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Details as performer
 Fernando C. Lapa was born in Vila Real in 1950. He studied music at the Porto Music Conservatoire, where he graduated from the Superior Composition Course in the class of prof. Cândido Lima. In the last three decades he has created around 300 works, encompassing almost every music genre: concertos, symphonic and choral-symphonic repertoire, operas, chamber music, works for solo instrument, as well as music for film and theatre.

Some of Fernando C. Lapa’s most recent and representative works are: Variações sobre o Coro da Primavera de José Afonso, for piano; the song cycle Estuário for soprano and piano, based on the 10 poems by J. M. Mendes; in nomine, instrumental quintet for the Porto Soloists; da primeira liberdade, work for choral mass and large orchestra, based on the poems by Sophia de Mello Breyner Andersen, premiered at the Sala Suggia (Casa da Música in Porto); storyboard for piano 4 hands; A lágrima e a estrela (based on the story by Mia Couto), for narrator and instrumental ensemble, premiered in the framework of the project Contos Com Música… Música Com Contos, promoted by the Viana de Castelo Music Academy; Say beautiful, for percussion septet, for the Drumming Percussion Group; No coração do Porto, based on the poem by Vasco Graça Moura, for choir and orchestra, on the occasion of the Porto University Centenary; um verso para lá do horizonte, symphonic ouverture for orchestra, commissioned by the Guimarães 2012 European Capital of Culture; Estudos sobre a luz, for piano; oito poemas breves de valter hugo mãe, for soprano and ensemble, for the Lisbon Contemporary Music Group; Trindades, for clarinet and vibraphone; quatro versos de olhar suspenso for flute and piano, reflections and the Douro landscapes; o luar da minha terra (based on text excerpts by Teixeira de Pascoaes) for choir and orchestra, for the Rota do Românico project; como perder-se em tanta claridade (based on the poems by Marco Lucchesi) for mezzo-soprano and ensemble, commissioned by the Síntese Contemporary Music Group; and many other works, for various performers and formations.

Fernando C. Lapa’s works have been performed at hundreds of concerts, both in Portugal and abroad (Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Austria, Poland, Hungary, Norway, Finland, Macedonia, Slovenia, Egypt, India, Japan, Singapore, Mexico, Brazil, Canada and the USA). Various composer’s pieces have been recorded and broadcast by the RTP, RDP Antena 2, as well as other national and foreign TV and radio stations. Fernando C. Lapa’s scores are published in Portugal and Germany. Dozens works of his have been edited in CDs.
Fernando C. Lapa has given lectures in different schools as ATC professor (Composition, Orchestration and other disciplines), including the Porto Music Conservatoire and the Porto Superior School of Music and Performance Arts. Since many years the composer has been connected with the world of choral music, and he has been conducting the Minho University Academic Choir for 16 years.

The composer has participated in numerous colloquies and seminars, giving lectures at diverse institutions. He’s also regularly invited to participate as jury member or president in the framework of different music awards and competitions. Between 1994 and 2008 he was permanent collaborator and music critic of the daily newspaper Público. His texts have been published in various books, journals, magazines and radios.


"I have never been a person belonging to clubs, sects, academies or schools. Tolerant by nature (quality that is sometimes my biggest weakness), I have always appreciated my freedom and independence, but I’ve never made of this my flag or militancy. I’m able to live together with different aesthetics or currents, without either any kind of filiation, exclusive fidelity or the need to «sign» a determined «application form»”.

Fernando C. Lapa in the MIC.PT Questionnaire/Interview
April 2017 . © mic.pt

Check also: Dossier no. 14 . Portuguese Composers of the 20th and 21st Centuries . Fernando C. Lapa