Pedro Pinto Figueiredo (b.1966), conductor and composer born in Lisbon.
He studied Composition at the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa (Superior Music School of Lisbon) with the composer
Christopher Bochmann, and
Constança Capdeville. As a Calouste Gulbenkian scholarship holder, he studied in Paris with the composer
Emmanuel Nunes. There, he simultaneously participated in and finished several courses at the IRCAM.
Some of his most relevant musical productions have been
Germinal, for piano and wind octet,
Wake, for bass clarinet,
Myshi, for solo flute,
Ser, for string orchestra and
Scindite, for bass clarinet, contralto and string orchestra. The focus on his musical research has been the use of new technologies, mainly on sound treatment in real time and its spatialisation, and extended instrumental techniques. His work
Ser, for string orchestra, was premiered at the Dunkirk
Festival of Contemporary Music, with the Paris Lyrical Orchestra in 2002.
In 1997, he started his Orchestral Conducting studies at the Dijon Conservatory, with the conductor Jean-Sébastien Béreau, having received the golden medal at the Conservatory’s finalists competition. He worked with Maestro Peter Rundel and Maestro Emílio Pomarico, in the field of contemporary music conducting, having collaborated in the first on the recording of
Duktus, Epures de la serpen vert, and the opera
Das Märchen, by
Emmanuel Nunes. He also premiered the work
La Douce by
Emmanuel Nunes in 2009, as second conductor.
He was the main conductor of Orquestra do Conservatório da Metropolitana (Metropolitan Conservatory Orchestra) and he conducted the Youth Symphonic Orchestra (Orquestra Sinfónica Juvenil) and the Young Musicians Orchestra (Orquestra Jovens Músicos); he was in charge of the Orchestral Conducting Internship at the ESART, having founded and taken charge of the 15
th Edition of the International Orchestra Internship of Leiria.
Since 1992 he’s been teaching Composition and Analysis at several music conservatories, like the Superior National Orchestra Academy (Academia Nacional Superior de Orquestra– ANSO), where he teached Orchestration, Analysis and made part of the board of directors. He’s also currently the headmaster of a music school in Linda-a-Velha, Lisbon, where he conducts the Contemporary Music Atelier, and is in charge of the production and artistic direction of all the programs and projects.
In 2002 he started the projects Orquestra A2M – Arquivo da Memória Musical (Orchestra A2M – Musical Memory Archive) and in 2003 the contemporary music group Lisbon Ensemble 20/21.
In 2003, he made his debut in Portugal with the Orquestra Filarmonia das Beiras, having since then conducted several groups and orchestras, nationally and abroad such as: Orquestra do Algarve, Orquestra de Câmara de Almada, OrquestrUtópica,
Grupo de Música Contemporânea de Lisboa,
Orquestra Gulbenkian, Vertixe Sonora, New Babylon and
Remix Ensemble Casa da Música.
Being one of the Founders of the Portuguese Composers Association (APC), he is currently president of the board.
Last update: December 13th, 2022