A concert entirely dedicated to the music of Cândido Lima, during which this composer published by the MIC.PT will also play the piano, will take place on February 17 at the TBA – Teatro do Bairro Alto in Lisbon, in the context of the Rescaldo Festival. The programme of this concert will include the following Cândido Lima's works: Optic Music – Quadros Cinéticos (2015), Etras – cantos de sonhi ma, Chantier – melodias em pedra (2018), Músicas de Villaiana – coros oceânicos & Momento-Paisagem (2009). “The nature of the works in this programme points towards a manifestation of the theatricality that the electronics and music informatics (analogue and digital) have brought to the contemporary music thought”, says Cândido Lima in the programme note regarding the concert. And he continues: “The poetics subjacent to all of the four works is based on multidisciplinary concepts of philosophy, arts, sciences, and technologies. The titles provide the listener with an orientation, having infinite secrets to discover during this 45-minute ephemeral performance.” The concert will also include the participation of Ângela Lopes (composer published by the MIC.PT), who will be responsible for the diffusion of the electronics.

This February two works by Carlos Marecos, composer published by the MIC.PT, will be presented in Caldas da Saúde and Lisbon. The first one, O Carro de Jorge Peixinho (2021) for cello and piano, makes part of the Sigma Duo's concert, Mémoire...Mirroir, which will take place on February 3 at the ARTAVE (Auditório Padre António Vieira). The second work, Five for Two (1997) for flute and percussion, will be presented on February 23 at the O'culto da Ajuda, in the context of the concert (Flut)uações performed by Katharine Rawdon (flute), Catherine Strynckx (cello), and Francisco Cipriano (percussion). This concert marks the release of the homonymous CD (ed. neper musica), which also includes the music by Alexandre Delgado, Andreia Pinto-Correia, Anne Victorino d'Almeida, Ivan Moody, Katherine Rawdon, and Luís Tinoco. “Music is to be lived and felt in the moment of the concert. It is a form of communication capable of provoking emotions and triggering feelings in the listeners. Like in other artistic manifestations, I think that it's interesting when music provokes different readings in the ones who are experiencing it. Here lies its richness”, said Carlos Marecos in the MIC.PT interview from October 2013.

On January 27, at a session which took place at the Picadeiro Real of the Belém Palace in Lisbon, the President of Portugal decorated Christopher Bochmann – composer published by the MIC.PT, conductor and Professor Emeritus at the University of Évora – with the Commander Grade of the Order of Prince Henry. “It is a special honour to be recognised not only in my country of origin, but also in the adopted one. For me, the Order of Prince Henry has also another special meaning, since he was a son of an Englishwoman, who came to Portugal almost in her 30s and dedicated her life to this country.” Additionally, a new book dedicated to Christopher Bochmann (ed. OSJ – Youth Symphony Orchestra), coordinated by Sérgio Azevedo, will be released on February 5, also at the Picadeiro Real in Lisbon. On this occasion the Youth Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Christopher Bochmann, will perform the music of Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Grieg. And finally, Christopher Bochmann's piece Arcades (2020) for cello and double bass (with video by Maria Irene Aparício), is included in the programme of the Contracello Duo concert (Miguel Rocha and Adriano Aguiar) – 30 Years, taking place on February 15 at the Teatro Garcia de Resende in Évora.

Three works by Igor C. Silva, composer published by the MIC.PT, will be presented on February 14 at the Bahnhof für Neue Musik in Basel, Switzerland. At this monographic concert, it will be possible to hear new arrangements of the works: Sweet Data (no amnesia) (2018), Plastic Air (2017), My Empty Hands (2018), and Static on my Fingers (2017). The arrangements were created in collaboration with the percussion and electronics duo PACED, composed by João Carlos Pacheco and João Dias, who, together with the composer on the electric guitar and electronics, will be participating in this Friendly Takeover. “From the moment that a composer seeks incisively (or at times almost obsessively!) for a determined sound universe, appearing to them as an adequate music material for their compositional practice, it becomes inevitable that the music discourse gains new strength. The capacity of an artist to focus their creative attention constantly on a determined aesthetic/ expressive point allows for a development of their own language. The freedom emerges thus as the most important factor for the composer to be able to look at their own music from the inside", says Igor C. Silva in the MIC.PT interview from September 2015.

This February the audience will be presented twice with the work Fragments (2019) by Isabel Soveral, composer published by the MIC.PT. Firstly, this piece for cello and piano will be performed on February 3 by the Sigma Duo (Miguel Rocha and Ana Cláudia Assis), at the ARTAVE in Caldas da Saúde (Auditório Padre António Vieira). The second presentation will be included in the concert, Confluências – Composição no Feminino, revolving around female composers (artistic direction: Pedro Junqueira Maia/ Vera Fonte). This performance will take place on February 15 at the Museu Nogueira da Silva in Braga, and it will be preceded by an exhibition on February 14, entitled: O Fabricar da Música e do Silêncio – Compositoras Portuguesas/ Séc. XX. Additionally, the conversation, Para Uma História da Música Contemporânea em Portugal – Compositoras Portuguesas, will take place on February 15, just one hour before the concert. “I would say that music is the place where I know who I am, where I find the sense of my existence and peace”, reflects Isabel Soveral in the Interveiw given to the MIC.PT in May 2021. During this February, it will be possible to pay a visit twice to this Isabel Soveral's place.

Following the focus that the MPMP, Património Musical Vivo gave to the music of Fernando C. Lapa, the Glosas magazine cover figure in December 2022, this month the MPMP will release the CD ao encontro da alegria. It is the title of an inedited song cycle by this composer published by the MIC.PT, dedicated to the singer Carla Caramujo. The pieces on the CD, which's the 27th volume within the melographia portugueza collection (ed. MPMP), have been written to the poetry of Nuno Higino, Miguel Torga, and Eduarda Melo, among others. The CD-release concert will take place on February 25 at the Casa das Artes in Vila Nova de Famalicão. The programme of this recital by Carla Caramujo, with Duarte Pereira Martins on the piano, the MPMP Ensemble soloists, and the composer himself, will include two Fernando C. Lapa's works: Imagem (2015) for soprano and instrumental ensemble, and Ao encontro da alegria – ciclo sobre seis poemas de Nuno Higino for soprano and piano (2020; world premiere).

The work Sigma.Cobre. (2022) for piano and cello by Jaime Reis will be performed by the Sigma Duo (Ana Cláudia Assis and Miguel Rocha) on February 3 at the ARTAVE School (Auditótio Padre António Vieira), in Caldas da Saúde, in the context of the concert Mémoire...Mirroir, whose programme will be also composed of pieces by Carlos Marecos, Eduardo Luís Patriarca, Isabel Soveral, and Mariana Vieira. Additionally, between February 6 and 8 Jaime Reis will give a Composition Masterclass at the Musikene – Higher School of Music of the Basque Country in Donostia/ San Sebastián. Finally, the piece Nœud.Navire. (2020-2021; with video by João Pedro Fonseca) by this composer published by the MIC.PT will be performed on February 15 at the Teatro Garcia de Resende in Évora, in the framework of the Contracello Duo concert, marking the anniversary of this Musicamera Produções resident ensemble, created 30 years ago by the cellist Miguel Rocha and the double bass player Adriano Aguiar.

On February 11 the city of Leipzig in Germany will hear the first performance of João Quinteiro’s new work: Imbolc (2022-2023), for violin, cello, and electric guitar. The premiere will take place at the Theaterhaus Schille, and it will be the last work of the concert intertwining the sounds of violin, cello, electronics, and electric guitar. This premiere will be accompanied by pieces of four other composers: Yuri Demetz, Sebastian Molina, Pablo Olabarria, and Fojan Gharibnejad. The music of the composers, representing different nationalities (an Italian, a Chilean, a Spanish, an Iranian/ Kurdish and, finally, a Portuguese), will be performed by two Portuguese musicians, Rui C. Antunes on the violin and Nuno Pino on the guitar, accompanied by Jordi Albeda, Catalan, on the cello. In the MIC.PT interview from December 2019 João Quinteiro, composer published by the MIC.PT, says that he writes music “out of the inevitability of doing it, out of the sudden presence of sonic objects exercising a tremendous pressure and occupying an enormous space of the mental availability”.

A vida é sempre preferível, ou o monólogo do sal para lhe completar a medida (2021) by Miguel Azguime (composer published by the MIC.PT) is a poetic-action performance under development, whose new version will be presented on February 4 at the Arts and Performance Centre in Portalegre. This performance, realised by the Miso Ensemble (Miguel Azguime [music and text composition, voice, live electronics], and Paula Azguime [sound diffusion]), rejoins the composer, the poet and the performer within a solo piece – a new incursion into the 'text as music/ music as text' universe. A vida é sempre preferível is a work-in-progress in search for a new transformation, a return to the words and their electronic manipulations, and a reflection on the man and the world, where life is always the preferable path and place. “For me art means thought and, consequently, philosophy, so music is a way of thinking the world… and music that does not think is not art!” – said Miguel Azguime in the interview given to the MIC.PT in July/ August 2022.

This month the work of various female composer will be presented in Braga in the context of initiatives organised by the Casa do Professor, and with the curation/ artistic direction by Pedro Junqueira Maia/ Vera Fonte. The project will begin on February 14 with the inauguration of the exhibition The Making of Music and Silence – Portuguese Female Composers/ 20th Century, held at the Casa do Professor. On the 15th the at Museu Nogueira da Silva will host a conversation moderated by Pedro Junqueira Maia (For a History of Contemporary Music in Portugal – Portuguese Female Composers), followed by a concert, Confluences – Feminine Composition. The programme of the concert, performed by the by students from the University of Minho’s Music Department, is more comprehensive when compared to the exhibition and conversation centred on the contemporary Portuguese scene. Even so, one will hear the music by the Portuguese composers Carla Oliveira and Solange Azevedo, alongside with the ones published by the MIC.PT: Constança Capdeville – the two works for piano, Visions de l'enfant (1958-1959) performed by Inês Filipe, and Valse, Valsa, Vals; Keuschheits Waltz (1987) performed by Horácio Soneha; as well as Isabel Soveral – the piece Fragmentos (1985-2019) performed by Henrique Rocha on the cello, and Vera Fonte on the piano. In the words of the project's organisers, “since the first, more-prospective-language creations appeared in Portugal, the role of the woman composer has gradually been affirmed”, and the country ”has remained fertile in works by female composers that are important to highlight”.

In 2023 the Contracello Duo, Musicamera Produções resident ensemble, formed by the cellist Miguel Rocha and the double bass player Adriano Aguiar, celebrates the 30th anniversary. The first concert within these celebrations will take place on February 15 at the Teatro Garcia Resende in Évora. The programme of this recital will include works by Portuguese composers (three of them published by the MIC.PT), composed for the Duo in the context of the project Ver os Sons, Ouvir Imagens (To See the Sounds, to Hear Images): Arcades (2020) by Christopher Bochmann (with video by Maria Irene Aparício), Nœud.Navire. (2020-2021) by Jaime Reis (with video by João Pedro Fonseca), Light Particles (2020) by João Pedro Oliveira (with the composer's video), and Reframe (2020) by Mariana Vieira (with video by Daniel Rondulha). The celebration of this anniversary gives focus on the complicity and longevity of this unusual chamber music duo (even in international terms), valorising their whole path that extends through Portugal and various other countries.

The Archipelago – Contemporary Arts Centre will host the 1st Azorean Female Composers Community Festival promoted by the recently created Prolíficas association, whose main objective is to stimulate the representativity of female composers through the realisation of events, CD and score edition, and interdisciplinary dialogues with different artistic and knowledge areas. This first Festival (February 24-25, Ribeira Grande, São Miguel) aims at creating a regular space for artistic production, establishing relations with different audiences, in order to foment the taste and interest towards music creation and various aesthetic and artistic currents. In the Festival's programme one will find works by: Ângela da Ponte (composer published by the MIC.PT), Ana Paula Andrade, Katerina L’dokova, Sara Cruz, Sara Ross, and Teresa Gentil.

The Operafest Lisbon presents the 4th edition of the Portuguese Contemporary Opera Competition – Opera XXI Marathon, with the aim to create and produce new operas, bringing them closer to the audience and the modern world. The challenge of this edition, organised in coproduction with MPMP, Património Musical Vivo, is to focus on operas created from scratch, presenting and evaluating them at a public live performance. This call, open until February 26, is directed to composers and librettists, inviting them to work on an adaptation of a 20th-century Portuguese story or novel (to be chosen from the list in the Competition's Rules), and to create a new opera lasting between 30 minutes and one hour. The Two Operas to Conquer the Future, selected by the jury constituted by Catarina Molder, Jan Wierzba, Miguel Loureiro, and Edward Ayres de Abreu, will be premiered in September at the CCB in Lisbon.

With the aim to encourage the creation and diffusion of new acousmatic/ electroacoustic works, the Miso Music Portugal promotes and organises the 24th edition of the International Electroacoustic Composition Competition – Música Viva 2023. The deadline for the works’ submission is March 31, 2023. The winning work will be announced during the Música Viva 2023 Festival, which will be taking place at the O’culto da Ajuda in Lisbon between May 2 and 14. The Jury of the 24th International Electroacoustic Composition Competition – Música Viva 2023 is composed by the composers: Francis Dhomont (France), Natasha Barrett (Great Britain/ Norway), and Miguel Azguime (Portugal).

The Lajes do Pico Municipality and the Lajes do Pico Choral Group, in partnership with the MIC.PT, promote the 4th Manuel Emílio Porto National Composition Prize. Manuel Emílio Porto is considered to have been a fundamental and artistically extraordinary figure in the musical and choral universe of the Azores. In this sense the Lajes do Pico Municipality has taken the initiative to organise this Competition with the aim to encourage the creation of new works for choir and, simultaneously, to valorise Portuguese literature. The Competition is directed to Portuguese composers residing or not in Portugal, and to foreign composers who have resided in Portugal for more than two years. The Competition has two categories, Mixed Choir and White Voices, and its jury is constituted by Christopher Bochmann, Jorge Matta, and Hildeberto Peixoto. The deadline for submitting works is April 15, 2023.

Since the beginning of January two new In the 1st Person Interviews (in Portuguese) – with the composers António Chagas Rosa and António Ferreira –, are available on the MIC.PT YouTube Channel.
Presently the MIC.PT YouTube Channel contains 24 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.