Patrícia Sucena de Almeida studied Electroacoustic Music and Composition with the Portuguese composer
João Pedro Oliveira at the University of Aveiro (Portugal) and in 1997 she finished her degree in Music Teaching. In 1998 she graduated with a master’s degree in Composition from the University of Edinburgh, as a scholarship holder of the Science and Technology Foundation (Ministry of Education – Portugal), within the 2
nd Community Support Framework. In the same year she started a doctorate programme (still as a scholarship student) in Composition at the City University of London and in 2000 she continued her composition studies at the University of Southampton with the British composer Michael Finnissy, finishing her PhD in 2004. Between 2007-13 she developed a postdoctoral project based on the interaction of music and other media, having created a new concept that characterises works “combining” various means of artistic expression –
Transversal Multi Art.
Her portfolio includes some of the following pieces:
–
Solitudo (1999) (performed at The International Gaudeamus Music Week 2001, Amsterdam);
–
Argumentum (2001) (performed at the Porto 2001 – European Captial of Culture);
–
Transfiguratio (2002) (worked out during the workshop of “Cours du Centre Acanthes 2002”, Villeneuve-les-Avignon);
–
Mens Sana in Corpore Sano (2003-05) (orchestral version performed at the 3
rd Gulbenkian Workshop for Portuguese Young Composers, Lisbon, 2004);
–
Monstrum Horrendum (2003-04) (orchestral version performed at the 2
nd Gulbenkian’s workshop for Portuguese Young Composers, Lisbon, 2003);
–
Fatum Hominis (2005) (selected for the ISCM World Music Days/ 23
rd Music Biennale Zagreb 2005, and performed at Ny Musikk 2005, Oslo);
–
Silens Clamor (2004) (commissioned by the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et Danse de Lyon for the Académie de Chambre Contemporaine Jeunesse Moderne 2004, performed at Musica 2007, Strasbourg, and at Futuros 1.2, Lisbon, 2008);
–
Dulce Delirium (2005) (performed by the Arditti Quartet at the Centre Acanthes 2005, Metz, at the Atlantic Waves 2006, London, at the Festival Internacional de Aveiro and Lisbon, 2007);
–
Fati Necessitas (2005) (commissioned and performed by the Lisbon Contemporary Music Grouo, Matosinhos, 2006, and at the IX Semana Cultural da Universidade de Coimbra, 2007);
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Aranea (2006) (commissioned and performed at the Festival Música Viva 2006, Lisbon, and at the XXVI Festival de Música de Leiria, 2008);
–
Nocturna Itinera (2008) (performed at the 44
th International Summer Courses for New Music, Darmstadt, 2008, and at the 2
nd Blonay Workshop for Contemporary Quartet Music 2008);
–
In Occulto (2009) (performed at Ciclos de Concertos Momentum, Aveiro, 2009, at the New Music Festival [Transit 2009], Leuven, 2009 and at the Concert Series, City University, London, 2010);
–
Sublime Volans (2010) (performed at the 25.º aniversário da Miso Music Portugal, Instituto Franco-Portugués, Lisbon, 2010, at the Fórum Internacional Jovens Compositores, Goethe-Institut, Lisbon, 2011, at the Korea Foundation – Cultural Center Gallery, 2011, and at Guimarães Capital Europeia da Cultura 2012);
–
Reditus ad vitam (2012) (performed at
Do Virtuosismo pianístico de Liszt à multi(n)disciplina do século XXI, Coimbra, 2013);
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Reditus ad vitam II (performed at the Firenze suona Contemporanea, Florence, Italy);
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Instabile Tempus (2016) (performed at the Festival Música Viva, Lisbon, Portugal);
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Vacuum Corporis (2016-17) (performed at the Transit Festival, Leuven, Belgium);
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Desperatio (2016-17) (performed at the City University of London, Londres, UK; SPAutores, Lisbon, Portugal);
-
Imaginis umbra est (2018-19) (performed at Reservatório Mãe d’Agua, Lisbon, Portugal);
– (Photography Work)
Continuum Simulacrum (2016-17) (dedicated to Michael Finnissy’s Work,
The History of Photography in Sound and presented at City University of London, January 2017).
She participated in the IRCAM
Académies d’été; the International Summer New Music Courses in Darmstadt (2000 and 2007); the
Cours du Centre Acanthes at the Chartreuse de Villeneuve les-Avignon in Metz (2002-05); the 1
st, 2
nd, 3
rd and 4
th Gulbenkian Workshop for Portuguese Young Composers; and a number of other seminars and workshops with composers such as:
Emmanuel Nunes, Jonathan Harvey, Luca Francesconi, Hilda Paredes, Gérard Grisey, Brian Ferneyhough, Pascal Dusapin and Luc Brewaeys.
Patrícia Sucena de Almeida has also participated in experimental workshops and concerts with the Arditti Quartet, the pianist Ian Pace,Yutaka Oya and Filip Fak, the
Gulbenkian Orchestra,
Lisbon Contemporary Music Group, Orchestre lyrique de Région Avignon – Provence, L’Ensemble Itinéraire,
Sond’Ar-te Electric Ensemble,
Remix Ensemble Casa da Música, OrchestrUtopica, Ensemble Studio New Music; and conductors like Sylvio Gualda, Sarah Ioannides, Igor Dronov,
Christopher Bochmann, Guillaume Bourgogne,
Pedro Neves,
Pedro Amaral, Petter Sundkvist and
Pedro Carneiro.
IN THE ST PERSON, interview with Patrícia Sucena de Almeida conducted by Pedro Boléo (in Portuguese).
Recorded on October 28
th 2019, at the O’culto da Ajuda in Lisbon.
Dossier no. 7 . Portuguese Composers of the 20th and 21st Centuries . Patrícia Sucena de Almeida
Last update: April 27th, 2020