In November, the last MIC.PT In Focus in 2024 features the most recent interview with Rui Dias to mark the 50th anniversary of this composer, teacher, researcher, and multimedia artist.
Rui Dias started studying Music at the Calouste Gulbenkian Conservatory in Braga and earned a Composition degree at the Music and Performance Arts School in Porto. With a doctoral degree in Digital Media and a master’s in Multimedia from the University of Porto, Rui Dias emphasises his close relationship with technology and music informatics and his unavoidable career connection with electroacoustic music and music programming. In this sense, his privileged areas are computer music, music for dance and theatre, improvisation and the creation of interactive musical and multimedia systems. In composition, Rui Dias has a particular interest in timbre exploration, and his works have been presented in Portugal, Spain, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Brazil, USA and Singapore. Rui Dias is a teacher and coordinator of the Electronic Music and Music Production course at the School of Applied Arts at the Polytechnic Institute in Castelo Branco.

The presentations of various works by Ângela da Ponte (a composer published by the MIC.PT) will occur in November. In this context, one should highlight two premieres: of the work Da keine Worte nur töne (2024), for soprano, flute and electronics, by the Sond'Ar-te Electric Ensemble, on the 16th at the Casa de Mateus Foundation in Vila Real, at the concert with the finalist works of the 1st Alvaro García de Zúñiga International Lied Composition Competition; and of A defesa do poeta (2024) performed by the Oniros Ensemble, with Lívia Nestrovski (voice) and Fre Ferreira (electric guitar), also on the 16th, at the Municipal Theatre in Vila Real. Another Ângela da Ponte’s work, Ao longe meu pai dizia… (2019) for saxophone and electronics, is part of the recitals by Ricardo Pires, on the 5th and 16th, at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and the Manuel Fernández Auditorium – Fersan Group Showroom in Porto. Then, the piece Et in terra pax (2013) will have its performance on the 17th at the Casa da Música in Porto, at the Portugal a Cantar concert, by the Casa da Música Choir and Nils Schweckendiek (conductor). And, finally, the last concert of the Nove Aldeias Um Povo Project will occur at the beginning of the month, on the 2nd, at the Chaves Culture Centre – its programme includes Ângela da Ponte’s Montanhas Somos (2024).

The first live auditions of the work Trio for vibraphone and electronics – Paráfrase (2024) by Ângela Lopes (a composer published by the MIC.PT) will occur on November 14 and 15 in the framework of the 16th New Music Cycle in Badajoz, respectively, at the Ibero-American Museum of Contemporary Art in Badajoz and the San Juan de Dios Convent in Olivenza (Spain). At these concerts, the percussionist Nuno Aroso will also perform works by Inés Badalo (Glass landscapes), Jesús Rueda (Luna nueva e Sunrise), Clara Olivares (Circus minusculus), and another composer published by the MIC.PT, João Pedro Oliveira, the composition City Walk. The history of Ângela Lopes’ work begins in 2019, with the commission of a short piece for horn and electronics, which premiered at the Contemporary Music Reencounters 2019, organised by the Arte no Tempo Association. ‘Nuno Aroso, present at the Aveirense Theatre on the day of the premiere, wanted to perform the piece on a new instrument, the vibraphone. And thus I wrote the Trio for vibraphone and electronics in 2021’, remembers Ângela Lopes. And she continues: ‘In 2024, I composed the Paráfrase version of the Trio, where the three “characters” are: live vibraphone, pre-recorded and studio-processed vibraphone and a tongue drum, pre-recorded or live (optional).’

Cândido Lima (a composer published by the MIC.PT) is the author of one of the chapters in the new book Meta-Xenakis: New Perspectives on Iannis Xenakis’s Life, Work, and Legacies (ed. Sharon Kanach and Peter Nelson, Open Book Publishers). Meta-Xenakis is a collection of texts about Xenakis by musicians, artists, composers and researchers, giving new insight into the history, work, and heritage of this composer, one of the crucial figures in 20th-century music. Cândido Lima’s text entitled Iannis Xenakis, Inventor of Music – Composer, Engineer, and Architect: The Voice of the “Inexpressible” and of “Revelation” shows how Portugal, the Gulbenkian Foundation and the Portuguese artistic milieu were significant in Xenakis’s career between 1967 and 1992. It is a summarised version of Cândido Lima’s texts from Paisagens e Património. O Som, a Música e a Arquitetura (ed. Centro de Estudos Humanísticos/ Universidade do Minho). With unique excerpts of interviews between Cândido Lima and Xenakis, the author offers a living testimony, marking some of the affinities between these two very different lives.

Carlos Alberto Augusto (a composer published by the MIC.PT) is responsible for the music for the theatre play Na República da Felicidade, performed at the São João National Theatre (Carlos Alberto Theatre) in Porto, between November 22 and 24. The author of this play, coproduced by the Teatro da Rainha (Caldas da Rainha) with direction and stage design by Fernando Mora Ramos, is Martin Crimp. Na República da Felicidade (In the Republic of Happiness) comprises three different moments that take up the Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso themes from Dante’s Divine Comedy. At the centre of the narrative ‘is the destroyed archaeological monument we call family. Crimp tells of its destruction, revealing the lack of love, the decay of emotional relationships, venality, competition, envy, jealousy and selfish ambition that destroy any notion of collective happiness’, as one can read on the Theatre’s website. The music composition for the piece Na República da Felicidade by Carlos Alberto Augusto, a composer with a vast experience in music for theatre, includes seven songs and music he produces and executes.

Premiered on October 31, Clepsydra (2024), a new opera by Carlos Marecos (a composer published by the MIC.PT), with Alexandre Lyra Leite’s staging and libretto, will continue on the stage of the Palácio do Sobralinho (Vila Franca de Xira) until November 24. The action of this chamber opera, based on Camilo Pessanha’s poem Branco e Vermelho, occurs in the desolate landscape of the Arctic, the final stronghold for a fight for the survival of the human species. The clepsydra, an ancient instrument to measure time through water, is a central metaphor, reflecting the fleetingness of life and the impossibility of escaping the relentless flow of time. The narrative approaches the decay of civilisation, the obsession with immortality, and the volatility of all living things. The opera’s performers are Joana Manuel (soprano), Rui Baeta (baritone), Carolina Inácio (dancer), Paula Galiana (violin), Íris Almeida and João Carlos Barata (viola), and Carolina Veneno (cello).

The video-photographic installation, O Futuro do Esquecimento, by Tânia Moreira David, curated by Joana Braga and with the sound by Diogo Alvim (a composer published by the MIC.PT), will be open between November 6 and 30 at the Imago Gallery in Lisbon. The installation author reveals on her website: ‘O Futuro do Esquecimento offers an experience of the remembrance movement and its connection with forgetfulness and imagination. The installation images and sounds start with happenings on the edge of perception, exploring the inseparability between memory and forgetting, evidencing a construction work in the sensible recreation of its materiality.’ In his work, Diogo Alvim frequently collaborates with artists from other areas, being interested in the relations between music and architecture and participating in projects joining music and moving images. As he said in the MIC.PT interview from 2020: ‘I think that we are all naturally transdisciplinary and architecture proves it – it fulfils a multiple and complex perceptive experience. Extradisciplinary attitudes interest me as a method to deconstruct and reconfigure the limits of disciplines in the search for our total complex perception.’

Fernando C. Lapa (a composer published by the MIC.PT) will enjoy a fruitful November with two world premieres. As part of the Identidades project, his work Regresso a Alpha Centauri (2024) will premiere on the 16th at the Municipal Theatre in Vila Real. The performers of this composition for mezzo-soprano and ensemble, based on a poem by António Manuel Pires Cabral, will be Ligia Nestrovski (mezzo-soprano) and the Oniros Ensemble, with Edmundo Pires (violin), Luís Santos (clarinet), Vânia Santos (piano) and Ricardo Frade (percussion). The concert will also feature works by other Portuguese composers, Ângela da Ponte (also published by the MIC.PT), Carlos Azevedo, Luís Figueiredo, Luís Trigo and the Brazilian composer Fred Ferreira. Then, on the 30th, the work Aurora – an opera for a modern epic (2024), will premiere at the Constantino Nery Theatre in Matosinhos. The composition, with Eduarda Freitas’ libretto, is the result of a collaboration between Fernando C. Lapa, Tomás Marques and Telmo Marques. The opera will feature Sara Braga Simões (soprano) and Job Tomé (baritone), the Lira Choir and an instrumental ensemble with Dalila Teixeira, Jorge Pereira, Alexandre Abreu, João Luzia, Gabriela Santos and Joana Santos.

In November, Hugo Vasco Reis (a composer published by the MIC.PT) will have his works presented in Switzerland and Croatia. On November 5, in the framework of the Konstellationen Symposium – ZHdK (Zurich, Switzerland), Hugo Vasco Reis, accompanied by the viola player Trevor McTait, will present the Sonic Figures Project where he is responsible for the composition and electronics. In the context of the same event, Hugo Vasco Reis will also realise a public communication on his research theme, Listening and Mediation; Composing with the Silent Sonic Environment. Then, on the 14th, 15th and 16th, the Trio Elogio will perform the work Quasi Ritorno (2024) for three guitars in Croatia at the Glazbena Rijeka, Circolo (Rijeka) and the Vatroslav Lisinski Hall in Zagreb. Finally, on the 27th, 28th and 30th, Hugo Vasco Reis, accompanied by Rita Maria Jurt, will present his project Tatealidade for Portuguese guitar, objects and electronics in Switzerland, respectively, at the Raum 236 (Zurich), Mitte (Basel) and Sebastian Kapelle (Baden).

João Castro Pinto’s most recent acousmatic work, Circumsphere: to Bounce & Rebounce (2024), was one of the pieces awarded at the Destellos 2024 International Acousmatic Music Competition, an initiative by the Fundación Destellos – Arte, Ciencia y Tecnología (Argentine). The piece received the second award, ex aequo, alongside the works by Roeland Luyten (Belgium) and Kramer Elwell (USA). Apart from this distinction, this work by João Castro Pinto (a composer published by the MIC.PT) was also a finalist at two other competitions, MA/IN 2024 (Italy) and Métamorphoses 2024 (Belgium). Premiered in May at the Música Viva 2024 Festival, Circumsphere: to Bounce & Rebounce ‘emerges into the sonic and musical richness of spherical objects (marbles, rubber/ping pong balls, wooden and styrofoam spheres). The aim was to sonically and musically explore the physical and phenomenological quality patent in the idea of “roundness”, a kind of acousmatic circumnavigation through a cartography of movement’, reveals João Castro Pinto in the programme notes.

João Madureira’s Coração (2015) and José Carlos Sousa’s Silêncio! Nossa Senhora da Trovoada (2024 · premiere) – these works by these two composers (published by the MIC.PT) are part of concerts the Lisbon Contemporary Music Group will give in November. These concerts, entitled (Desas)Sossego and where the Group conducted by Joan Pagés Valls will also perform the music of Jorge Peixinho (a composer published by the MIC.PT), Gerhard Stäbler and Kunsu Shim, will occur on November 15 at the Musikgymnasium Schloss Belvedere in Weimar (Germany) and on the 17th at the Igreja do Colégio in Ponta Delgada (Azores). The Group emphasises that ‘this programme draws inspiration from Fernando Pessoa’s Book of Disquiet’. The Portuguese poet left a lot of short texts and observations on daily life, but the book itself constitutes a whole universe.’

This month, Mariana Vieira (a composer published by the MIC.PT) will have two works performed in Viana do Castelo and Lisbon. On November 3, the ars ad hoc quartet (Matilde Loureiro and Diogo Coelho [violins], Francisco Lourenço [viola] and Gonçalo Lélis [cello]) will present her String Quartet no. 1 (2023), followed by works by Joseph Haydn and Oscar Bianchi. In the second half of the month, on the 22nd at the Lisboa Incomum, in the context of the opening concert of the 8th Culture and Sustainability Symposium, Mariana Vieira’s work Tre (2019) for solo flute, will be part of the concert by the Ladrem, Pardais! trio, with Célia Silva, Juliana Dias and Teresa Costa. Among various other pieces, this concert will also feature the premiere of Coeval Proportions, a new composition elaborated in November during a residency at the Lisboa Incomum with the composer Fábio Chicotio and the Ladrem, Pardais! trio.

The work 4 Encantamentos (2024) by Miguel Azguime (a composer published by the MIC.PT) will premiere on November 2 at the Misericórdia Church in Odemira. At this recital, commented by Miguel Azguime, the Sond’Ar-te Duo with Sílvia Cancela (flute) and Luís André Ferreira (cello) will also perform works by Debussy, Franz Danzi, Villa-Lobos, Bach and Kaija Saariaho. The next day, the Sond’Ar-te Duo will present the same programme at the Santa Clara-a-Velha Church. Another Miguel Azguime’s work, Genealogias da Matéria (2023), will have its performance on the 16th at the Casa de Mateus Foundation, by the Sond'Ar-te Electric Ensemble, with Camila Mandillo (soprano), Sílvia Cancela (flute) and Elsa Silva (piano), at the concert with the finalist works of the 1st Alvaro García de Zúñiga International Lied Composition Competition, where Miguel Azguime is one of jury members.

On November 9, the L’Effetto Ensemble, with Dora Rodrigues (soprano) and Rui Gama (guitar), will present a work by Paulo Bastos (a composer published by the MIC.PT) as part of the Caprichos project, with works of Latin origin and popular music (from 18th century to contemporary music). The concert will occur during the Autumn Festivals, at the Complex for Communication and Image Sciences (University of Aveiro). The programme will include works by Manuel Garcia, Carl Maria von Weber, Gabriel Fauré, Francisco de Lacerda, Alberto Ginastera, Carlos Guastavino, António Fragoso and Paulo Bastos’ La Courbe de tes yeux (2022). Additionally, the composer’s piece for vibraphone, Íris-abandono... from 2016, is part of the concerts of the USA tour, which the percussionist Jonatha Silva will make between November 3 and 18.

The premiere of the work Crana (2024) by Pedro Rebelo (a composer published by the MIC.PT) will occur on November 19, in the framework of the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in the UK. At this concert, the Hard Rain SoloistEnsemble – with Aisling Agnew (flutes), Sarah Watts (clarinets), Darragh Morgan (violin), David McCann (cello) and Daniel Browell (piano) – will also perform two other world premieres, Robert Coleman’s These hills used to be forests and Lara Weaver’s Soft Ground. Based in Belfast, the Ensemble has invited for this programme three composers who are also field recording practitioners focusing on sites sensitive to environmental change. In this sense, each piece deals with a particular ecosystem: forest, river and peatland – unique habitats across the counties of Antrim, Donegal and Wicklow, spanning a mix of public and private spaces experiencing a range of human engagement and intervention.

The work A Outra Margem, op. 95 (2024) for brass quintet, by Ricardo Matosinhos (a composer published by the MIC.PT), will premiere in November. The performers of the piece will be the musicians from the Seixal Brass Group (GMS): Daniel Louro and Hugo Santos (trumpets), Rodrigo Carreira (horn), Nuno Scarpa (trombone), and Adélio Carneiro (tuba). Ricardo Matosinhos, also a horn player, is closely connected with composing for wind instruments. The composer’s most recent CD, Hornscapes, reveals his focus on idiomatic writing for Wagner tuba and horn and extends his contribution to developing contemporary repertoire for these instruments. This concert, on the 16th at the Sociedade Filarmónica União Arrentelense in Seixal, will celebrate the 35th anniversary of the GMS – Brass Quintet. The programme also includes the premiere of Daniel Bernardes’s Amalgama II, besides the interpretation of pieces by António Victorino d’Almeida and Jarreth Butler.

In October, the Espaço Crítica para a Nova Música published a new text (in Portuguese) by Pedro Boléo – As cores de Risset no saxofone de Trovão. In this review the author writes about the concert that took place on October 15 at the O’culto da Ajuda in Lisbon, to mark the release of Philippe Trovão’s new CD, Sur la couleur, with music by Jean-Claude Risset. Apart from the French composer’s music, during his O’cutlo recital the saxophonist also performed António de Sousa Dias’s 2023 work, Va(le)riation 3.

The Portuguese Music Research and Information Centre (MIC.PT) direction shares the deep concern of the whole Portuguese music community regarding the appearance and recent public activities and communications of the new organisation, AD Edit – Association of Score Publishers and Composers. These activities, which we find non-transparent and abusive, have created great agitation and anxiety in the whole Portuguese music sector.

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.