On April 1 & 2, António Ferreira (a composer published by the MIC.PT) will participate in what is, as noted on the Miso Music Portugal website, ‘the first Miso Music Portugal cycle, specially dedicated to electroacoustic music.’ This Spring Equinox cycle will occur at O’culto da Ajuda in Lisbon. On the first day, António Ferreira will participate in a debate with João Castro Pinto, moderated by Miguel Azguime. What will follow is the release of his double monographic album SoundAbility (2023; Miso Records). On this day, it will also be possible to hear, via the Miso Music Portugal Loudspeaker Orchestra, three ‘historical’ electroacoustic works selected by António Ferreira: De Natura Sonorum (1975), by Bernard Parmegiani, SUD (1985), by Jean Claude Risset and Ascent (1994), by Andrew Lewis; and three António Ferreira’s works: Fading into white (2008), Les Barricades Mysterieuses (2009) & the premiere of Umwelt (2023). On April 2, the session will begin with António Ferreira’s presentation, followed by a debate with the same participants.

On April 6, at the 16th International Spring Music Festival in Viseu, the Sond’Ar-te Trio will premiere new works by two composers published by the MIC.PT: Sofia Sousa Rocha's Jogos (2023), and Carlos Marecos' fragmentos de movimento e melancolia (2023). At this concert at the Viriato Theatre, Elsa Silva (piano), Vítor Vieira (violin), and Filipe Quaresma (cello) will also perform the music by Dmitri Shostakovich and Miguel Azguime. The two premiere works result from a co-commission by the Miso Music Portugal and the International Spring Music Festival, whose 16th edition occurs between April 1-21. With artistic direction by José Carlos Sousa (a composer published by the MIC.PT), the festival's organiser is the Proviseu/ Dr José Azeredo Perdigão Regional Music Conservatory. In 2023 its programme has 19 concerts with talents from Portugal and other parts of the world performing on different instruments and presenting music for diverse tastes. The festival final concerts will include the participation of various orchestras.

The project Portuguese Music for Guitar: Works by Fernando C. Lapa, dedicated to this composer published by MIC.PT will occur on April 12, 13, 14 & 15. This concert cycle will happen, respectively, in Aveiro (at the Orlando de Oliveira Auditorium of the Calouste Gulbenkian Conservatory), Seia (at the Music Conservatory), Viseu (at the Grão Vasco Museum, within the 16th International Spring Music Festival) and in Oliveira do Bairro (at the Bairrada Music Culture Circle). The project’s programme includes the works: Itinerários (1999); Suite D’Oiro (2010); Plural VIII (2004); Como se canta o fogo, o mar e o som dos barcos (2010); Três ou quatro notas para Florbela (2012); and Lamentos (2007). Hugo Simões, Francisco Berény, Rita Barbosa (guitars), Tiago Azevedo e Silva (cello), Monika Streitová (flute) & Daniela Matos (soprano) are the performers of these concerts, which will include commentaries by Matilde Andrade. The cycle also involves another didactic aspect – the scores of the works have been made available to composition teachers of the music schools in the regions where the concerts will occur. Thus, the students can connect more with the presented works. This collaboration includes the teachers: Pedro Santos (Aveiro Conservatory), Túlio Augusto (Seia), José Carlos Sousa (Viseu) & Pedro Almeida (Bairrada).

On April 15, a new work by Igor C. Silva, a composer published by the MIC.PT will have its premiere at Casa da Música in Porto. The piece, Wrong Index, conceived for big band and electronics, will be performed by the Matosinhos Jazz Orchestra conducted by Pedro Guedes. This group promotes a unique approach based on ‘creation, research, divulgation and training in the area of jazz’. Igor C. Silva underlines, in an interview with the MIC.PT from 2015 that he had worked with several jazz groups, which naturally had originated in ‘the need to compose’ for them. In parallel, In Case of Change (2020), Igor C. Silva’s work for kalimba and live electronics makes part of the programme of the 5th edition of the Beira Interior International Percussion Competition (between April 12 and 16). The performer, André Dias, is also one of the elements of the jury, which includes only former winners of this Covilhã competition (André Dias obtained the 1st Prize in the very first edition in 2016). The percussionist’s work, a member of the Pulsat Percussion Group and a regular collaborator of the Drumming – Percussion Group, keeps very close to the path of various Portuguese composers, including Igor C. Silva, and this is ‘one of the premises’ of André Dias’ artistic activity. In 2013, the musician premiered Drive_!, a piece for multi-percussion and electronics by Igor C. Silva.

As the Portuguese Federation of the International Confederation of Electroacoustic Music, in response to the Call launched by the Tempo Reale – Centre for Music Production, Research and Education (Florence/ Italy), Miso Music Portugal has submitted Filipe Esteves’ electroacoustic work Cavitações (2022) for a new concert series called Fixed Rooms. This series will occur in 2023 in the main Studio at Villa Strozzi, an immersive concert space with a multichannel system of 10-12 loudspeakers. ‘The idea to compose this piece came from listening to the percussive flow that the plumbing of the building where I live produces when it rains’ – says Filipe Esteves (a composer published by the MIC.PT) in the programme note. ‘The flow resembles a bongo played with a cadence that varies between periodic and aperiodic, depending on the intensity of the rain (the heavier the rain, the more chaotic the cadence). Cavitation is a hydrodynamic phenomenon that occurs when in a moving liquid, at ordinary temperature, the static pressure (at any point) drops to the value of the vapour tension at the same temperature, forming cavities. The piece’s name derives mainly from a fanciful sonic analogy between the type of sounds produced by the cavitation phenomenon and the sounds created through the processing (in particular the granular synthesis) of the original percussive sources.’

João Castro Pinto (a composer published by MIC.PT) will participate in the Spring Equinox Electroacoustic Music Cycle, which will take place at the O’culto da Ajuda in Lisbon on April 1 and 2. The cycle will begin with the composer’s presentation, followed by a debate (occurring on both days), including the participation of António Ferreira and moderated by Miguel Azguime. Right after the debate, on the second day, João Castro Pinto will present his new CD Faux Naturel (2022), released by the Belgian label Unfathomless in November last year. What will follow is the concert by the Miso Music Portugal Loudspeaker Orchestra, presenting music by Iancu Dumitrescu [Pierres Sacrées (1989-1991)], Jerry Hunt [Chimanzzi – Link 1 (1993)]. The concert will also be an opportunity to hear, for the first time in Portugal, the soundscape composition that gives title to João Castro Pinto’s new CD, Faux Naturel (2022). As the Miso Music Portugal website highlights, it will undoubtedly be ‘an intense and stimulating weekend presenting new works by Portuguese composers, side by side with the recognised “historical” ones’.

‘I aspire that my works can stimulate positive emotions in the listeners. An aesthetic experience approaching the sublime is the maximum exponent of human interaction with art, and it can eventually represent a glimpse of a truly mystical experience. If one day I can manage to provoke such emotions in the listeners, I will consider myself a fulfilled composer’, says João Pedro Oliveira in the MIC.PT interview from 2017. This positive reception of his works is synonymous with the awards this composer published by the MIC.PT has recently received. For the electroacoustic work, Coalescence (2021), João Pedro Oliveira received the first prize attributed by Petrichor Records within the Film/ Videogame/ Animation Music Category. The composer has also won the first prize of the Association of Music Teachers of Missouri, having received a commission for a new work to be premiered in November at the association's State Conference at the University of Missouri – Kansas City (USA). Finally, João Pedro Oliveira received the Gold Award at the New York Movie Awards for the video in the piece In Tempore (2016).

Luís Neto da Costa’s transcription of Beethoven’s Rondino will premiere on April 28. The work composed in 1793 was initially conceived for a double quintet (two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons and two horns) but is now presented in a version for two organs. The premiere is part of Braga’s 9th International Organ Festival, lasting between April 28 and May 14. The transcription by Luís Neto da Costa (a composer published by MIC.PT) has already received an award at a contest related to the festival in 2022. José Rodrigues, artistic director of the International Organ Festival, guarantees that this ninth edition will be different since it will focus on the «movement of sound, voices and bodies», including dance in the already recurrent musical component. Even though there is a repertoire for other instruments and formations, the organ will play the central role «so that the public can acknowledge the many capabilities of the instrument» at the festival’s «eleven concerts in seven different churches».

In April, two works by Nuno Peixoto de Pinho (a composer published by the MIC.PT) will premiere in Portugal. The first premiere will occur on 12 April with two performances. The work is for a youth orchestra; the composer called it Suite Crescere Insieme (2023). The piece’s performer will be the Crescendo ensemble, conducted by Cristina Silva, at the Gondomar Municipal Auditorium. The second premiere, Vidlunnya (2023), is for guitar, and its performer will be Júlio Guerreiro on 29 April at the Viva a Primavera Guitar Festival. Organised by the Music Academy in Tavira, the festival’s second edition will extend between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. Nuno Peixoto de Pinho’s music encompasses multiple genres and formats, from orchestral to chamber music, including vocal and ensemble works. It reveals an interest towards pre-existing music to transforma and dialogue with other music genres, resulting in a distortion/ relation with the source.

In April, Miguel Azguime will have his music performed in Viseu and Lisbon. The first work, Melancholia (2019), for violin, cello & piano, will be presented on the 6th at the International Spring Music Festival of Viseu (FIMPV), where the musicians Vítor Vieira, Filipe Quaresma and Elsa Silva, will perform as the Sond’Ar-te Trio. Then, four performances of Miguel Azguime’s opera A Laugh to Cry (2013) will occur between April 13-15 & on the 20th in Lisbon and Viseu. The first three will happen at O'culto da Ajuda, and the fourth in Viseu at the Viriato Theatre (FIMPV). The opera is for two sopranos, a bass-baritone, two speakers, seven instruments and electronics, with staging by Paula Azguime composed of multiple video projections. The opera’s performers are Pedro Neves (conductor), Camila Mandillo & Andrea Conangla, André Henriques, Miguel Azguime, Jade Mandillo, and the Sond’Ar-te Electric Ensemble. A Laugh to Cry, a work with multilingual libretto also written by this composer published by the MIC.PT ‘explores human concerns in a globalised world, reflecting on the hegemonic power of memory destruction, the devastation of the Earth and war...’. Additionally, on the 28th, Miguel Azguime’s music will be heard in Alberto Pimenta's Discurso sobre o filho-da-puta (2020), staged by Fernando Mora Ramos. The theatre play, produced by the Teatro da Rainha, will occur at Cineteatro Camacho Costa in Odemira.

In March, Bloomsbury Publishing released the book Sounding Conflict: From Resistance to Reconciliation, which includes a chapter by Pedro Rebelo, a composer published by the MIC.PT. This new publication results from the homonymous research project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and Economic and Social Research Council and spread around three continents. It aligns with Pedro Rebelo’s interests, focused on researching and understanding composition and sound in different social contexts. Therefore, the book's sixth chapter, Working through Creative Practice: Socially Engaged Arts Interventions, for which the composer is responsible, stems from the installation he created with Matilde Meireles. The Sounding Conflict: A Performance in Five Acts focuses on a short film by Patrick J O’Reilly, performed by Joe Loane and Keith Singleton. This cinematic element presents two cyclists fated to an eternal state of destruction and reconstruction. This idea is also reflected in the soundscapes and questions the role of music created in conflict situations. The book’s description reveals that ‘each case study illustrates how participatory arts genres can be employed in a variety of ways by musicians, arts facilitators, theatre practitioners, community activists and other stakeholders as a means of transforming trauma and promoting empowerment’.

The works Cinco Quadros para Alice (2009) and Indizível (2015), by Paulo Bastos (a composer published by the MIC.PT), make part of the CD Flauta XXI, which will be presented at two commented concerts on April 4 & 6 (the CD also contains works by Sérgio Azevedo, Gonçalo Lourenço & Eduarda Ferreira). The first work is a cycle of pieces that, as Paulo Bastos says, ‘reproduces five moments from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland adventure in the form of fantasy’. The second piece Paulo Bastos dedicates to the flutist Morgana Patriarca. It proposes ‘music in an ineffable environment, where not everything is expressed in a normal way, in the space of minimal things, and two empty pages’. The performers of the concerts are João Vidinha (piano) and Ana Filipa Luz (flute). On the 4th, the concert will occur in the Portuguese islands region, at the Primary & Secondary School of Graciosa (the Azores). On the 6th, the performance will occur at the Convento dos Remédios in Évora. The musicians have deliberately chosen these venues ‘to make Portuguese classical music (by living composers) accessible to a wider audience, as part of a much-needed decentralisation’ – as stated on the website of the CD’s publisher, Arpejo Editora.

Throughout this month, the music and activity of Sara Carvalho, a composer published by the MIC.PT will reach Bulgaria and Spain. Between April 18 and 23, the composer will be in Sofia, the country's capital, for the 4th International Composition Workshop, organised by the Conducting and Composition Department at the Faculty of Theoretical Composition, and by the direction of Prof. Pancho Vladigerov National Music Academy. In this context, Sara Carvalho will present two conferences, one on contemporary compositional creativity and the other on the training of students in composition. What will follow is a composition masterclass, also led by Sara Carvalho. On April 28, her piece Episódio de Intervalo III (2022) will be performed in Vigo by the Performa Ensemble, constituted by Helena Marinho, on the piano, Henrique Portovedo, on the saxophone, and Jorge Salgado Correio, on the flute. The concert, entitled The Words and the Music, makes part of the 8th Music and Arts Festival at the Music Conservatory in Vigo (CSMVIGO), sponsored by the Regional Government of Galicia and the Vigo Municipality. The title of this edition is Nas Ondas (or: On the Waves), and it will last until the beginning of June.

In the context of the Call for Scores for the ISCM World New Music Days 2023 (WNMD 2023), as the ISCM Portuguese Section, the Miso Music Portugal has invited six contemporary Portuguese composers to include their works in the Official Application for the WNMD 2023 festival dedicated to the music of our time. The composers are Ângela da Ponte (Category 9 – Solos), with the work We can’t breathe (2021) for flute and electronics; António Ferreira (Category 11 – Electronic Music), with the work The Sound of Others (2022); Carlos Marecos (Category 5 – String Quartet), with the work Eight Instants, Music for a Palace (2018) for string quartet; Fátima Fonte (Category 7 – Trios or Quartets), with the work The Sleep Collector (2022) for flute, percussion and cello; Gonçalo Gato (Category 2 – Chamber Orchestra), with the work #Where_we’re_going (2018) for instrumental ensemble; and Luís Neto da Costa (Category 9 – Solos), with the work shadow textures (2019) for bass clarinet and electronics. The pieces submitted by the Sections and Members of the ISCM – International Society for Contemporary Music, will be subject to selection by an international jury to integrate the programme of the ISCM World New Music Days 2023 festival, organised by NewMusicSA (ISCM South African section), occurring between November 24 and December 3 in Johannesburg and Cape Town in South Africa.

On March 24 the Espaço Crítica para a Nova Música/ New Music Review Lounge published a new text by Pedro Boléo (in Portuguese), Simples pianos cruzados, dedicated to the recital Crossing Paths which the pianist Diana Botelho Vieira gave in the context of the Piano Festival 2023 at Lisboa Incomum on March 16. The recital's programme included works by three Portuguese composers: Ângela da Ponte, Carlos Caires and João Carlos Pinto; as well as music by Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, John Adams, John Cage, John Luther Adams, Luciano Berio and Sofia Gubaidulina.

In March, the MIC.PT has activated a new performer’s page dedicated to João Dias, percussionist and researcher particularly interested in the ‘composer – performer’ mediation/ collaboration in creating new music. João Dias has been a member of the Drumming GP since 2004; he makes part of the Sond'Ar-te Electric Ensemble and collaborates with Sonoscopia, Remix Ensemble, Porto Symphony Orchestra, Casa da Música Choir and Gulbenkian Orchestra. In 2016 he created the solo project Caixa Elétrica focused on disseminating Portuguese music for percussion and presented in 2018 at the Darmstadt Summer Course. In the same year, João Dias received the Criatório support for the solo project, DiRE-SoNo: Discursos de (R)Evolução do Som no Espaço. His most recent project is the Supernova Ensemble, where he’s a director with the composer José Alberto Gomes and works as a performer.

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!

To encourage national music composition for children and youth choirs, Miso Music Portugal is promoting the Águas Gémeas competition. The applications are open until the end of August 31. Only Portuguese composers up to 35 years old are eligible, and the works must be original. The competition is part of a homonymous scientific research and artistic creation project directed by the anthropologist Pedro Prista and developed in the territory of the Santa Clara dam in Odemira. The project’s theme dedicated to water focuses on the reformulation of a resource that is the ‘key to understanding the cultural forms of the relationship we build with the world and with others’, but that is also ‘socially alienated’, says Pedro Prista in the text Uma nota sobre a gemelidade da água. Regarding the musical form of the competition works, one should consider the children's choir formation (SSA), in the first category or the youth choir formation (SATB), in the second category, which also allows longer pieces. The competition’s jury includes the participation of Basilio Astúlez Duque (Spain), Erica Mandillo (Portugal), Miguel Azguime (Portugal), and Sanna Valvanne (Finland). The Children and Youth Choir of the University of Lisbon will premiere the winning works, and the Portuguese Music Research & Information Centre – MIC.PT will publish their scores.

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 Stäbler, Jorge Sá Machado and Kunsu Shim (special guest). The candidates must send their works in digital format by July 28.

To promote music creation for orchestra by Portuguese composers and foreign ones residing in Portugal, the Francisco de Lacerda – A Música e o Mundo Cultural Association organises the Francisco de Lacerda Millenium bcp Foundation Composition Prize, now in its second edition. The participants must be of legal age and can apply until July 1, 2023. The following composers constitute the jury: Magnus Lindberg (Finland), Vasco Mendonça (Portugal), Christian Mason (United Kingdom) and Aspasia Nasoupolou (Greece). The Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra will premiere the winning work as part of the Francisco de Lacerda Atlantic Sound Encounters 2023.

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. The Portuguese Music Research & Information Centre – MIC.PT will publish the scores with the winning works.

Since March a new In the 1st Person Interview (in Portuguese), with the composer Christopher Bochmann, is available on the MIC.PT YouTube Channel.
Presently the MIC.PT YouTube Channel contains 25 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.