In March, the MIC.PT dedicates the In Focus section to Fátima Fonte, marking the 40th anniversary of this composer and researcher at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.
Fátima Fonte studied Composition at the ESMAE in Porto and the Music Conservatory in Amsterdam. As a scholarship holder of the Fundação Oriente, she also went to India to study Hindustani Music with the singer Aparna Gurav. The music groups that performed Fátima Fonte's music include the Nieuw Ensemble (Concertgebouw Amsterdam / Den Bosch), the Icarus Ensemble (Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival/ Festival Atlante Sonoro in Rome), or orkest de ereprijs (Young Composers Meeting Apeldoorn/ Gaudeaumus Music Week). Her pieces have also been performed at various venues in Portugal. In the 2017-2018 concert season, she was Young Composer in Residence at the São Carlos National Theatre in Lisbon, and in 2019 Lara Martins (soprano), Tiago Matos (barítono), and the Gulbenkian Orchestra conducted by Pedro Neves performed her work Breve Desassossego in the context of the enoa workshop – Composing for Voices. Presently Fátima Fonte is finalising her PhD at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London on Visible music – a dialogue between the sound and the visual.
This month visit the MIC.PT In Focus section with a new interview with Fátima Fonte.

On March 18 at the Ruy de Carvalho Municipal Auditorium in Carnaxide, in the context of the Croma – Contemporary Music Cycle of Oeiras, the Opuspiritum Ensemble will premiere Ângela da Ponte's new work for wind dectatet, entitled Croma (2023). In the context of this cycle organised by the Portuguese Association of Composers, on the 13th, this composer published by the MIC.PT will also give a workshop at the Nossa Senhora do Cabo Music School (Linda-a-Velha). Additionally, in the second half of the month, Ângela da Ponte will participate in the activities organised by the Music Department – University of Minho and Casa do Professor in Braga, within the project MBB – Musical Bounce Back, Promoting the Role of Women in Music and Connecting for a New Pedagogy. These activities promote female composition work, and they’ll occur between March 20 and 24. In this sense, Ângela da Ponte will participate in the Round Table Conversation with Portuguese Contemporary Female Composers (March 20, Noble Hall of the Congregation Building – University of Minho). Moreover, the excerpt of her work Ver (2021) for clarinet, trombone, violin and electronics will be performed by the students of the MBB Project International Workshop (March 24, Medieval Hall of the Rectory at the University of Minho).

The new joint version of two works by Ângela Lopes, Trio for horn and electronics (2019) and Trio for vibraphone and electronics (2019), will premiere on March 20 at the Noble Hall of the Congregation Building at the University of Minho in the context of the activities organised by the Music Department (University of Minho) and Casa do Professor in Braga, within the project MBB – Musical Bounce Back, Promoting the Role of Women in Music and Connecting for a New Pedagogy. On the same day, venue and context, Ângela Lopes will also participate in the round table Conversation with Portuguese Contemporary Female Composers. Additionally, another work by this composer published by the MIC.PT, Gárgulas d'Arga (2013) for flute, clarinet, piano, violin, cello and electronics, is included in the programme of the concert, Architecture of Sounds, a production by the DME Project, taking place on March 26 at the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon. The electronics in this piece, commissioned to Ângela Lopes by the Sond'Ar-te Electric Ensemble, combines sounds of a small zither, piano and vibraphone with water sounds from Serra d’Arga, resulting in different thicknesses, intensities, and registers. The title comes from French, ‘gargouille’, representing the gurgling sound of water.

On March 4, the work Manifesto Nada (2022) by António de Sousa Dias, composer published by MIC.PT will be presented in the context of the Festival Periferias 2023 at the Sociedade Filarmónica Os Aliados in São Pedro de Sintra. A short note about the festival: located in the suburbs of Lisbon, it aims, as indicated on its website, ‘to build a space for valuing and presenting theatrical creations from the Portuguese “peripheral regions”’. Besides, the festival seeks ‘to attract new audiences and to create new centralities in Portugal’. Manifesto Nada is staged by Alexandre Lyra Leite, with Rita Leite and Alexandre Lyra Leite responsible for the visual design. The opera’s performers are: Rui Baeta (baritone), Joana Manuel and Célia Teixeira (sopranos), as well as the ensemble, Fábio Oliveira (trumpet), Philippe Trovão (tenor saxophone), Guilherme Reis (double bass), and António de Sousa Dias (electronics). The opera’s subtitle is Opera-manifesto against and in favour of everything and decidedly about nothing. It inevitably draws from Tristan Tzara’s Dadaist manifestos – ‘is simplicity simple?... or DADA?’; it’s how the opera's teaser ends.

The works ETHNON – Canto do Paraíso (2010-2012) for piano by Cândido Lima and Posição Relativa (2022) for flute, clarinet, percussion, violin and cello by Diogo Alvim (two composers published by the MIC.PT), make part of the concert Architecture of Sounds (DME Project/ Gulbenkian Modern Art Centre), which will occur on March 26 at the Foyer Hall of the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon. As referred to in the programme notes: ‘the expression “architecture of sounds” alludes to the métier of Iannis Xenakis, architect and composer, and the one of Diogo Alvim, architect and composer of instrumental and electroacoustic music. Their two presented works – Bohor (electroacoustic work from 1962, composed for eight channels; first audition in Portugal) and Posição Relativa – share a unique concern with the space’. For its part, Cândido Lima’s piece ETHNON – Canto do Paraíso paraphrases another work by this composer – Gestos-Circus-Círculos (2000-2001) for ensemble and electronics – written for the pianist Ana Telles, soloist at this concert, which will also include the participation of the DME Ensemble.

The theatre piece Ajax/ Regresso(s) will premiere at Teatro da Rainha in Caldas da Rainha on March 16 (spectacles until April 8). Carlos Alberto Augusto (composer published by MIC.PT) is the author of the piece’s music and soundscape. The original text, written by Jean-Pierre Sarrazac, was translated by Isabel Lopes; and Fernando Mora Ramos is responsible for the piece’s staging. Ajax/ Regresso(s), which includes the performance of the translator herself, along with Beatriz Antunes, Mafalda Taveira, Marta Taveira, Fábio Costa, João Costa, and Nuno Machado, is inspired in Homer’s Odyssey; however, in this case, Troy is Bosnia, and the hero is not Ulysses but Ajax. Ajax/ Regresso(s) is about family and recognition but also war, extreme inhumanity, and bestial irrationality. As referred to in the programme notes: ‘this text is a reflective descent into the hells of the self – interspersed with a critical choral word, revealing the gaze of the victims. We think that the distance and the proposed abstraction will allow us to sketch a gesture to understand what is happening in the world. The end of the world, which one recurrently speaks about due to climate change, emerges preceded by the imminence of a nuclear conflict. The destructive sophistication has no inventive limits’.

In March, Igor C. Silva (composer published by the MIC.PT) will have various works performed in different places around the world. Firstly, the BlackBox Ensemble will perform the piece Smart-alienation (2016) at the Plaxall Gallery in New York (USA), on March 3. Then, on the 5th, João Miguel Braga Simões will present the piece Your Trash (2016) at the Ermo do Caos in Porto. On the next day, March 6, the percussionists Bartłomiej and Piotr Sutt will perform the piece My Empty Hands (2018) at the Polish Baltic Fryderyk Chopin Philharmonic in Gdańsk (Poland). This exact composition also makes part of the concert programme by the COSCYL Percussion Group at the Castilla y León Music Conservatory (March 27). And finally, the pianist Pascal Meyer will perform the piece Polyester Drops (2017), at the Dräi Eechelen Museum in Luxembourg, in the framework of the monthly cycle Lucilin in the City. ‘I have always intended to preserve a more impulsive and spontaneous approach to my music. In the first place, because the act on its own is extremely pleasurable. In the second place, because the music result is generally much more transparent and clear, transmitting more directly my music ideas’, says the composer in an interview from August 2015 (MIC.PT).

On the first Monday of the month, March 6, Jaime Reis (composer published by MIC.PT) will give a conference entitled The ‘sonic total’ and the ‘sacred’: perspectives on the ideas of spirituality in the music practice of Emmanuel Nunes. This presentation makes part of the symposium Music, Spirituality and New Technologies in the 20th and 21st Centuries, organised by Ana Telles (March 6-7, Colégio Mateus d'Aranda, School of Arts – University of Évora). In an interview from October 2016 (MIC.PT), the composer shares that Emmanuel Nunes was a mentor at various levels and someone he accompanied until the end of his life, which also left a mark on him. Additionally, between March 10 and 13, three Jaime Reis’ pieces – Fluxus, Transitional Flow, a work for viola and electronics (2013); Fluxus, Dimensionless sound (b), a composition for flute and electronics (2017); and Inverso Sangue: Âmbar (b), a solo piece for soprano saxophone (2018) – will be performed by students from the Castilla y León Music Conservatory, in Spain.

José Mesquita Lopes (composer published by the MIC.PT, guitarist, and teacher) will give a Classical Guitar Masterclass at the Regional Art Conservatory/ Professional School in Montijo on March 11 and 12. The deadline to register for the Masterclass is March 8. After attending the Architecture Course at the beginning of the 1980s, José Mesquita Lopes decided to follow a music career, dedicating himself to classical guitar and composition. His catalogue of works includes solo-instrument pieces, vocal and instrumental chamber music, and orchestral, concertante and electroacoustic works. Some of his pieces have been presented mainly in Europe and the Americas and recorded by nationally and internationally renowned artists. As a guitarist, José Mesquita Lopes has premiered his music works, as well as by other foreign and Portuguese composers, such as Carlos Gomes, Christopher Bochmann, Gonçalo Lourenço, Hugo Ribeiro, Isabel Soveral, Pedro Pinto Figueiredo, and Ricardo Barceló.

The premiere of the most recent piece by Miguel Azguime (composer published by the MIC.PT) will take place on March 14. This soprano, flute & piano composition, Genealogias da matéria (2023), will be performed by the Sond'Ar-te Three Women (Camila Mandillo, Sílvia Cancela & Elsa Silva) at the Ruy de Carvalho Municipal Auditorium, in the context of the Croma – Contemporary Music Cycle of Oeiras, organised by the Portuguese Association of Composers (March 13-18). On March 18, it will be possible to hear another Miguel Azguime’s work: Intermezzo from the opera A Laugh to Cry (2013), within a voice and piano recital at the Igreja da Misericórdia in Odemira, making part of the Music Through Time cycle. The recital's programme, including several lieder and presented by Miguel Azguime, will cross geographic and temporal barriers. Once again, it will be possible to hear Camilla Mandillo, this time accompanied by João Casimiro Almeida. And on March 27, Miguel Azguime’s music will be heard in Alberto Pimenta’s theatre play Discurso sobre o filho-da-puta (2020), staged by Fernando Mora Ramos. The performance, produced by the Teatro da Rainha, will occur at the Congress & Culture Centre in Caldas da Rainha.

On February 23, the Rattle label released the CD Percussion Spheres by Justin DeHart. The recording occurred in Aotearoa, New Zealand, and the CD is now available on the Bandcamp platform. It includes the work by Paulo Bastos (composer published by the MIC.PT), Íris-abandono... (2016), for solo vibraphone, premiered by Justin DeHart in 2021 in Christchurch (New Zealand), as well as pieces by Andrew Staniland, Orion Constellation Theory (2014), Nuno Costa, Instrepere III (2020) and Hyunsuk Jun, Typewriter (2017). Íris-abandono..., inspired by Mário Sá-Carneiro’s poem Anto, comprises seven miniatures: Caprichos de lilás, Fugidias, Envelos de Ópio, Cristal de essências langues, Torres de marfim, Ternuras de cetim e O príncipe das Ilhas transtornadas. ‘Each moment of this cycle chooses a dreamlike moment of the poem. The title – Íris-abandono... – conveys the heady aura of the poet’s words’, as Paulo Bastos mentions in the programme notes. ‘Generally speaking, poetry and literature are the extra-musical sources significantly influencing my work. This influence particularly stands out in my more recent music’ – says Paulo Bastos in an interview from July 2019 (MIC.PT).

On March 13, in the context of the Croma – Contemporary Music Cycle of Oeiras, the Lisbon Contemporary Music Group, under the baton of Rui Pinheiro, will perform, at the Ruy de Carvalho Municipal Auditorium in Carnaxide, Patrícia Sucena de Almeida's work Tempus fugit un terris nihil aeternus est (2010). Moreover, in the second half of the month, Patrícia Sucena de Almeida will participate in the activities organised by the Music Department at the University of Minho, and Casa do Professor in Braga, within the project MBB – Musical Bounce Back, Promoting the Role of Women in Music and Connecting for a New Pedagogy. In this sense, Patrícia Sucena de Almeida (composer published by the MIC.PT) will participate in the round table Conversation with Portuguese Contemporary Female Composers; and her piece Sublime volans (2010) will be performed at the concert by the students from the Music Department –  University of Minho, in collaboration with the Early Music Course at the Music and Performance School in Porto (March 20, Noble Hall of the Congregation Building, University of Minho).

One of Ricardo Matosinhos's most recent works Fantasia (2022), op. 91, for two horns and piano, will premiere on March 27 at the Hugh Hodgson School of Music – University of Georgia (USA). The musicians participating in this piece's first performance are the horn players Matthew Meadows, Anthony Parrish, and the pianist Damon Denton. The concert will also be available online via live streaming on the website of the Hugh Hodgson School of Music – University of Georgia. This new creation by Ricardo Matosinhos (composer published by the MIC.PT) dates from April 2022. The work's dedicatees are the two horn players performing its premiere, and Fantasia has integrated the Phoenix Music Competition Prize, which these two musicians won two years ago in 2021.

The Pheobus Collective will premiere the new piece by Vítor Rua (composer published by the MIC.PT), 16 Poemas Zen de Herberto Helder, on March 25 at the Cinema-Theatre in Fafe. This cycle of oriental haikus evokes Herberto Helder, one of the most significant Portuguese poets. It is to be performed by an eclectic, minimalist and experimental ensemble: Andrea Conangla (soprano), José Teixeira (whistle), Sílvia Cancela (flute), Frederic Cardoso (clarinet), José Rosas (trombone), Henrique Ramos (percussion), Luís Miguel Leite (guitar), Nuno Areia (piano), Inês Quintas (violin) & Gonçalo Cravinho Lopes (double bass). 16 Poemas Zen de Herberto Helder is an environmentalist and relaxing multimedia creation with lighting, video, performance, and music.

The Croma – Contemporary Music Cycle of Oeiras, organised by the Portuguese Association of Composers, aims to promote Portuguese contemporary music, broadening the horizons and frontiers of the relationship between composers and the audience. Its second edition – March 13-18, Ruy de Carvalho Municipal Auditorium in Carnaxide & Nossa Senhora do Cabo Music School, Linda-a-Velha – presents a programme dedicated to some leading avant-garde music formations. The Cycle begins with a workshop led by Ângela da Ponte (composer published by the MIC.PT) and followed by three activities with the Lisbon Contemporary Music Group – an open rehearsal, a round table, and a concert with the music by various composers published by the MIC.PT: António de Sousa Dias, Clotilde Rosa, Jorge Peixinho and Patrícia Sucena de Almeida. The second day at Croma will begin with a workshop led by Christopher Bochmann (composer published by the MIC.PT), followed by an open rehearsal, a round table and a concert by the Sond'Ar-te Three Women (voice, flute, and piano), whose programme includes two works by the composers published by the MIC.PT: Miguel Azguime (premiere) and Rui Penha. This programme will also include the premiere of a new piece by Pedro Pinto Figueiredo. March 15 at the Cycle will belong to the Schalfelld Ensemble, presently one of the most renowned new music groups in Europe. The 16th marks the beginning of the 3-day composition seminar with Frank Bedrossian; and in the day's final it will be possible to hear electronic music by Composition students from different Portuguese universities. On March 17, the Lisbon Ensemble 20/21 will give an open rehearsal and concert and participate in a round table. The Croma Cycle will close on March 18 with the last day of the composition seminar, plus an open rehearsal, round table and concert with the Opuspiritum Ensemble.

Between March 16 and 18, Lisboa Incomum will host the 2023 Piano Festival (an initiative by the DME Project), performed by the three soloists – Diana Botelho Vieira, Sérgio Azevedo and André Cardoso – with different proposals for each evening. About Crossing Paths, the title of the first recital, Diana Botelho Vieira, says that ‘the paths of modernity are many and antagonistic. Different ways of approaching music and modernity cross simultaneously, fertilise, or distance themselves. To expose these ‘aesthetic twists and turns of the 20th and 21st centuries’, the pianist will present music by nine composers from various generations and geographies. Among pieces by Luciano Berio and John Cage, it will be possible to hear music by Carlos Caires and Ângela da Ponte, composers published by MIC.PT. At the Festival’s second recital, Sérgio Azevedo will play his compositions, following his initial formation, which also included the piano. The two cycles – Album for Leoš Janáček and Nokturny i Mazurki – were created during the pandemic. Finally, the recital Adestro 21, a name evoking André Roque Cardoso’s most recent CD (also presented at the Festival), includes works by the three composers published by MIC.PT: António Chagas Rosa, Eduardo Luís Patriarca and José Carlos Sousa. The programme’s unifying element is the choice of contemporary Portuguese repertoire for the left hand, providing ‘particular music fruition experiences’ that ‘challenge the usual norms and practices.’

On February 6 the Espaço Crítica para a Nova Música/ New Music Review Lounge published two new texts by Pedro Boléo (in Portuguese), Viagens da ópera por caminhos diferentes and Estreias que desencadeiam ideias. In these two reviews Pedro Boléo puts into perspective four new works premiered in January: the operas, Blown Off Course by Pedro Rebelo and Paraíso by Nuno da Rocha, the orchestral work by Nuno Côrte-Real, Sinfonia 2022, and the chamber music piece, Posição Relativa by Diogo Alvim.

In March, various initiatives in Braga – organised by the Music Department at the University of Minho and Casa do Professor (curated by Pedro Junqueira Maia), within the project MBB – Musical Bounce Back, Promoting the Role of Women in Music and Connecting for a New Pedagogy – will focus on female composition work. This project aims to promote a greater awareness of gender equality in different music education institutions. Financed by the Erasmus + programme and coordinated by the Piano and Co music company (France), the consortium of the project's entities also includes LICA – Laboratoire d'Intelligence Collective et Artificielle (France), Komitas Conservatory in Yerevan (Armenia), LabMAT – Laboratory of Music Acoustics and Technology at the University of Athens (Greece), and Organisation for European Programmes & Cultural Relations (Cyprus). In this sense, various activities will occur at the University of Minho between March 20 & 24, some open to the public. On March 20, the Noble Hall of the Congregation Building at the University of Minho will host a round table, Conversation with Portuguese Contemporary Composers, with Ângela da Ponte, Ângela Lopes, Carla Oliveira, Mariana Vieira, Patrícia Sucena de Almeida, Sara Carvalho and Solange Azevedo. After the round table, the students from the Music Department (University of Minho) will give a concert in collaboration with the Early Music Course at the Music and Performance School in Porto. On March 23, the same venue will host a second round table Conversation with Male Composers who studied with Female Composers, with the participation of Christopher Bochmann, António de Sousa Dias, Luís Postiga and Rui Penha. And on March 24, the Medieval Hall of the Rectory at the University of Minho will host another concert, this time performed by the students of the MBB Project International Workshop.

The Lisbon Contemporary Music Group’s main objective is the creation of a chamber contemporary music repertoire. Therefore, the group organises the GMCL/ Jorge Peixinho International Composition Competition every two years, completing its sixth edition in 2023. Following the formation of the Lisbon Contemporary Music Group (GMCL) – mezzo-soprano, flute, clarinet, violin, viola, cello, harp, percussion, and piano – the Competition has two categories: Category A – Ensemble (which must include the GMCL complete formation) and Category B – Chamber Music, (which must have at least four elements of the GMCL formation). Two more notes about the Competition: both categories can contain electronics, and there are no limitations regarding the candidates’ age or the number of submitted works. The jury members are the president, Ivan Fedele, and the seven members: João Madureira, Isabel Soveral, Carlos Caires and Jaime Reis, Gerhard Stabler, Jorge Sá Machado and Kunsu Shim (special guest). The candidates must send their works in digital format by July 28.

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.