); the pieces are: Homenagem Subconsciente (2015), acousmatic music, and Paradox (2017) for string quartet.

The opera O Homem dos Sonhos (2022), with the music of António Chagas Rosa (composer published by the MIC.PT) and the libretto extracted from the story by Mário de Sá-Carneiro, will be performed on September 10 at the Garden of the National Ancient Art Museum in the context of the Operafest Lisbon 2022. O Homem dos Sonhos (The Man of Dreams), a commission by the Ópera do Castelo Company, reflects on the human condition, on the tenuous thread separating insanity and sanity, the dream and reality, summing up the eternal human dissatisfaction and continuous obsession in transcending the limits of time, space and gender. This 7-scene opera tells the story of a mysterious and elegant man who while dreaming travels to lands of new and indescribable colours, to cities where the gas that one breathes is composed of music, to countries with more than two sexes, where not the body but the soul is visible... With music direction by Jan Wierzba and stage direction by Miguel Loureiro, the opera will be performed by the MPMP Ensemble, the soprano Catarina Molder (O Homem dos Sonhos), and the baritone Christian Luján (Poet). Additionally, excerpts of another opera by António Chagas Rosa, Cânticos para a Remissão da Fome (1990-1994), will be performed in the context of the Operafest 2022 – 3rd Opera XXI Marathon Competition for New Stage Directors (September 6).

The work Memorial (2018) for orchestra by António Pinho Vargas, will be presented on September 2 during the Avante! Festival in Seixal, in the context of a Symphonic Concert celebrating the 100th anniversary of José Saramago. ‘The main challenge in composing the work Memorial, written to celebrate the 20 years after José Saramago's Nobel Prize, was to try to use, in manners that I could find, the great metaphors of the writer's trilogy, Blindness, Seeing, and Death at Intervals. The latter book has remained in my work as a background, underground panel, or unspeakable place. Thus, the titles of the work's four movements are: I Da Cegueira (On Blindness), II Da Cegueira (con basso profondo), III Da Violência (On Violence) and IV Da Lucidez (as luzes) (On Lucidity [the lights])’ – explains António Pinho Vargas (composer published by the MIC.PT) in the programme note. This concert, whose programme will also include the music of Scarlatti, Beethoven, Bach, Elgar and Mozart, will be performed by the Lisbon Sinfonietta, Vasco Pearce de Azevedo (conductor), and the soloists: Mafalda Nejmeddine (harpsichord), Marco Pereira (cello), Alexandra Bernardo (soprano) and Armando Possante (baritone).

Cândido Lima's new work GRAFFITI-cenários de uma casa lunar (2022) for flute(s), clarinet(s), violoncello and percussion, will be premiered on September 30 in the context of the concert Obras Portuenses da Década de 20 (Portuguese Works from the 2020s), at the São Pedro de Miragaia Church in Porto. ‘Music is an abstract art and science, and these musical GRAFFITI hide and honour the visual graffiti (sketches) by the urban artists and by Álvaro da Siza Vieira, architect of the Housing Complex in the Bouça Quarter in Porto’ – tells Cândido Lima (composer published by the MIC.PT) about this new work, commissioned to him by the Sonoscopia. The performance of this concert will be realised by the Supernova Ensemble (Clara Saleiro, flute; Frederic Cardoso, clarinet; João Dias, percussion; Carina Albuquerque, cello), and its programme will also include new works by Ângela Lopes, Isabel Soveral (composers published by the MIC.PT), and by Álvaro Salazar. For the 2022 edition the Obras Portuenses da Década de 20 project (Cultura em Expansão) has invited four Portuguese composers, to make a reflection, translated into music, emphasising what life in Porto is today – ‘listening to the city today, to think of the future’.

The new work by Eli Camargo Júnior (composer published by the MIC.PT), José e o Vento (2022) for soprano, clarinet in B flat and guitar duo (commissioned by the International Guitar Festival in Fundão), will be premiered on September 11 at the Culture Centre in Fundão, A Moagem – City of Ingenuity and Arts. This Concert (Homage to Eugénio de Andrade), will close the 2nd edition of the International Guitar Festival in Fundão, and it will be performed by Maria Mendes (soprano), Carlos Alves (clarinet), Manuel Toucinho and Pedro Rufino (MP GuitarDuo), and Judicael Perroy (solo guitar). Promoted by the Fundão Municipality and the Concordis Association, with the support of the Music and Dance Academy in Fundão, the Festival presents an eclectic and transversal programme with all the music styles, under one condition – the existence of a guitar or an instrument from the same family, integrated in all the artistic formations participating in the Festival.

In September Hugo Vasco Reis' two works will be presented in the Netherlands and Switzerland. Premiered in July, the work Dimensions IV (2022) for cello and electronics will be performed on September 10 by Katharine Gross at the Gaudeamus Muziekweek in Utrecht (the Netherlands), in the framework of which this German cellist will present her cellomondo #3 project. Another Hugo Vasco Reis' work, Micro Images for Two Violins (2022), commissioned by the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana for the Tracce-Manfred project, will be recorded on September 11 in Cologny (Switzerland) by Robert Kowalski (concertmaster of the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana), and then broadcast (in video format) on the Swiss television. Additionally, Hugo Vasco Reis (composer published by the MIC.PT) is working on the new CD edition entitled Tateabilidade, which will include his works for Portuguese guitar, objects and electronics.

Three works by Igor C. Silva, composer published by the MIC.PT, will be presented in the framework of the 33,7 project, happening on September 17 & 18 at the Kulturfabrik Esch-sur-Alzette in Luxembourg. In this context one should highlight the premiere of the multimedia immersive installation/ performance, All Limits (2022), commissioned to Igor C. Silva by United Instruments of Lucilin. The performance of All Limits will be realised by the musicians from this Luxembourgian ensemble, and by Luka Batista (programming assistant) & Olivier Lang/ Mad Trix (lighting tehcnician). Other two Igor C. Silva's works included in the 33,7 programme are: I’m bored at home (2020), multimedia piece for flexible trio, electronics & video; and Numb (2015) for baritone saxophone & electronics. 33,7 by United Instruments of Lucilin, is based on the idea of a musical cartography portraying the population mix of the Luxembourgian south and its French neighbouring region. This mix & diversity will be transcribed into 2022 minutes (33,7 hours!) of music, including various works by Portuguese composers: Ângela da Ponte, Carlos Azevedo, Dimitris Andrikopoulos, Eugénio Rodrigues, Fátima Fonte, Filipe Vieira, Francisca Martins, Igor C. Silva, Miguel Moreira, Nuno Peixoto de Pinho, Pedro Santos & Telmo Marques.

Geometrias do Inelidível is a multidisciplinary performance, involving music, dance, video, and poetry, and conceived by Jaime Reis (composer published by the MIC.PT). Its base is the conceptual web of the composer's work-in-progress, Sangue Inverso – Inverso Sangue, for flute, clarinet, piano, violin, viola and violoncello. This project joins a team of artists from various areas, who will be working at a residency in Seia between September 1 and 10 – Nuno Veiga (stage direction), Yola Pinto (dance), Joana Manuel (actress), Brigitte Schuermans (visual artist), Miguel Mesquita da Cunha (text), the DME Ensemble and the conductor Pedro Pinto Figueiredo. The performance will be presented at the Municipal House of Culture in Seia, on September 11. Additionally, Jaime Reis will participate in the acousmatic music festival Echoes Around Me 2022, taking place between September 26 and October 2 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna (Austria). The festival will join two loudspeaker orchestras (the Brussels Acousmonium – Musiques & Recherches, and the Vienna Acousmonium) into a full line-up of 64 loudspeakers. In the context of this festival Jaime Reis will give a masterclass (Composition spatial polyphony in acousmatic music), and a concert, Carte blanche à Jaime Reis.

The 3rd edition of the Opera XXI Marathon Competition, organised in the framework of the Operafest Lisbon 2022 and coproduced by the MPMP Património Musical Vivo, will take place on September 6 at the Garden of the National Ancient Art Museum in Lisbon. This Competition (Opera Express for New Stage Directors) aims at promoting the already existing, contemporary, small-format, opera repertoire, in Portuguese, and the emergence of new talents within opera staging and direction. In this sense the candidates will present their staging proposals of the excerpts from the two operas selected for the Competition, written by the two composers published by the MIC.PT: António Chagas Rosa (Cânticos para a Remissão da Fome from 1994) and Daniel Moreira (Barão e Duquesa. Ninguém e todo o mundo from 2018). The winner, distinguished with the Carlos de Pontes Leça Prize, will be selected by the Jury constituted by: Catarina Molder, Edward Ayres de Abreu, Sandra Faleiro, Miguel Loureiro and Rui Horta. This Marathon will also present the premiere of the opera Minotauro: apontamento para um recomeço by João Ricardo, winner of the Carlos de Pontes Leça Prize at the Competition's previous edition. The music direction of the operas will be realised by maestro Jan Wierzba who will conduct the MPMP Ensemble, joined by the singers: Ana Rita Coelho, Beatriz Volante, Catarina Mouro and João Valido Vaz.

Between September 4 and 8 the Casa de Mateus Foundation in Vila Real, restoring its long-time tradition, will be the stage for music teaching and practice, this time receiving the Academy To Sound Out, Decipher, & Perform the Music of our Time, an initiative of the Sond'Ar-te Electric Ensemble. The Academy is directed to music instrument students of secondary and higher levels, and its participants will have the opportunity to: 1) work on contemporary works by Portuguese and international composers, under the direction of maestro Pedro Carnerio, during the ensemble sessions; 2) work on contemporary techniques at individual and ensemble sessions, with the Sond'Ar-te soloists: Sílvia Cancela (flute), Nuno Pinto (clarinet), Vítor Vieira (violin), Luís André Ferreira (violoncello), Elsa Silva (piano), Francisco Cabrita (piano) and João Casimiro de Almeida (piano); 3) learn about the relations of the acoustic instruments with the new technologies, with Miguel Azguime (composer published by the MIC.PT), actively participating in the electroacoustic interpretation of the studied works. The Academy's last day will feature a feast and a music fusion – the performance of the Mateus Philharmonic Band, and finally, the Closing Concert with the Academy's students conducted by maestro Pedro Carnerio. The concert's programme will include works by various composers published by the MIC.PT: António de Sousa Dias (Variação sobre Glosa), Carlos Caires (Propagation), Gonçalo Gato (Equilíbrio), Luís Antunes Pena (Konvolut), Ricardo Ribeiro (In Limine) and Rui Penha (Pendulum).

On September 16 at the O'culto da Ajuda in Lisbon, the American pianist, conductor, and composer, Larry Axelrod, will present a piano recital entitled (Dis)quiet, whose programme includes three works by the two composers published by the MIC.PT: Peça com Vista (2018) by Diogo Alvim, and Mantra 3 (2007) and Meditação (2007) by Eduardo Luís Patriarca. In the context of this recital Larry Axelrod will also perform his own composition entitled (un)settled (2022), as well as the music of Jane O’Leary, Oliver Knussen, Tera de Marez-Oyens and Toru Takemitsu. ‘How can composers express quiet and disquiet? How can these opposites find their way into the same composition in unexpected ways? How can composers use the concepts of silence, architecture and dislocation to inspire a composition?’ – asks Larry Axelrod. ‘This recital of contemporary works spanning three continents and five decades explores these questions, using vastly different musical languages and pianistic techniques. Two of the works are premieres.’

The most recent discographic edition by the Astrus Duo (Manuel Teles, saxophone; Paulo Amendoeira, percussion), entitled Ascolta!, will be released under the MPMP Património Musical Vivo label, on September 2 at the National Library of Portugal in Lisbon. This new CD includes the following works by the two composers published by the MIC.PT: Angel Rock (2011) by João Pedro Oliveira, and  Canção I – I Ascolta (2020) by João Quinteiro; as well as Fragmentos, interlúdio e canção IV (2018) by Daniel Bernardes, Pattern (2017-2018) by Paulo Jorge Ferreira, and Scenes from the City (2007) by Telmo Marques. During the release session the Astrus Duo will perform some of the works from the new album, and the two musicians will also moderate an open conversation with the composers.

On September 17 at the O'culto da Ajuda in Lisbon, the young saxophonist Manuel Teles will give a solo saxophone recital entitled Tra Lisbona e Milano. Its programme will include the following four works by the three composers published by the MIC.PT: Essay XIII (2001) by Christopher Bochmann, Integrais IV (1987) by João Pedro Oliveira, Saxopera II (2001) and Musique Céréale (1993-1999) by Vítor Rua; and also three other pieces by the Italian composers, Giacinto Scelsi and Luca Francesconi. Born in 2002, Manuel Teles is a young saxophonist already awarded at various national and international competitions, as a soloist and chamber music performer, such as: RTP – Antena 2 Young Musicians' Award, Ise-Shima International Competition, MCO Opus Artis Paris, and the INATEL Foundation Young Soloists Prize. He attended the Music Conservatory in Palmela, and the Metropolitana Professional School, having studied with João Pedro Silva. Later he enrolled at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan (Mario Marzi' class), where he presently continues his studies.

In July the New Music Review Lounge/ Espaço Crítica para a Nova Música has published the text by Pedro Boléo (in Portuguese) – Música que convida a pensar –, dedicated to the Final Concert of the Music at the University of Lisbon Season, entitled A Arte do Saber (The Art of Knowledge). It took place on July 10 at the Aula Magna (Uni of Lisbon), having been performed by the University of Lisbon Academic Orchestra conducted by Tiago Oliveira. The concert's programme included three new works by young Portuguese composers: Interlúdios para Warhol e Basquiat by Fábio Cachão, Penso em ti, logo sou – Homenagem a António Coimbra de Matos by Diogo da Costa Ferreira, and Três Miniaturas by Francisco Lima da Silva.

In order to encourage the creation and dissemination of new musical works, the Sond’Ar-te Electric Ensemble is announcing and organising the 12th edition of the International Composition Competition – New Chamber Music with Electronics. This initiative is open to composers of any age and nationality. Each contestant can submit only one work, lasting between 7 and 15 minutes, and composed in or after 2017. The submitted pieces must not have been commercially published or awarded at any other national or international competition. Winners of the previous Sond’Ar-te Competitions can't participate in the present edition. The jury of the 12th Sond’Ar-te Electric Ensemble Competition is composed of: Agata Zubel, Jêrome Combier, Pedro Neves and Miguel Azguime. The Competition's deadline is October 31, 2022.

Produced and curated by the researchers, Cristina Fernandes, Manuel Deniz Silva and Tiago Manuel da Hora, and organised by the PROFMUS project, the exhibition To Be a Musician in Portugal (1750-1985) – a journey through the history of music organisations in Portugal is open to the public at the Portuguese Music Museum – Casa Verdades de Faria (Monte Estoril) between July 2 and November 6. It is an unprecedented and pioneering initiative presenting to the public an extraordinary richness of documents and materials preserved within various collections (Irmandade de Santa Cecília/ Montepio Filarmónico – Basílica dos Mártires; Historical Archive of the Musicians' Syndicate deposited in the Portuguese Music Museum). It is also an essential source for the history of music life in Portugal between the end of the Old Regime, when an increase in the music organisations among Portuguese musicians took place, until the integration of Portugal in the EEC (1985), and the consequent beginning of free circulation of music professionals within the European labour market. PROFMUS – To Be a Musician in Portugal: the social and professional condition of musicians in Lisbon (1750-1985) is a research project realised at the Centre of Studies in Music and Dance (INET-md), coordinated by the musicologist Rui Vieira Nery, and which involves a team of 23 researchers. It is the first project of this kind, working on the referred subject.

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, 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.