In September, the MIC.PT In Focus section is dedicated to José Luís Ferreira, remembering this composer, musician, teacher and performer (‘performador’), whose premature disappearance in February 2018, at only 44, has left contemporary music in Portugal poorer. On August 31 José Luís Ferreira would have turned 50.
José Luís Ferreira dedicated his activity to innovation, invention and research within acoustic, electroacoustic and mixed music. He developed the essence of his language in direct connection with technology and computer music. In the context of these domains, he affirmed his creative freedom, always sharing the results of his research and putting into practice the concepts of his doctoral thesis – Mixed Music and Dynamic Relations Systems – in the pedagogical framework of the ESML Mixed Music Lab, and the context of other projects, for example, with the MPMP Ensemble or the Miso Music Portugal.
This MIC.PT In Focus is an incentive for reflecting on the role of memory in creating narratives about prematurely disappeared artists. Despite belonging to the past, continuing their legacy is undoubtedly an essential element for developing new ideas today, which will certainly contribute to the future.

A concert whose programme includes two works by António de Sousa Dias (a composer published by the MIC.PT) will occur on September 8; the works are Trois Chansons Inachevées (2003) for soprano, saxophone and electronics and a premiere of a new composition. The concert will conclude António de Sousa Dias’ residency at the Lisboa Incomum (September 4-8), and its performers will be Philipe Trovão (saxophone) and Mariana Doionísio (voice). Its programme will also comprise two works by Jean-Claude Risset, Voilements (1987) and Saxtractor (1995). In the MIC.PT interview from April 2017, António de Sousa Dias emphasised the learning with this French composer as one of the most determining moments in his path: ‘I worked with him only at the beginning of the 2000s; Risset’s writings and music have always been an enormous source of inspiration for me.’ Additionally, António de Sousa Dias will participate in the Electroacoustic Music Cycle Autumn Equinox on September 23 and 24 at the O’culto da Ajuda in Lisbon. It is the second cycle organised by Miso Music Portugal, dedicated to electroacoustic music. Alongside António de Sousa Dias, it will also include the participation of another composer published by the MIC.PT, Hugo Vasco Reis.

The special edition of the Itinerant Percussion Festival returns to the Casa da Música in Porto on September 2. This time the septets include the professors and not the students from various superior Percussion courses in Portugal. The concert will feature four Portuguese contemporary works commissioned by the Arte no Tempo association, which’s responsible for the initiative. What stands out in this programme are the three premieres of pieces composed in 2020: Music for Percussion, by João Carlos Pinto; MSTRG-TRLD, by Rita Torres; and HOQUETUS – tambores de Maio, by Cândido Lima. In the programme note, this composer published by the MIC.PT refers to the time of the piece’s composition, directly reflecting the pandemic. ‘April and May 2020, a time of dramas and tragedies’, marked by a ‘new state of mind to express, through music, a light at the end of the tunnel’. And so, ‘in May, as a musical metaphor, drums announce the appearance of an oasis, real landscape, or mirage. This work is a tribute to life’, says Cândido Lima, emphasising ‘the privilege of working with a group of seven percussionists’; they are Bruno Costa, Miquel Bernat, Eduardo Cardinho, Pedro Carneiro, João Dias, Marco Fernandes, Miguel Herrera and, as a conductor, Mário Teixeira.

In September, in the context of two concerts, the Síntese – Contemporary Music Group will perform two works by the composers published by the MIC.PT, Carlos Marecos and Fernando C. Lapa. The work by the former, branco, branco, branco... (2022) for soprano, saxophone, accordion and string quartet, integrates the concert Viagem a Portugal (the 8th, Igreja Matriz, São Jorge da Beira, Covilhã), in the framework of which maestro Yan Mikirtumov will also conduct works by Fernando Lopes-Graça, Tiago Derriça and Carlos Azevedo. By Fernando C. Lapa, the Síntese – GMC, conducted by maestro Pedro Neves, will premiere the work Retratos e Invenções on September 10 in Castelo Novo, in the context of the artistic residency Vanguarda na Aldeia. In this new creation, the musicians draw from the region’s traditional melodies, joining the past musical legacy with the contemporaneity and involving Castelo Novo’s population.

In September, Hugo Vasco Reis (a composer published by the MIC.PT) will participate in the Electroacoustic Music Cycle Autumn Equinox on September 23 and 24 at the O’culto da Ajuda in Lisbon. This Miso Music Portugal’s cycle aims to present new electroacoustic works by Portuguese composers and those recognised as ‘historical’. ‘Presenting isn’t only showing, but also reflecting’ – say the cycle’s organisers. And they add: ‘Apart from the sound immersion proportionated by the Loudspeaker Orchestra, the Autumn Equinox also provides the meeting with the two composers in focus: António de Sousa Dias and Hugo Vasco Reis.’ Additionally, this month, between September 16 and 30, the QCContemporâneo will perform Hugo Vasco Reis’ String Quartet no. 1 – Imago (2023) in seven different locations in Portugal: Cantanhede, Portalegre, Arganil, Castelo Branco, Coimbra, Manteigas, and Fundão.

Two operas from 2021 with the music of Fátima Fonte and Sofia Sousa Rocha (composers published by the MIC.PT), integrate the programme of the 2nd edition of the Informal Opera Festival (FIO), taking place on September 14-15 and 22-23, respectively, in Braga and Barcelos (Portugal). In this sense, the FIO’s audience will have the opportunity to hear the work O Concílio Celeste by the former composer (with text by Patrícia Portela and staging by Sónia Batista) and by the latter, the opera Oráculos e Ladainhas (with text by Tiago Schwäbl, and staging by António Torres). Idealised by an artists’ association in collaboration with the Braga Sinfonietta and having the primary support of the DGArtes, as well as the Braga and Barcelos Municipalities, ‘the FIO has a unique format establishing a relation between the city, the public, the artists and the presented operas.’ The programme of FIO 2023 also includes two more works: Maria Magola (music by Francisco Fontes, text by Marta Pais de Oliveira, and staging by Daniela Cruz) and In(opeRA)VEL (music by Sara Ross, text by Tiago Schwäbl, and staging by Joana Providência).

In September, Jaime Reis (a composer published by the MIC.PT) will have his piece, nœud.navire. (2021), performed by the Contracello Duo – Miguel Rocha (cello) and Adriano Aguiar (double bass). This first performance is part of the A-Place project, and it will occur on the first day of this event, between the 14th and 15th, at the Largo Residências in Lisbon. The performances of nœud.navire. will repeat on the 23rd at the Convento dos Capuchos in Almada and on the 30th at the ESMAE Music School in Porto. Additionally, Jaime Reis has the role of artistic director in the context of the performance of Mieko Shiomi’s pieces with the DME Ensemble Musicians on September 9 at the Gulbenkian Foundation, within the Engawa season, bringing to Lisbon a group of creators from Japan and the Japanese diaspora; Mieko Shiomi is a Japanese composer essential for the Fluxus artistic movement. Lastly, on the 8th, also at the Gulbenkian, at the Modern Art Centre, Jaime Reis will participate in the Debate on Japan (FluxFest Lisbon), including the presence of Ami Yamasaki, Ko Ishikawa and Christian Marclay.

The work Pulsar (2018) by João Pedro Oliveira (a composer published by MIC.PT) will have its performance on September 2 at the Casa da Música in Porto, at the special edition of the Itinerant Percussion Festival, an initiative organised by the Arte no Tempo association. The work’s premiere occurred in 2019; it was commissioned by the Arte no Tempo, with funding from the DGArtes. On its website, the association states that the festival revolves around a meeting between the different teachers from Portugal’s percussion schools: ‘Contradicting the notion of rivalry between schools, percussionists from the seven Portuguese colleges where percussion is taught will meet for an unprecedented event where music is the focus’. The following seven percussionists from different schools will perform Pulsar: Bruno Costa, Miquel Bernat, Eduardo Cardinho, Pedro Carneiro, João Dias, Marco Fernandes and Miguel Herrera; Mário Teixeira will be in charge of the music direction. João Pedro Oliveira has also recently stood out, having won the first prize in the Audiovisual Projects section, for the video-music Coalescence (2021), at the 14th International Città di Udine Composition Competition.

João Quinteiro (a composer published by the MIC.PT) will have his work, Hermes, nove da noite (2017), performed in the context of the A-Place project. This spatialised piece with live video belongs to the operatic cycle Regresso, and it will have its presentation by the saxophonist Henrique Portovedo. The concert will occur on September 14, at the Largo Residências in Lisbon, after a roundtable discussion featuring João Quinteiro and Jaime Reis, another composer published by the MIC.PT. In the December 2019 MIC.PT interview João Quinteiro said: ‘In the experience of a sonic object, it’s for me fundamental to have a certain form of performative motor skills, implied in any work’. In the composer’s view, ‘performance concerns any action of the body’, creating ‘a fabric of mobile multiplicities (not only in the space), acting and reacting at every instant’. Aiming at ‘sharing experiences’ and ‘generating reflections’, the A-Place project will continue until September 15, with other musical moments, installations, exhibitions, sound walks, and debates. It is the end of a 2023 tour of this project that also happened in Brussels in May and Barcelona in June.

The work Faux Naturel (Unfathomless 2022 – U77), by João Castro Pinto (a composer published by the MIC.PT), integrates the installation/ listening device of the 3rd edition of the PAYSAGES | COMPOSÉS 2023 – Écologie sonore ‧ Musiques de recherche Festival, having been selected within the call by the APNÉES association. The festival will occur at various locations of Grenoble between September 8 and 10, and its programme includes conferences, round tables, workshops, performances and concerts with the invited artists, as well as a pleiad of acousmatic pieces selected in the context of the call, which had 191 submissions from 37 countries. By João Castro Pinto, on September 10, the installation at the Garden of Plants of the Natural History Museum of Grenoble will include the 5th & 6th movements from Faux Naturel: dramactions/ fence et al. e dock/ orchestral autopoiesis & other forms.

Between September 16 and 30, the Contemporary String Quartet will perform the work ... is a wasted emotion (2023) by Sara Carvalho (a composer, published by MIC.PT) in seven locations in Portugal: Cantanhede, Portalegre, Arganil, Castelo Branco, Coimbra, Manteigas, and Fundão. This project by the Ritornello Association also includes the presentation of works by other composers – Ana Magalhães, João Pedro Oliveira, Amílcar Vasques-Dias, and Hugo Vasco Reis (the three latter, composers published by the MIC.PT). Another Sara Carvalho’s work, Solos IV (2000) for soprano, is one of the pieces selected in the context of the Call for Works for the Mujeres/+s en la Música Nueva – FMMN Festival (Colombia, Bogota). The performance of this piece, by the soprano Beatriz Elena Martínez, will occur on September 2. Within Sara Carvalho’s activities, one should also highlight her participation in the edition of the recently released book, EXPLORING CREATIVITIES. Creation as a strategy for learning music and the arts (ed. EdictOràlia). It results from a meeting between researchers from the University of Aveiro, the Institut de Creativitat i Innovacions Educatives, the University of Cantabria, and the University of Vic; thus, the book is a selection of papers presented at the 2nd International Symposium: Music for and by Children: Perspectives of Composers, Performers and Educators (Aveiro, 2022).

Cinco canções de Miguel Torga (2020) for voice and guitar, and La courbe de tes yeux (2022) for soprano and guitar are the two works by Paulo Bastos (a composer published by the MIC.PT) included on the new CD by the L’Effetto Ensemble (Dora Rodrigues, soprano; and Rui Gama, guitar), Caprichos (ed. Artway Records), whose presentation in France will occur on September 9 at the 17ème Festival Guitares en Picardie. Additionally, the digital-platform release of Paulo Bastos’ EP concrète (author’s edition) occurred on August 9. It includes the composer’s five electroacoustic works composed in 2016: Flutz, onaiP, Flutzcla, feldage and kurtos. Soon, two more CD editions with Paulo Bastos’ music will be available on digital platforms: in quote mode with ten electroacoustic works composed between 1993 and 200, and 17 peças para Guitarra (17 pieces for Guitar), performed by Rui Gama, with didactic works (including four duets), composed in 1998. In the June 2019 MIC.PT interview, Paulo Bastos said: ‘My musical language isn’t hermetic – there are works in my catalogue, which are completely different. And I do it consciously since I think a composer should try various languages and techniques. There’s no school, current or aesthetics, to which I would be totally faithful. I have some points of reference, which are audible in my music; they concern the composition processes and have been changing.’

In September, the MIC.PT activated a New Composer’s Page dedicated to Carlos Brito Dias, presently a resident of the Antwerpen Camerata. Among his heterogeneous creations – for solo instruments, brass bands, choirs, orchestras, and various instrumental ensembles –, it is possible to find music for short films, theatre, robot orchestras and collaborations with dancers and visual artists. Carlos Brito Dias worked with several ensembles and orchestras including the Remix Ensemble, Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música, Sond‘Ar-te Electric Ensemble, and Antwerp Symphony Orchestra. The composer is working on his PhD in Arts and a master’s in Orchestral Conducting in Antwerp. In addition to Portugal, various performances of his music occurred in Spain, France, Italy, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

A New Composer’s Page, dedicated to Mariana Vieira, was activated on the MIC.PT in September. Among this young composer’s works, one can highlight acousmatic music and pieces for various instrumental sets (solo, chamber music, ensemble or orchestra). Her works have already been presented at several festivals, having travelled within multiple regions of Europe, from Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Czechia, Spain, Belgium and France, out to destinations such as Mexico and Turkey. In addition to her work as a composer, Mariana Vieira is currently an assistant professor at the Escola Superior de Artes Aplicadas (Castelo Branco). She is involved in developing pedagogical and artistic projects and is part of the DME Project team, working with the Lisboa Incomum and the EMSCAN association.

To encourage the creation of choral music, the Lajes do Pico Municipality, the Lajes do Pico Choral Group, and the Portuguese Music Research & Information Centre (MIC.PT) have promoted the fourth edition of the Manuel Emílio Porto National Choral Composition Competition, tributing one of the esteemed Azorean conductors and composers of choral music. As in previous years, one of this edition’s competition challenges was composing works in Portuguese, thus valuing the Portuguese language. The jury comprised three members: the composer and conductor Christopher Bochmann, the conductor Jorge Matta, and the conductor Hildeberto Peixoto, one of the founders of the Manuel Emílio Porto National Choral Composition Competition. The announcement of the winning works occurred in July – the winner in the White Voices category is Pedro Miguel Pinho Moreira dos Santos for the piece A Água da Chuva Desce A Ladeira, while Vasco Guilherme Rodrigues Martin has triumphed in the Mixed Choir category with the work A Cidade Dormiu Cedo. The works’ scores will soon be published by the Portuguese Music Research & Information Centre and included in the MIC.PT Catalogue.

The DME Project presents the 12th edition of the Electroacoustic Nano Musicians Competition to promote electroacoustic composition among the younger generations. Only official music students under 21 years old can apply. The deadline is November 27, and the jury is formed by the composers João Pedro Oliveira and Jaime Reis, the artistic director of the DME Project. The pieces written for any instrument must last less than five minutes, and the presence of electronics is mandatory. The selected works will have a public presentation by the competition composers at the Seia Music Conservatory in December this year at a concert integrating the DME Festival. The final results and the distribution of the different prizes will be known only at the end of the festival.

To encourage national music composition for children and youth choirs, Miso Music Portugal is promoting the Águas Gémeas competition. The applications are open until October 31, and the competition has no age limit. Only Portuguese composers, or the ones residing in Portugal, are eligible, and the works must be inedited/ 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 two categories: children's choir (SSA), or youth choir (SATB) allowing 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.

Since June a new In the 1st Person Interview (in Portuguese), with the composer Bruno Gabirro, is available on the MIC.PT YouTube Channel.
Presently the MIC.PT YouTube Channel contains 26 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.