On January 20, 2015, Jorge Peixinho, composer published by the MIC.PT, would have been 75 years old… On this day various entities announced the celebrations of Jorge Pexinho’s 75^th anniversary, within an initiative organised by the Lisbon Contemporary Music Group (GMCL), the Music School of the National Conservatoire in Lisbon, the Electroacoustic Music Days Festival, the Nossa Senhora do Cabo Music School and the Music Conservatoire in Seia. Three parallel events were carried out in the framework of this initiative - presentation of a documentary on Jorge Peixinho, a conference with Cristina Delgado and Jaime Reis, and a concert with the composer’s electroacoustic music.Throughout 2015 the GMCL will expand this initiative through the collaboration with various entities, in order to organize expositions, concerts, conferences and electroacoustic music sessions, all dedicated to Jorge Peixinho, a fundamental figure when it comes to Portuguese music from the second half of the 20^th century. Composer, professor, performer and founder of the GMCL, “precocious talent, wanderer around the great, postwar, European avant-garde centres (…), Jorge Peixinho always presented a firm and tenacious will to transform the musical environment that embraced him, even when the circumstances and the results were being adverse”, writes Paulo de Assis in the book, Jorge Peixinho. Escritos e Entrevistas (Jorge Peixinho. Writings and Interviews | CESEM/Casa da Música, 2010).

Prelude; Scherzo & Fugue (2011) for guitar quartet and Chamateia & Solteiras (2014), version for guitar quintet, are the two works by Duarte Dinis Silva, composer published by the MIC.PT, which will be premiered by the Zyryab Quartet on February 7 at the Tavares Proença Júnior Museum in Castelo Branco, in the framework of the 3^rd Guitar Festival in this Portuguese town. This event, taking place bewteen February 6 and 16, is directed to the whole guitar community in Portugal, and as one of the mains objectives providing the students of the Regional Conservatoire in Castelo Branco with activities additional to their regular lessons, thus enriching their education by making them the main “actors” of the festival. During two weekends, all interested will be able to attend and participate in various events, including four concerts and a guitar course led by Pedro Rodrigues.

On February 1, Portuguese music for symphonic band by various generations of composers, was celebrated at Casa da Música in Porto. The event’s programme included the work Coros e Danças Medievais (1978) by Cândido Lima, for the first time performed outside school context. Apart from the music of this composer published by the MIC.PT, the concert, performed by the Portuguese Symphonic Band (BSP) and Pedro Neves (conductor) also consisted of a commission by the BSP to Lino Guerreiro, al-Uqṣur “Luxor” fantasy for wind and brass orchestra (world premiere). Within the National BSP Composition Competition, promoting new talents in composition for symphonic band, the BSP also performed three finalist works of the event’s 3^rd edition, by Rui Rodrigues (Viagem de Balão), Pedro Soares (Sopro de Côncovo) and Diogo Carvalho (Gestos).

Works by five Portuguese composers published by the MIC.PT are included on the new CD by the Machina Lírica Ensemble: Burning Silver (2014) by João Pedro Oliveira; Begin at the beginning, and go on till you come to the end: then stop (2010) by Sara Carvalho; A história de amor entre... (2012) by José Luís Ferreira; SAH (2012) by Carlos Caires; and Heart (2001) by Isabel Soveral. The Machina Lírica is constituted by Monika Streitová (flute) and Pedro Rodrigues (guitar), including the collaboration with José Luís Ferreira (electronics). The ensemble’s premiere took place in 2010 during the Música Viva in Lisbon. Its name is inspired in a poem by Helberto Hélder, reflecting the intrinsic nature of its aesthetic ideal - the musician as a machine with soul and spirit. It also appoints the standard for the choice of repertoire, focusing on Portuguese music from the 20^th and 21^st centuries. This new CD published by the Slovart Music also includes works by Evgueny Zoudilkine, Michal Rataj and Petra Bachratá.

From February onwards, the MIC.PT publishes seven new scores of works by three Portuguese contemporary composers: A Propos d’un Son (Grisey in Memoriam) (2014) for viola and electronics by Eduardo Luís Patriarca; Komm tanz mit mir! (1997) for instrumental ensemble, pour un Cadavre Exquis (1995/2010) for instrumental ensemble, Trois Chansons Inachevées (2003) for soprano, tenor saxophone and electronics, Va(lé)riation 1 (2005) for instrumental ensemble, Va(lé)riation 5-B (2009) for amplified guitar and electronics by António de Sousa Dias; as well as Cantos das Fragas (2013) for violin, cello, guitar and piano by Cândido Lima. The score edition by MIC.PT has as objective distributing scores of works by Portuguese composers, making them available online for consultation and free download, thus promoting the knowledge and choice of Portuguese music among musicians, programmers and the academic mean. Our Score Catalogue includes 882 works by 52 Portuguese composers.

In January Daniel Schvetz joined the Composers Published by the MIC.PT, and presently our online Score Catalogue includes three of his works: Hendecateto Concertante (2014) for wind ensemble and percussion, as well as Kasida de la rosa (2011) and Kasida del herido por el agua (2011) for choir and guitar quartet. Born in 1955 in Buenos Aires, Daniel Schvetz has lived in Portugal since 1990. He has created various groups and chamber music ensembles, for which he composed original works. He has also been adapting pieces by other composers, which have become part of the repertoire at various institutions dedicated to music education, and of diverse music formations. He develops his profissional activity in the areas of music education, composition and performance. His catalogue includes works for diverse formations - pieces for choir a capella or with instruments, chamber music, solo pieces, works for orchestra with or without soloists, operas, and music theatre pieces, among other genres.

One of the results of the IAMIC 2014 meeting and conference, Tradition and New Music, which took place in October last year in Wroclaw and Ksiaz in Poland, is a new CD published under the auspices of the POLMIC - Polish Music Information Centre. Drepani by Savvas Savva (Cyprus), Metamerie by Jana Kmitowa (Slovakia), Momentos-Memórias II by Cândido Lima (Portugal), Arma Virumque Cano by Gunnar Andreas Kristinsson (Iceland), and Aus aller Welt stammende by Zygmunt Krauze (Poland), these are the works composing this new CD. They were performed by the Orkiestra Muzyki Nowej (New Music Orchestra) with Szymon Bywakec as conductor, during the conference's closing concert. In the framework of the event's theme, connected with the 200^th anniversary of Oskar Kolberg (1814-90), Polish ethnographer, folklorist and composer, all the pieces create a connection between tradition and new music. In this sense Momentos-Memórias II by Cândido Lima, work recomended for this occasion by the Portuguese Music Research & Information Centre and performed on the CD by Miguel Raposo (Portuguese guitar) and Philippe Raposo (classical guitar), reinvents the Portuguese guitar presenting it in new contexts, and using the instrument's idiosyncrasies, traditionally connected with fado.

The MIC.PT is releasing a series of new digital editions, Dossiers - Portuguese Composers from the 20^th and 21^st Centuries. Their aim is not only to divulge the extensive material contained in the In Focus’ since 2011 – a kind of portrait of composition in Portugal nowadays – but also to promote even more effectively and directly the work of Portuguese contemporary composers. In this sense the Dossiers constitute an “introspection” in the work of every composer, being simultaneously an encouragement to explore and (re)discover their music, as well as their aesthetic and philosophic reflection. Each Dossier is built of a short biography, questionnaire/interview or musicological article, catalogue of works with two ordinations (by instrumentation or following the chronological order) and discography. The Dossier no. 1 - Portuguese Composers from the 20^th and 21^st Centuries, dedicated to Paulo Ferreira-Lopes - composer In Focus on the MIC.PT in Seprember 2014 - will be available online at the beginnign of February, first in Portuguese and then in English. Stay tuned for more information!