In 2022 Constança Capdeville (1937-1992) would have turned 85, and this is one of the reasons to dedicate the MIC.PT November In Focus to this composer, one of the most important personalities of 20th-century Portuguese music.
Composer, pianist, percussionist, and a great advocate within the Portuguese music universe, Constança Capdeville influenced contemporary-music composers and performers, whom she conveyed her ideas of music-theatre. Throughout her life, she founded various groups and ensembles, such as the Convivium Musicum and the ColecViva. Her activity as a composer was always connected with that of a piano and percussion performer and, in that capacity, she worked with the Menestréis de Lisboa and with the Lisbon Contemporary Music Group. She also distinguished herself as a Composition teacher – her very own approach to the pedagogical activity marked her disciples, some of them presently recognised composers.
Constança Capdeville left us in 1992, 30 years ago, and and it is now, more than ever, that her work needs a reinforced and urgent attention so that it stays alive and constantly updated. In this sense, during the Constança Capdeville's Month, promoted by the Miso Music Portugal in partnership with the Musicamera Produções, the MIC.PT releases the Questionnaire – “Eight Contemplations on Constança Capdeville”, directed to eight people who had a professional and/ or personal connection with the composer, and who research her work.
Additionally, various initiatives focused on the composer’s work will be taking place this month. On November 4 and 5, Constança Capdeville’s music-theatre FE…DE…RI…CO… will be presented at the Tetro Aberto in Lisbon, in the context of the 4th edition of the CriaSons Festival organised by the Musicamera Produções. This performance is a modern recreation of this 1987 work. On November 18, at the O’culto da Ajuda in Lisbon in the context of the Música Viva 2022 Festival, the Miso Records label will release António de Sousa Dias’ new monographic CD. It includes a work dedicated to Constança Capdeville, which uses a recording of the composer’s own voice. Additionally, on November 27 the O’cutlo da Ajuda will host a Round Table, To Understand and to Celebrate Constança Capdeville, with the participation of António de Sousa Dias, Joana Sá, Luís Pacheco Cunha, Miguel Azguime, and Rui Vieira Nery. This initiative is co-organised by the MIC.PT, Miso Music Portugal, and Musicamera Produções (members of riZoma – Portuguese Platform for Intervention and Research in New Music). On the same day, at the Final Concert of the Música Viva 2022 at the Centro Cultural de Belém, the Metropolitan Orchestra of Lisbon conducted by Pedro Neves, will perform Constança Capdeville’s work “Que mon chant ne soit plus d’oiseau,” (1991). This is the last orchestral composition that the composer wrote just before her death in 1992, and which can be now presented, 30 years later, thanks to a MIC.PT edition whose current notation is a realisation by António de Sousa Dias.

In November – “Constança Capdeville's Month”, António de Sousa Dias (composer published by the MIC.PT), participates in various initiatives focused on the composer's work, being an artistic consultant of the FE..DE..RI..CO... performance, which's a modern recreation of Constança Capdeville's 1987 work, based on the research by Filipa Magalhães. The performance will be presented during the 4th CriaSons Festival, on November 4 & 5 at the Teatro Aberto in Lisbon. On November 18, in the context of the Música Viva 2022 Festival at the O'culto da Ajuda, the Miso Records will release António de Sousa Dias' monographic CD, which includes a work dedicated to Constança Capdeville. On November 27, the O'culto will host a Round Table To Understand and to Celebrate Constança Capdeville, with the participation of António de Sousa Dias, Joana Sá, Luís Pacheco Cunha, Miguel Azguime, and Rui Vieira Nery. On the same day, at the Final Concert of the Música Viva 2022 Festival at the CCB, the Metropolitan Orchestra of Lisbon conducted by Pedro Neves, will perform Constança Capdeville’s work “Que mon chant ne soit plus d’oiseau,” (1991), whose current notation is a realisation by António de Sousa Dias. Lastly, the opera Manifesto NaDa (2022) with the music by António de Sousa Dias and staging by Alexandre Lyra Leite (based on Tristan Tzara's DADA Manifests), will be performed on November 30 at the Teatro Aberto in Lisbon, in the context of the CriaSons Festival.

Carlos Alberto Augusto, composer published by the MIC.PT whose activity is focused on music for theatre and music-theatre, is one of the artistic consultants in the context of the modern recreation of Constança Capdeville's music-theatre piece FE..DE..RI..CO... (1987). The piece will be performed on November 4 and 5 at the Teatro Aberto in Lisbon, during the 4th edition of the CriaSons Festival, an initiative by the Musicamera Produções. This recreation, based on the research by the musicologist Filipa Magalhães, remains truthful to the original object, but it also aims at finding clues for the renovation of the music-theatre genre, opening it for the new generations of performers and public. The piece FE...DE...RI..CO... was imagined and directed by Constança Capdeville from Federico Garcia Lorca's poetic, visual, and musical work, having been conceived with the aim to celebrate the 50 years after the Spanish writer's death. Oroginally, FE...DE...RI..CO... was premiered by the ColecViva ensemble at the CAM – Modern Art Centre, promoted by the ACARTE (Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation), on January 10, 1987. The modern-version performance of this piece includes the participation of: Ângelo Cid Neto (movement), Inês Filipe (piano), Joana Manuel (actress), Mário Franco (double bass), Miguel Maduro-Dias (voice), Taíssa Poliakova Cunha (piano/ percussion), Filipa Magalhães and Élio Correia (stage recreation, production), among others.

The work Clepsidra (1998) for string orchestra by Carlos Caires (composer published by the MIC.PT), will be performed by the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra conducted by Sylvain Gasançon, on November 5 at the Aula Magna – Rectory of the University of Lisbon. ‘Carlos Caires' creative universe is distinguished by the careful exploration of sound textures through time. When he composed Clepsidra, his proposal was to reflect, precisely, on the temporal dimension of Music, with the basis on an articulation of rhythmic patterns evolving within gradual and repetitive processes...’ – writes Rui Campos Leitão in the programme note. The concert's programme also includes works by Beethoven and Brahms. Additionally, Carlos Caires' sound installation, Lugares invisíveis, created with the photographer Sofia Nunes, will be presented at the Culture & Sustainability Symposium (Nov. 12-13, Lisboa Incomum).

The new work for orchestra, Quinquatria (2022) by Christopher Bochmann, will be premiered by the Youth Symphony Orchestra (OSJ), on November 14 at the São Luiz Municipal Theatre in Lisbon. The programme of this concert, conducted by Christopher Bochmann, will also include another work by this composer published by the MIC.PT, Lupercalia from 2002, as well as Beethoven's 5th Symphony, and Berlioz's Overture: Le Carnaval Romain. ‘I wrote Lupercalia for large orchestra 10 years ago. It's based on the activities of this ancient-Rome holiday. Quinquatria is yet another piece in a series of four works evoking the ancient-Rome feasts: Quinquatria, a festival dedicated to the goddess Minerva, with moments of ceremony, of fights between the gladiators, and poetry competitions’ – reveals Christopher Bochmann in the programme note.

The piece Storyboard (2003) for piano four hands, by Fernando C. Lapa (composer published by the MIC.PT), is included in the programme of the concert by the pianists Luís Duarte and Lígia Madeira, which will take place on November 8 at the Municipal Theatre in Covilhã. This Duo, winner of the Play Portuguese Music Awards 2022 in the Best Classical Music Album Category for the CD Portuguese Music for Piano Duo, will be accompanied by António Victorino d'Almeida (commentaries), in a journey through the four-hand piano repertoire. On November 19, the Casa do Alentejo in Lisbon will host the Cantares do Alentejo CD-release concert, with Fernando C. Lapa's work Cantares do Alentejo – Prelúdio e três suites para trio de guitarras (2022) performed by the Bracara Augusta Guitar Trio. On the same day, at the Municipal Theatre in Vila Real,Fernando C. Lapa and Carlos Azevedo will participate in the session of the cycle Conversas de Bastidores, moderated by the journalist Carla Carvalho. This is a cycle of ‘uncompromising conversations, which intend to unravel myths and curiosities, sharpening the critical spirit of performance-hall attenders, and allowing them to get familiar with the creation process. All this without intermediaries’ – announce the cycle's organisers.

Filipe Lopes (composer published by the MIC.PT) and Rodrigo Malvar, are the authors of the music for the theatre piece Voz (Teatro do Frio/ Sopa de Pedra), whose premiere will take place in the beginning of this month at the Carlos Alberto Theatre/ São João National Theatre in Porto (performances between November 3 & 6). Having an original dramaturgy between the concert and the physical theatre, Voz relates the polyphonic singing with the spoken word, offering an immersive sonic and visual experience, which joins on stage the Teatro do Frio and the Sopa de Pedra, within a coproduction of the S. João National Theatre and the Guarda Municipal Theatre. Voz takes the stage box and its mechanisms as a conceptual and metaphorical arena, exponentiating the magical sense, and the kinaesthetic and ludic experience. The intentional relation between the physical/ vocal expressivity of the performers, and the plasticity of the light and sound, deepens, in the succession of the stimuli and imagery, the spectator's emotional and physical experience. Every word, and every gesture, are here a meeting and resonance point based on the materiality of the voice. In the second half of the month, on November 18, the performance Voz will be presented at the Municipal Theatre in Vila Real.

In November various pieces by Hugo Vasco Reis (composer published by the MIC.PT) will be performed in Czechia, Croatia, and Portugal. The work Quasi Ritorno (2022), for three guitars, will be premiered by the Elogio Trio on November 11 at the Osijek Cultural Center (Osijek, Croatia). The installation Film Book Film (2022), with concept and video by Tatiana Macedo and music by Hugo Vasco Reis, will be presented at the Nuno Centeno Gallery in Porto on November 19. The piece Colors Seen in Silence II (2020) will be performed by Marco Pereira (flute) and Lígia Madeira (piano) on November 22, at the auditorium of the Music Conservatory in Porto. The piece Música para uma Passamanaria (2021), for flute and bass flute, will be presented by Marina Camponês and Clara Saleiro on November 24 at the O'culto da Ajuda in Lisbon, in the context of the Música Viva 2022 Festival. And lastly, the work Colors Seen in Silence I (2019) will be performed by Victor Pereira (clarinete) and Vítor Pinho (piano), on November 25 at the auditorium of the Chaves Cultural Centre.

In November the music by Igor C. Silva (composer published by the MIC.PT) will be presented in Denmark and Spain. On November 10 the piece Your Trash (2016), for percussion, electronics & video, will be performed by Kalle Hakosalo at the MINU 2022 Festival in Copenhaga. At this concert, whose programme also includes works by Celeste Oram, Mark Applebaum, Anna Sowa & Kalle Hakosalo, the performer follows the expansive roles assumed by contemporary percussionists. He exhibits himself as an autobiographical archivist of digital waste, an accelerated executant speedrunning dadaist rituals, a vessel for gamified audience participation, and a sculptor of drums. Another Igor C. Silva's work, Smart-alienation (2016), for small flexible ensemble, electronics & video, will be performed by the Arxis Ensemble, on November 25 at the Follow Studio in A Coruña. During the 2022 Arxis Season Igor C. Silva is Resident Composer, working with this ensemble dedicated to new music, whose aim is to create a meeting point between creators, performers and audiences.

Two Jaime Reis' 2017 works, Inverso Sangue: Cinábrio for string trio, and Inverso Sangue: Granito for violin, clarinet and violoncello, will be performed by the DME Ensemble in the context of the concert entitled Generations of Portuguese Composers, taking place on November 5 at the Contemporary Culture Centre in Castelo Branco. The programme of this concert will also include the music by Carlos Caires and Sara Carvalho (composers published by the MIC.PT), and by Dimitris Andrikopoulos and Emmanuel Nunes. Another Jaime Reis' creation, the electroacoustic work Fluxus, pas trop haut dans le ciel (2017) for a 16-channel system in form of cupola, will be presented in the context of the Espacios Ressonantes Festival (Recoleta, Chile), taking place between November 14 and 19. Lastly, this composer published by the MIC.PT will also participate in the Culture and Sustainability Symposium, taking place on November 12 and 13 at the Lisboa Incomum, and being an initiative of the DME Festival co-organised with the Centre of Sea Sciences (CCMAR). The fifth edition of this Symposium, whose programme includes various workshops, conferences, and two concerts, aims at encouraging an interdisciplinary discussion (artistic, scientific, and political) on the roles that the artistic practices can assume for the environmental awareness, intervening in the discussion on sustainability and ecology.

João Castro Pinto has been selected, in the context of a call, to realise a residency at the DOCK ZUID centre in Tilburg (the Netherlands), which will be taking place between November 3 and 16. The residency's objective is the creation of a new soundscape-composition piece, based on the soundscape of Tilburg. In the context of this residency the composer will be interviewed for a podcast, and on November 13 he will give a small conference about his work. Still in the Netherlands João Castro Pinto will participate in the Field Recordings IV event organised by the WORM in Rotterdam. The event's programme will include the premiere of an excerpt of the piece FAUX NATUREL from João Castro Pinto's new homonymous, monographic, soundscape-composition CD (ed. Belga Unfathomless), whose release will also take place on this occasion. Finally, Efluxo, a soundscape-composition piece by this composer published by the MIC.PT commissioned by the Lisboa Soa 2021 Festival, has been selected from among 400 proposals for the Sound – Image 2022 International Electroacoustic Music Festival and Conference organised by the University of Greenwich in London, and which will be taking place between November 18 and 20. João Castro Pinto will spatialise the piece Efluxo via the Sound – Image Loudspeaker Orchestra on November 19 at the Stockwell Street Building (University of Greenwich).

This month, João Pedro Oliveira's new audio-visual opera, The 70th Week (2021-2022), will be presented in the context of three concerts: on November 11 at the Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall (University of California) in Santa Barbara (USA); on November 21, in the context of the Música Viva 2022 Festival at the O'culto da Ajuda in Lisbon; and on November 25 at the Music and Performance Arts School (ESMAE) in Porto. ‘The Book of Daniel is probably one of the most mysterious texts of the Bible. It describes diverse enigmatic prophecies, which can be interpreted in various ways. Some of them are related with the present’ – says this composer published by the MIC.PT. And he continues: ‘This audiovisual opera includes various events from Daniel's, and his companions' life, as well as the three main prophecies. The 70th Week is one of them, and it refers to a state of constant war, sacrilege and destruction, ultimately leading to a transformation of the world into a new place of peace and justice. The operatic action is reinterpreted within a projection of various computer-generated images and sounds, as well as pre-recorded vocal interventions, and dance movements’.

The piece Clouds (2020), for saxophone and electronics, by Lino Guerreiro (composer published by the MIC.PT), will be premiered by João Pedro Silva on November 5 at the Convento dos Capuchos in Almada, in the context of the concert entitled Contemporaneities organised by the MPMP Património Musical Vivo. ‘Yes, it seemed more like one of those rainy days, typical of a winter of which I only have a very vague memory, when the winters were really Winters’ – writes Lino Guerreiro in the programme note. And he continues: ‘Those entire rainy afternoons inevitably ended with a downpour from the mountains, which made the river overflow, leaving us isolated for one or more days, without being able to leave home. And today, after all these years, I remember that at the time I always had the feeling that it could be even worse...’ This concert markes the prerelease of the new CD with Filipe Pires' Figurações cycle, and it also includes the participation of Marco Fernandes (marimba/ vibraphone) and Edward Ayres de Abreu (commentaries). The programme will be also composed of the music by Alexandre Delgado, Andreia Pinto-Correia, Eurico Carrapatoso & Filipe Pires.

The performance Cosi run tutti, a coproduction between the Interferência and the Palmilha Dentada Theatre, with music composition by Manuel Brásio (composer published by the MIC.PT) and José Tiago Baptista, will be premiered on November 4 at the Municipal Theatre in Vila Real, and it will be on tour until March 2023. With the text, staging, and scenography by Ricardo Alves, ‘Cosi run tutti was supposed to be a contemporary opera, crossing the aesthetics and languages of the Palmilha Dentada Theatre and Interferência, to ensure a timely modernity. Unfortunately, something went wrong. The crossing between Palmilha's humour and the erudition of Interferência's contemporary music isn't easy...’ – reveal the project's creators. And they continue: ‘The result – Cosi run tutti translated freely as thus, all run away’ – constitutes a reflection on the aesthetics and the relation between the creators and the public, on the importance of the cultural policies, as well as on the richness and importance of personal and collective artistic projects, going beyond mainstream fashions. But, after all, the result has music, humour and singing. And Mozart, he's innocent of all this confusion’.

The piece Aliterações de Água (2017) for soprano & electronics by Miguel Azguime (composer published by the MIC.PT), will be performed by Camila Mandillo at the opening concert of the Música Viva 2022 Festival, on November 18 at the O'culto da Ajuda in Lisbon. This concert performed by the Sond'Ar-te Electric Ensemble and Pedro Neves (conductor), will also include two premieres: Die sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz (2019) by Paulo Ferreira-Lopes (composer published by the MIC.PT) and Luís Salgueiro's All endings are sad, all endless things are impossible to bear (2022); as well as Philippe Leroux's 2022 work, Voi(REX). Additionally at the Música Viva 2022, between November 20 & 22, Miguel Azguime will give the workshop, Mãos na massa do som (All hands on the sound mass), dedicated to electroacoustic-music performance with the Miso Music Portugal's Loudspeaker Orchestra, which'll include the spatialisation of electroacoustic music proposed by the participants. This workshop will be also conducted by Jonty Harrison and Kees Tazelaar, who together with Miguel Azguime constitute the jury of the 23rd Música Viva International Electroacoustic Composition Competition.

The new work by Sara Carvalho (composer published by the MIC.PT), o último poema à cidade (2022) for amplified bass flute and amplified bass clarinet, will be premiered by the flutist Mafalda Carvalho and the clarinettist Carlos Silva, on November 5 at the Contemporary Culture Centre in Castelo Branco. The programme of this concert performed by the DME Ensemble, and entitled Generations of Portuguese Composers, will also include the music by Carlos Caires and Jaime Reis (composers published by the MIC.PT), and also by Dimitris Andrikopoulos, and Emmanuel Nunes. In the interview given to the MIC.PT in December 2014 Sara Carvalho said: ‘I don’t feel the need to be integrated in any specific current, because my approach to composition and the creative act has always been quite intuitive and emotional. My manner of approaching an idea always involves an enormous sensory process.’

The piece Mulher (2019) for mezzo-soprano and piano by Sofia Sousa Rocha, to the poem by Yvette K. Centeno, will be premiered by the Yara Ensemble (Sarah Stone, mezzo-soprano; Alexandra Mascolo-David, piano), on November 5 at the Kentucky Country Day Theater in Louisville (USA). The programme of this concert, Across Frontiers: Our Lives, Our Truths, Our Loves., will also include new works by Fátima Fonte, Francisco Fontes, Sara Ross, Evan Ware, Sepehr Pirasteh, & Jay Batzner. Another work by this composer published by the MIC.PT, the opera Lugar Comum (2021-2022), will be premiered by the Contratempus Quartet on November 25-26 at the Rivoli Municipal Theatre in Porto. This opera has the partnership of the Santa Casa da Misericórdia do Porto in the context of the project Mudando o que tem de ser mudado (Changing what needs to be changed), whose aim is to build the awareness to put an end to violence against women.

Vítor Rua, composer published by the MIC.PT, is author of the music for the piece Roti, which will be presented between November 9 and 27 at the Karnart Curiosities' Cabinet in Lisbon. The project's creators announce: ‘Third part of the polyptych in the life and work of Michelangelo, Roti demands from the public a scientist's attention, a puppeteer's dedication, a music lover's contemplation, within a site-specific, active-participation performance/ exhibition. Accompanied with the sound of the contemporary music duo The Banksy’s (Vítor Rua and Ilda Teresa Castro), the public is invited to explore, via books, maps, schemes, puzzles, and objects, the construction of the previous parts of the hitherto triptych: a sonic journey, a dive into the perfinst manufacture‘.

The 28th edition of the Música Viva Festival, an initiative by the Miso Music Portugal, will take place between November 18 and 27 in Lisbon, at the O'culto da Ajuda and the CCB – Centro Cultural de Belém (closing concert). In terms of the programme the Música Viva 2022 Festival follows its habitual ‘lines of force’, with a strong presence of Portuguese music (performers and composers), with special attention given to the relationship between music and technology, and presenting an important number of premiere works. In this sense the Festival's programme will include the music by various composers published by the MIC.PT: Ângela da Ponte, António Ferreira, Constança Capdeville, Filipe Esteves, Gonçalo Gato, Hugo Vasco Reis, João Quinteiro, Luís Neto da Costa, João Pedro Oliveira, Miguel Azguime and Paulo Ferreira-Lopes, among others. Putting recognised names side by side with brand new composers and performers, this year the Música Viva presents 13 concerts, courses, and the Música Viva International Electroacoustic Composition Competition. The Festival will present a total of around 60 works (among which 30 are by Portuguese composers), as well as the first performances in Portugal of 40 work (among which 12 are world premieres). The Música Viva is a space for the circulation and confrontation of ideas and aesthetics, revealing new paths, and encouraging exchange, for a total comprehension of what music is today, as it always has been. The Festival also evidences the vitality and quality of Portuguese music, affirming the urgent need to provide more means and conditions for the development and projection of this music which stimulates the future and makes the present rich and necessary.

In October the General Assembly of the riZoma member-entities chose the Platform's Coordinating Committee constituted by five entities (alphabetical order): 1. DME – Electroacoustic Music Days Festival; 2. Interferência; 3. MPMP Património Musical Vivo; 4. Musicamera Produções; 5. Portuguese Music Research and Information Centre – MIC.PT. The Committee will be officially presented at the Meeting of the riZoma – Portuguese Platform for Intervention and Research in New Music, which will take place on November 27 at the O'culto da Ajuda in Lisbon.

On November 5 the Portuguese Music Museum – Casa Verdades de Faria (Monte Estoril) will host the third meeting of the Conversation's Cycle To be a Musician in Portugal, dedicated to the theme A Question of Class: three centuries of music associations in Portugal, with Rui Vieira Nery, Cristina Fernandes, Manuel Deniz Silva, and Tiago Manuel da Hora. They will present to the public some of the main results of the project Profmus – To be a Musician in Portugal, highlighting and unprecedented database and a two-volume book which will be published during the following moths. The PROFMUS research project (INET-md [NOVA FCSH]), with a team of 23 researchers, is coordinated by professor Rui Vieira Nery.

Since the end of October, two new In the 1st Person Interviews (in Portuguese) – with the composers Daniel Moreira and João Castro Pinto –, are available on the MIC.PT YouTube Channel.
Presently the MIC.PT YouTube Channel contains 22 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 almost 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.