José Luís Ferreira - composer essentially dedicated to electroacoustic and mixed music creation, with whom the Miso Music Portugal and the Portuguese Music Research & Information Centre (MIC.PT) has always maintained privileged relations - died on the morning of February 26.

His first contact with music was through “the work of Beethoven and Amália’s fados”, as he used to say. Then, José Luís Ferreira studied Composition at the Superior School of Music in Lisbon, with Christopher Bochmann, António Pinho Vargas and António de Sousa Dias. The latter one was also the supervisor of his PhD Thesis dedicated to Mixed music and dynamic relations’ systems. Simultaneously to the Composition Course José Luís Ferreira participated in workshops and seminars by various composers, such as: Emmanuel Nunes, Jean-Claude Risset, John Chowning, Per Anders Nilsson and Trevor Wishart, among many others. In his compositional practice José Luís Ferreira made reference to composers, whose work has intrinsically sonic characteristics, such as: Gérard Grisey, Salvatore Sciarrino e Helmut Lachenmann. “Being a composer of mixed, electroacoustic music (…) it is essential for me to understand, how the sonic phenomenon works. It is the «hands on», with which we tend to cope initially, when we write «the» first note in the score (…)" - says José Luís Ferreira in the interview for the MIC.PT from November 2013.

Song for Emma, op. 75, for horn and piano by Ricardo Matosinhos, will be premiered on March 5 by Emma Gregan, Australian composer and horn player, to whom this piece is dedicated, and by the pianist Alex Miller, at the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra Studio in Australia. The Portuguese premiere of the piece will take place on March 10, with Ricardo Matosinhos (horn) and Isolde Rubio (piano), at the Conservatoire of Music in Coimbra. The programme of this recital also includes the world premiere of two works - Abide with me by Kerry Turner and Rose-Coloured Glasses by Emma Gregan, work written for Ricardo Matosinhos, horn player, pedagogue and composer published by the MIC.PT; and also Canciones para Trompa e Piano by Paul Blaser. This event is integrated in the research project presently developed by this artist, and which includes the premieres of various works for horn, written by composers and horn players. As Ricardo Matosinhos describes his new work: "Song for Emma begins with a mysterious introduction based on retracted glissandos in bouché sound, an effect rarely used by horn players…”

Written in 2003, the String Quartet no. 1 by Pedro Amaral, composer published by the MIC.PT, is included in the concert programme of the Metropolitana Soloists - Ana Pereira and José Teixeira (violins), Joana Cipriano (viola) and Marco Pereira (cello . invited artist) - taking place on March 15, 16 and 17, respectively, at the National Press Library in Lisbon, at the City Hall of the Lisbon Municipality and at the Casa de América in Madrid (Spain). This programme also embraces the String Quartet no. 2, op. 9, by Joseph Haydn. As Pedro Amaral describes his Quartet no. 1 in the composer’s notes - “from the very beginning this composition was settled in a work around the number four. My intention was to reflect on its possible applications to the various components of writing, to evaluate the branches and developments that can be operated on it, and in short, to study, how a quantitive and symbolic grandeur can contaminate all the levels of musical poetics - from the instrumental combinations to the rhythmical and metrical construction, from the contrapuntal densities to the harmonic thread and the work’s global formal development.

Composed in 2016, Neshamah, a 8-channel acoustic work with video by João Pedro Oliveira, in March will be presented in the context of two events dedicated to electroacoustic music and audiovisual art. On March 17 the work will integrate the programme of the MusLab Festival, taking place at the Casa del Lago (the National Autonomous University of Mexico). Neshamah has also been selected for the Seeing Sound festival (March 23-25, the Bath Spa University, the United Kingdom). Seeing Sound is an informal practice-led symposium exploring multimedia work, which foregrounds the relationships between sound and image. Aditionally, in February the SPA has announced that the recording of João Pedro Oliveira's work In Tempore (2000) for piano and electronics performed by Ana Cláudia de Assis and registered on the DVD Ouver: Diálogos Interartes, released by the ANPPOM e UEMG (Brasil), is one of the works nominated fot the SPA Author's Award 2018 in the category Music - Best Work in Classical Music.

On March 6 Igor C. Silva - composer published by the MIC.PT - will participate as lecturer in the context of the Research Days . Musical Language, taking place at the Royal Conservatoire in Brussels; the theme of his presentation is: Synchronization as compositional technique. The Research Group Musical Language aims at constantly pushing the boundaries of compositional idioms, testing and validating the old and the new in order to elevate the art of music creation. In this regard, the presented lectures cover a large array of topics, spanning from Debussy to micro-tonality, from Adorno to multi-medial avant-garde. Also in this month - on March 10 - Igor C. Silva’s work Numb (2015), for baritone saxophone and electronics, will be preformed by Henrique Portovedo in the framework of the NASA 2018 - North American Saxophone Alliance Biennial Conference.

The piece for piano What time is it? (1996) by Vítor Rua - composer published by the MIC.PT - is included in the programme of the recital I Love Satie by the pianist Joana Gama - taking place on March 17 at the Virginia Theatre in Torres Novas. “In this recital Erik Satie’s works - evoking solene, melancholic or even dancing environments - coexist with pieces by Marco Franco, Federico Mompou, Morton Feldman, John Cage and Vítor Rua, within a delicate play of affinities” - describes her recital Joana Gama. “In What time is it? for the first time I started using as idiosyncrasies, ornaments and small groups, in a way still under the influence of minimalist repetitions. If the «surprise» is a product of a «linear» thought, so this composition is definitely «non-linear». One can say that it’s a piece that doesn’t intend to «communicate», but rather becomes «perceptible» within an auditive experience, different than the one we find in music with linear features” - says Vítor Rua in the programme note to his work.

On March 26 Eduardo Luís Patriarca’s piece Paradox I (2018) for solo clarinet, will be premiered by Dimitri Bokolisvili, to whom, together with Lina Tonia, this work is dedicated. The concert will take place in Tbilisi at the Concert Hall of the Georgian Musical Society. The clarinetist will repeat the public performance of Eduardo Patriarca’s work on March 30 at the Museum of Byzantine Culture in Thessaloniki, in the Greek region of Macedonia. In the interview given to the MIC.PT in July 2015 this composer published by the MIC.PT characterizes his musical language “as a mixture of influences, even though largely based on spectral techniques”. “I have never found an aesthetics that alone defines my thought, what I think is quite common to all composers - emphasizes Eduardo Luís Patriarca.

Works by four composers published by the MIC.PT are included in the programme of the concert by the Síntese - Contemporary Music Group, taking place on March 18 at the Faubourg 12 Gallery in Strasbourg (France); the works are: Auat VI [Memento] (2017) for soprano, alto saxophone and cello by Eduardo Luís Patriarca; SALMODIA-da noite e da montanha (2018) for soprano, alto saxophone, accordion and cello by Cândido Lima; ...when I waked, I cried to dream again (2017) for alto saxophone by Sara Carvalho (world premiere); and Sine Nomine (1987) for ensemble ad libitum by Jorge Peixinho. For the performance of the last piece the Síntese will be joined by the L’Imaginaire Ensemble, organizer of the event. This programme also includes the work Gacela del Niño Muerto (2018) for soprano, alto saxophone, accordion and cello by Nuno Côrte-Real. Founded in 2006, the Síntese is an ensemble of variable size, whose objective is to promote and encourage the creation of new music. Until now the Síntese has commissioned and premiered more than thirty works by Portuguese composers from various generations and with different aesthetic approaches.

Works by two composers published by the MIC.PT - Numb (2015) for baritone saxophone and electronics by Igor C. Silva and In Nuce (2011) for saxophone and electronics by Ricardo Ribeiro - make part of the concert entitled SoundGrounds of the saxophonist Henrique Portovedo, which will take place on March 10 in the context of the NASA 2018 - North American Saxophone Alliance Biennial Conference (University of Cincinnati College - Conservatory of Music). The programme of this recital also includes the piece Une Autre Nuit (2015) by the French composer Nicolas Jacquot. In the context of Portuguese music, the saxophonist and sound artist Henrique Portovedo has found his place in contemporary creation. He has worked with various contemporary composers, including: Igor C. Silva, Paulo Ferreira-Lopes, Sara Carvalho e Luís Carvalho, and many others Portuguese and international artists. His repertoire includes more than 30 premiered works.