The concert version of the opera Os Dias Levantados (1998) by António Pinho Vargas (a composer published by the MIC.PT), with Manuel Gusmão’s libretto, will have its presentation on June 27 at the São Carlos National Theatre in Lisbon, integrating the 50 Years of April 25 Commemorations. For this new performance of the opera, the following performers will take São Carlos National Theatre’s main stage: Pedro Amaral (conductor), Eduarda Melo (soprano), Sara Braga Simões (soprano), Sílvia Sequeira (soprano), Rui Vieira (countertenor), Leonel Pinheiro (tenor), Jorge Vaz de Carvalho (baritone), José Corvelo (baritone), Luís Rodrigues (baritone), the Portuguese Symphony Orchestra and the São Carlos National Theatre Choir. Moreover, António Pinho Vargas’s monographic CD Lamnetos, an Artway Next 2023 release, won the Best Classical Music Album at the 6th edition of the PLAY – Portuguese Music Awards. This album includes three composer’s works – Sinfonia (Subjetiva) (2019), Concerto for Viola and Orchestra and Concerto for Violin (both from 2016) – performed by the maestro Pedro Neves, the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra and the soloists Joana Cipriano (viola) and Ana Pereira (violin).

Carlos Brito Dias and Filipe Lopes are the two composers (published by the MIC.PT) whose works are part of the ISCM World New Music Days 2024 festival, occurring between June 21 and July 1 on the Faroe Islands. In this sense, the latter composer’s string quartet Clusia Rosea (2018) will have a performance on the 22nd, and the former’s string-ensemble work “was birgst du so bang dein Gesicht?” (2019) will be presented on the 24th. The ISCM World New Music Days (WNMD) is one of the biggest international festivals dedicated to contemporary music, hosted annually by a different country and organised under the auspices of the ISCM – International Society for Contemporary Music, where Miso Music Portugal/ MIC.PT is the Portuguese Section. In this context, every year, the Miso Music Portugal/ MIC.PT realises official submissions for the WNMD festivals, with various works by Portuguese composers, ensuring that at least one makes part of the following-year festival’s programme. Since joining the International Society for Contemporary Music in 2000, the Miso Music Portugal/ MIC.PT has guaranteed the circulation of more than 140 works by Portuguese composers through the ISCM network.

The work Prelúdio for solo theorbo by Fátima Fonte (a composer published by the MIC.PT) is part of Tiago Matias’s new CD Fantasia, whose presentations will occur at various cultural venues in Portugal – on June 4 at the Alcobaça Monastery, on the 6th at the Tomar Convent, on the 6th at the Ethnology National Museum in Lisbon, on the 7th at the Grão Vasco National Museum in Viseu, at the Aveirense Theatre on June 9, at the Conímbriga National Museum on the 10th, at the Machado de Castro National Museum in Coimbra on the 11th, at the Frei Manuel do Cenáculo National Museum in Évora on June 12, at the O’culto da Ajuda in Lisbon on the 15th, and at the National Palace in Mafra on June 16. Fantasia unites five works for theorbo dedicated to Tiago Matias, composed by Anne Victorino d’Almeida, Sérgio Azevedo, Fernando C. Lapa, Luís Cardoso and Fátima Fonte. It is the first CD exclusively dedicated to contemporary music for theorbo.

In June, Fernando C. Lapa (a composer published by the MIC.PT) will have two performances of his works, including one premiere. On June 8, his work Ave Regina coelorum (for soprano, choir, flute, glockenspiel and organ) will have its performance at the Chiesa di Santa Maria in Traspontina in Rome (Italy) by the following musicians: Leonor Pereira Pinto (soprano), Choir of the Senhora da Conceição Parish in Porto, Daniel Ribeiro (organ) and Eugénio Amorim (conductor). The next day, June 9, the work Brumas for solo theorbo will premiere in Aveiro. The performance will occur in the context of the Avenro_Síntese 2024 biennale (an initiative by the Arte no Tempo association) at the Aveirense Theatre, as part of a concert marking the release of the CD Fantasia with works for solo theorbo, two of them commissioned to Fernando C. Lapa and Sérgio Azevedo. Tiago Matias will perform these two compositions during the concert.

This month, Hugo Vasco Reis (a composer published by the MIC.PT) will give three performances of his latest album Tateabilidade (2023). As referred to on the composer’s website, this album constitutes ‘a cycle of five works, composed and performed by Hugo Vasco Reis, developed through experimentation, which relates the Portuguese guitar, objects, electronics and the sense of touch’. Tateabilidade is ‘a sound immersion where all acoustic and electroacoustic sounds originate from the Portuguese guitar’. Hugo Vasco Reis will perform the album’s various pieces in the first half of the month, starting at the CalaFrio theatre (in Guarda) on June 1. On June 8, Tateabilidade will be presented at the Sonoscopia in Porto and on the next day, June 9, Hugo Vasco Reis will give a performance at the Aveirense Theatre as part of the Aveiro_Síntese 2024 Biennial (an initiative by the Arte no Tempo association).

Two works by Igor C. Silva (a composer published by the MIC.PT) – In Case of Change (2020) for kalimba and electronics and My Empty Hands (2018) for flexible percussion ensemble, electronics and video – are part of the concert by the GUICollective, on June 9 at the Auditorium of the Culture Centre in Chaves. The concert by this ensemble residing in Guimarães and focusing their activity on contemporary music exploration will also include the music of Iannis Xenakis, François Sarhan, Pierre Jodlowsky and Thierry De Mey. In the 2015 MIC.PT interview, Igor C. Silva said: ‘My music is close to electronic music aesthetic currents, with the influence of concrete music, allied to instrumental writing. I have also been interested in underground universes like noise, glitch or free jazz. It is thus inevitable that my music is in a certain way distant from the formal and traditional classical universe, moving towards more ambiguous worlds.’

This month, Jaime Reis (a composer published by the MIC.PT) will have several performances of his works. At the first one, on June 5 at the gnration in Braga, the students from the University of Minho will perform the guitar-quartet-only version of the piece Fluxus, Vortex, Schubkraft (2019). On May 9 at the Aveirense Theatre, the DME Ensemble will perform the work Sangue Inverso: Rosa do Deserto V (2022) for piano, flute, clarinet, violin and cello during the Aveiro_Síntese 2024 Electroacoustic Music Biennial. In the second half of the month, on May 18, at a Pedagogical Concert at the Lisboa Incomum, the students of the Santarém Conservatory will perform these two of the four movements of Magistri Mei: BACH (2020) – ZEITGEIST (for electronics) and ECHO (for guitar and electronics). This month of concerts with works by Jaime Reis ends on the 26th, with a performance of the children's opera Bartolomeu, o Voador (2018). This performance is a partnership between the Music Conservatory of Coimbra and the Music Conservatory of Seia, and it will occur at the Casa Municipal da Cultura in Seia.

Painting on a Wooden Canvas of Resonances (2024) is the title of the new work for violin, cello and electronics by Luís Neto da Costa (a composer published by the MIC.PT), which will premiere on June 6 in the framework of another Antena 2 Live Recital at the O’culto da Ajuda in Lisbon. The programme of this concert integrating the Music Through Time cycle and performed by Vítor Vieira (violin), Filipe Quaresma (cello) and Miguel Azguime (electronics), will also include works by Maurice Ravel, Miguel Azguime (a composer published by the MIC.PT) and Sofia Gubaidulina. The next day, June 7, the musicians will travel to Caldas da Rainha to present the same programme again, this time at the Teatro da Rainha. Additionally, Luís Neto da Costa’s piece for clarinet and electronics, Ecos de atrito (2024), is part of the Pedagogical Concert with the students from the Santarém Conservatory, occurring on June 18 at the Lisboa Incomum and constituting the culmination of the pedagogical project coordinated by the teacher and saxophonist Philippe Trovão in partnership with the DME Project.

Mariana Vieira’s new work Contra o tempo e a carne (2024), for tenor and orchestra, will premiere on June 28 at the Grande Auditório of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon. The composer (published by the MIC.PT) is working on this new music creation in the context of the Composing for Voices and Orchestra workshop by the enoa – European Network of Opera Academies, mentored by the Italian composer Luca Francesconi this time. Composing for Voices and Orchestra allows young composers to improve their skills and techniques in orchestra-and-voice composition. It is also a space to discuss and explore new ideas and creative processes with the workshop’s mentor, professional singers and the Gulbenkian Orchestra. This eight-month working process will result in new compositions to be premiered at the end of June at the Gulbenkian Foundation.

This month, the work Moment à l’Extrêmement for cello and electronics by Miguel Azguime (a composer published by the MIC.PT) will have four performances at the Music Through Time recitals with Vítor Vieira (violin) and Filipe Quaresma (cello). The recitals will occur on June 6 at the O’culto da Ajuda in Lisbon, on the 7th at the Teatro da Rainha (Caldas da Rainha), on the 8th at the Misericórdia Church in Odemira and on June 9 at the Sabóia Church (Odemira municipality). Written between July 2005 and January 2006, Moment à l’Extrêmement is a commission by the Collectif éOle, dedicated to Juliane Trémoulet, who premiered it on April 4 2006 at the National Theatre in Toulouse (France). Miguel Azguime says in the programme notes that ‘the work has various parts succeeding without interruption and blending into each other, without losing the germ and the affirmation of the moment.’

In June, the work Meruge for string quartet, accordion, saxophone, and soprano by Sara Carvalho (a composer published by the MIC.PT) will premiere on June 23 in Meruge, located in the municipality of Oliveira do Hospital. The concert is part of the Vanguarda na Aldeia project, occurring on the 22nd and 23rd. Meruge performance by the Síntese – Contemporary Music Group (also responsible for its commission) will include the participation of the local population. Additionally, Sara Carvalho leads the ACTUS project at the INET-md/ University of Aveiro as a researcher. The project’s next symposium will occur only on November 8 and 9, but the call for communications has already opened, ending on October 1. The project explores aspects related to the audience as an essential part of the artistic concept. The points to reflect upon are the processes involved in performance with the audience, the audience’s perspectives as participants in live contemporary music events, audience building through performance, and mapping of participatory music in Western art concerts.

On June 2, Vítor Rua (a composer published by the MIC.PT) and the filmmaker Edgar Pêra, as the Mister Ego & Mister Egg double, will present the Sweet Violence performance at the Curvo Semedo Cine-Theatre in Montemor-o-Novo, in the framework of the 16th International Puppet Festival (an initiative by the Alma d’Arame association). Edgar Pêra’s and Vítor Rua’s performances are ‘unique and unrepeatable objects which sometimes work as a research lab of future films. At other times, they are re-edits of already premiered films or simply visual and sound interpretations improvised together. Vítor Rua plays guitar and electronics while Edgar Pêra makes films in real-time, and a VJ mixes his images with pre-edited images’ (as described on the festival’s website). Ana Soares will be the VJ at this performance. Additionally, on June 12, Vítor Rua will perform with the TELECTU project, Telectu presents TAU CETI, in the context of the Waking Life Festival in Crato. Walking Life is a summer solstice festival and, throughout the year, a space for experience and creation dedicated to making things move.

The Call for Works for the ISCM World New Music Days 2025 – Thirst for Change festival, taking place next year between May 30 and June 7 in Lisbon and Porto, closed on April 25. In the context of the Call, the ISCM – International Society for Contemporary Music and the Miso Music Portugal has received 441 submissions from all around the world, which are presently evaluated by the international jury constituted by composers and conductors: Adrian Moore, Ângela da Ponte, Doina Rotaru, Flo Menezes, Franz Martin Olbrisch, Gilles Gobeil, Guillaume Bourgogne, John McLachlan, Lorraine Vaillancourt, Masataka Matsuo, Michal Rataj, Miguel Azguime, Peter Swinnen, Petter Sundkvist, Ramón Souto, Rozalie Hirs, Rui Penha and Valerio Sannicandro. The announcement of the works selected for the festival ISCM World New Music Days 2025 – Thirst for Change in Portugal will occur in July.

In May the Espaço Crítica para a Nova Música/ New Music Review Lounge published two new texts by Pedro Boléo (in Portuguese): “Provocations, ha!” (na abertura do Música Viva 2024) e Técnica, expressão, revolução (em louvor dos intérpretes). In these two reviews, the author analyses and reflects on three concerts of the Música Viva 2024, which occurred between May 3 and 12 in Lisbon. The first one is the festival’s inaugural concert performed by the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra, maestro Pedro Neves, the soloists José Pedro Ribeiro (piano) and Camila Mandillo (soprano), with the music of Arnold Schoenberg, António de Sousa Dias, João Madureira, Miguel Azguime and György Ligeti. The second concert, performed by the Sond’Ar-te Electric Ensemble conducted by Pedro Carneiro, with music by Hugo Vasco Reis, Christopher Bochmann, Rui Penha and Daniel Martinho, occurred on the festival’s second day; and the third one, 50: Contagem Urgente, by the Powertrio (Joana Sá, piano and electronics; Luís Martins, guitar and electronics; Eduardo Raon, harp and electronics) on May 5.

Organised by the Scientific Council of the Portuguese Music Research & Information Centre (MIC.PT) and curated by the composer Isabel Soveral, the 3rd Meeting on Music, Technology and Research will occur at the end of September/ beginning of October at the University of Aveiro (date and hour to be announced soon).
Registration is free. Researchers interested in making a presentation at the 3rd Meeting on Music, Technology and Research should send the completed form to research@mic.pt until September 15, 2024.
This event aims to globally contribute to the progress and development of such disciplines as music creation, performance, theory and technology, prioritising subjects connected with contemporary creation and music technology – analysis and theoretical reflection on the creation and performance with electronics. It is a forum for discussion, encouraging music research on various aspects of aesthetic and technical thought in the context of music creation, performance and technology.
In this sense, a call is open for works in the following areas: 1) music creation and studio technical formation; 2) music notation of electroacoustic works; 3) music writing and studio creation; 4) development of new technological tools; 5) development of new theoretical tools in the field of electroacoustic music analysis; 6) interaction between acoustic and electronic instruments; 7) spatial configuration as a relevant parameter in the structure of the electronic music narrative.
This initiative aims to develop students’ literacy from different education cycles in music creation, focusing on music creation with electronics. One should emphasise the essential character of the aesthetic reflection for a correct understanding of the subjects concerning contemporary creation with or without electronics, the approximation between the new technologies’ potential and the creative thought through the analysis of relevant works and texts, and the theoretical reflection on the great references from the first decades of Concrete and Electronic Music.

The submissions for the 1st International Lied Composition Competition (Álvaro García de Zúñiga/ Casa de Mateus/ Sond’Ar-te) are open until June 21, 2024. The competition is an initiative by the Sond’Ar-te Electric Ensemble in partnership with the Casa de Mateus Foundation and the blablaLab Cultural Association. The competition is open to composers of any nationality, without age limits. The submitted compositions must be written for a duo, within a combination selected between soprano and the following instruments (with or without electronics): flute, clarinet, violin, cello or piano. The selection of the texts must encompass Álvaro García de Zúñiga’s work. The members of the competition jury are Iris Ter Schiphorst (composer; Germany), Philippe Leroux (composer; France) and Miguel Azguime (composer; Portugal).

The International Music Festival of Póvoa de Varzim announces the 17th edition of the International Composition Competition of Póvoa de Varzim (CICPV). The 17th CICPV aims to award works by composers born after December 1, 1984. The music group invited for the 2024 edition is the Póvoa de Varzim Contemporary Ensemble, under the baton of Nuno Coelho. The works submission process is open until June 7, 2024, and the 17th CICPV jury comprises the composers António Pinho Vargas (president), Carlos Azevedo, Carlos Caires and Fátima Fonte.

The submissions for the 13th edition of the Composition Prize promoted by the Portuguese Author’s Society and Antena 2 are open until July 1, 2024. The Prize promotes and encourages contemporary music creation and disseminates young composers’ work. It’s targeted for Portuguese composers, or the ones residing in Portugal for over four years, born on and after January 1, 1989. The submitted works should be for orchestra without soloist(s) and electronics. The premiere of the 1st-award-winning work will occur in the framework of the 14th Young Musicians’ Festival in Lisbon (September 2024).

The applications for the 7th edition of the Accordion Composition Prize, an initiative by the Folefest Association, are open until July 5. This competition aims to promote and encourage contemporary classical music creation for accordion, contributing to this repertoire’s qualitative and quantitative development. The Prize’s dedicatees are Portuguese composers, or those residing in Portugal, of any age. The application works (chamber music: accordion + 3-6 instruments) must be unedited. The Prize’s organisers reserve the right to realise the premieres of the awarded works. The Prize’s jury comprises Isabel Soveral (composer), Sérgio Azevedo (composer) and Paulo Jorge Ferreira (accordionist/ composer and jury president).

The submissions for the 3rd edition of the Francisco de Lacerda Millennium BCP Foundation Composition Prize are open until August 1, 2024. The prize promotes national music creation and it focuses on Portuguese or foreign composers living in Portugal. The submitted works must be for a classical orchestra. The compositions must also be unpublished. Their connection to the life and work of Francisco de Lacerda (or to the Azores, the composer’s place of birth) is optional but strongly encouraged. The premiere of the 1st-award-winning work will occur in September 2024 by the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra at the National Library of Portugal in Lisbon. The winner will also receive a monetary prize. This year, Vasco Mendonça, Magnus Lindberg, Bernard Foccroulle, and Helen Grime constitute the competition’s jury. At its previous editions, the winners were the composers Samuel Gapp, with Still, Unfolding!, and Luís Neto da Costa, with Ecos de Trovas.

Since the end of May, two new In the 1st Person Interviews (in Portuguese) with the composers Cândido Lima and António Pinho Vargas, conducted by Pedro Boléo and recorded in november 2023 at the O’culto da Ajuda in Lisbon, are available on the MIC.PT YouTube Channel.
Presently the MIC.PT YouTube Channel contains 33 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.