The audiovisual work Tesseract (2017) by João Pedro Oliveira, commission of the Mixtur 2018 Festival premiered in the framework of this event in April in Barcelona, has been distinguished with the First Award ex aequo at the 11th Competition of the Destellos Foundation (Argentina) in the Visual Music Category (another piece awarded in this category is D'ombre et d'équilibre by Gaël Tissot). In June another work by this composer published by the MIC.PT - Neshamah, 8-channel acousmatic piece with video (2016) - will be presented at the Museo Cultural de Santa Fe (USA) in the context of the Currents New Media 2018 Festival - taking place between June 8 and 24. Additionally, this month João Pedro Oliveira will lead composition workshops during the 4th International Masterclasses for Composers - an initiative organized by the DME Festival and the Kyiv Contemporary Music Days, taking place between June 12 and 16 (masterclasses), as well as June 11 and 22 (festival) in Lisbon.

With Plastic Air (2016), for flexible duo, electronics and video/lighting, Igor C. Silva has won a Recommendation in the Composers Under 30 Category of the 65th International Rostrum of Composers (May 14-19, Budapest), an initiative of the IMC - International Music Council, where the MIC.PT is a member. In June the music by this composer published by the MIC.PT will be presented in various European and North American locations: the premiere performance of Blood Ink (2015), for small ensemble and electronics, will take place on June 8 at the Blue Note Zaal in Amsterdam; on June 10 and 16 in Madrid and Aveiro, Henrique Portovedo (saxophone) and Francisco Martínez (electronics) will perform the piece Numb (2015) for baritone saxophone and electronics; and on June 13 and 29 Igor C. Silva’s Smart-alienation (2016) for flexible ensemble, electronics and video will be performed in Manchester (Kinetic Manchester) and Kalamazoo at the Western Michigan University (Splice Ensemble).

ECOS Coimbra (2018), for six percussionists and loudspeakers is a new work by Carlos Alberto Augusto (composer published by the MIC.PT), written for the 5th edition of the Sons da Cidade (Sounds of the City) project. Its world premiere will take place on June 23 at the Praça do Comércio in Coimbra. It will be performed by the Simantra - Percussion Group and Carlos A. Augusto (sound projection). The initiative Sons da Cidade is a celebration of the inclusion of the University of Coimbra - Alta e Sofia in the UNESCO World Heritage List, “under the sign” of artistic reflection and intervention. Co-organized by the Jazz ao Centro Club, the Coimbra Municipality and the University of Coimbra, this programme invites the public to wander around the City, and proposes its (re)discovery and new perception on the crossing of various heritages.

The work Deux portraits imaginaires (2013) for chamber orchestra by Pedro Amaral is included in the concert of the Madeira Classical Orchestra, conducted by this composer published by the MIC.PT. The event will take place on June 16 at the Legislative Assembly of Madeira (Funchal), and its programme also includes works by Emmanuel Séjourné (Concerto for Marimba, Vibraphone and Orchestra; 2012) and Ludwig van Beethoven (Symphony no. 7; 1812). As Pedro Amaral reveals in the programme notes to his work: "Deux portraits imaginaires is a «programmatic» piece. Its base is constituted of a dialogue between two characters: Faust, in the reading left to us by Fernando Pessoa, and Maria, not Goethe’s Margaret, who represents the impossible love. This purely instrumental music aims at painting a portrait of the characters - their profound personality and psychological state in the moment of the dialogue between them…

On June 9 at the Liceu Passos Manuel the project Dizer... As Palavras dos Poetas (To speak… the Poets’ Words), resulting from Miguel Azguime’s collaboration with the Companhia Maior, will be the opening performance at the European Literature Night 2018 in Lisbon. This tantalizing creation aims at finding sonic, emotional and cognitive multiplicities in the poetry by Portuguese authors (Mário de Sá Carneiro, Fernando Pessoa, Eugénio de Andrade, Herberto Helder, …). Here, the Companhia Maior constitutes a “speaking choir” directed by Miguel Azguime. Also this month, on June 22-23, four works by this composer published by the MIC.PT will be presented at the Extraordinary Voice cycle (O’culto da Ajuda in Lisbon). The works are: Aliterações de Água (2017), Tudo concorre sem saber para um ponto exacto (premiere; 2012-18), Mon silence silencie (premiere; 1999-2018) and A Narrativa do Espaço (premiere; 2001-18).

Works by two composers published by the MIC.PT - aproximações (2017) for guitar ensemble and two adufes by Sofia Sousa Rocha and Canções tradicionais transmontanas (2016), version for guitar orchestra, by Fernando C. Lapa - will be presented on June 9 at the 1st Música d’Ponte Festival in Braga (Portugal). The programme of this concert - performed by the Plucked String Orchestra of Minho, Helena Pereira and Beatriz Martinho (percussion), and with the musical direction of Charles Roussin - also includes pieces by Antonio Vivaldi Ernani Aguiar, Celso Machado and Astor Piazzola. The creation of the Plucked String Orchestra of Minho has in its base the idea of associating instruments from the same chordophone family. Some of them have ancestral and cultural roots highly pronounced and recognized in the Minho region: guitar, viola braguesa, cavaquinho and the Portuguese guitar, among others.

The 1st edition of the 20.21 Festival - Évora Contemporary Music, organized by the Évora Municipality and with the artistic direction of Amílcar Vasques-Dias, will be taking place between June 6 and 10 at the Garcia de Resende Theatre and the Giraldo Square. Amílcar Vasques-Dias emphasizes that “the festival’s programme reflects the encompassing character of classical contemporary music whose closest roots can be found in 20th century music; the event includes mainly works by Portuguese authors and performers”. In the programme there are concerts by the Lopes-Graça Quartet (with pieces by Joly Braga Santos and Amílcar Vasques-Dias), and various recitals for solo instruments - with or without electronics - by Francisco Berény (guitar), Nuno Aroso (percussion), Carlos Canhoto (saxophone) and Ana Telles (piano). During these concerts one will hear works by various composers published by the MIC.PT: Christopher Bochmann, Sara Carvalho, Amílcar Vasques-Dias, João Pedro Oliveira, Eduardo Luís Patriarca, Luís Antunes Pena, Jaime Reis and José Carlos Sousa; as well as pieces by Diogo Novo Carvalho, Álvaro Salazar, Bach, Berio, Léo Brouwer, Panayotis Kokoras (premiere in Portugal), Lei Liang and Maurice Ohana. Manifesting a great variety of styles and aesthetic options, the 20.21 Festival programme also includes a concert of the TGB rare instrumental set - tuba, guitar and drums of Sérgio Carolino, Mário Delgado and Alexandre Frazão; the lecture-concert José Afonso: de ouvido e coração (José Afonso: from ear and heart); as well as a multimedia concert with Laurent Rossi’s live performance - Uma História da Trompa (A History of the Horn).

Extraordinary Voice is a cycle of four performances organized by the Miso Music Portugal at the O’culto da Ajuda in the context of the Lisbon Festivities 2018. Its programme includes works by various composers published by the MIC.PT. At the first concert - on June 22 - Katia Guedes (soprano) will perform a repertoire composed of seven works: Aliterações de Água (2017), for soprano and electronics by Miguel Azguime; as well as international and Portuguese premieres of works by Rainer Ruppert, Martin Daske, Jocy de Oliveira, Suzanne Stelzenbach, Charlotte Seither and of her own authorship. On the following day - June 23 - three premieres of works by Miguel Azguime (Tudo concorre sem saber para um ponto exacto, 2012-18; Mon silence silencie, 1999-2018; A Narrativa do Espaço, 2001-18), intertwined with pieces by Kaija Saariaho, Cathy Berberian and another composer published by the MIC.PT - Eduardo Luís Patriarca (Entre o princípio e o fim, 2016) - will compose the recital of Marina Pacheco (soprano). The cycle Extraordinary Voice will continue on June 29-30 with performances of two duos: Savina Yannatou (voice) & Joana Sá (piano), where the universe of song becomes a plastic, extensible and malleable material; and Inês Simões (soprano) & Daniel Godinho (piano) - Duo Tágide - whose concert includes the world premiere of Chants de Teika (Fujiwara no Sadaie) (2011) by António Chagas Rosa (composer published by the MIC.PT), as well as music by Igor Stravinsky and George Crumb.

Works by the five composers published by the MIC.PT - Peaceful Meeting (2016) by Clotilde Rosa, E(H)LLE(M) - Sete momentos em forma de trança (2017) by Ângela Lopes, Anamorphoses VIII (2014) by Isabel Soveral, Fluxus, Drag (2015) by Jaime Reis and Dark Energy (world premiere; 2018) by João Pedro Oliveira - compose the programme, which the Contracello Duo will present on June 1 in Seia (Portugal), and also on June 8 and 9 in the Netherlands (Amsterdam). This project entitled Ver os Sons, Ouvir Imagens (To See the Sounds, To Hear Images) is a multimedia performance with the participation of Miguel Rocha (cello), Adriano Aguiar (double bass) and Jaime Reis (sound and image projection). Here, the instrumental sounds interact organically with the “visual layers” created by Mariana Irene Aparício, Paulo Raposo, Inês Silva and João Pedro Oliveira.

Numb (2015) for baritone saxophone and electronics and Dialogismos (2012) for alto saxophone and electronics are two works by Igor C. Silva and Nuno Peixoto de Pinho, respectively (composers published by the MIC.PT), making part of the programme Music for the Third Millenium by the saxophonist Henrique Portovedo and Francisco Martínez (electronics). This repertoire, also including pieces by Michael Edwards (Flung me, foot trod), Eneko Vadillo (world premiere of Murano 2) and Dativo Tobarra (world premiere of Estreno), will be presented during two performances (organized in the context of the Iberian Sax project and Henrique Portovedo’s residency at the SaxEnsemble Foundation) - on June 10 at the Auditorium of the Lázaro Galdiano Museum in Madrid (Spain), and on June 16 at the Calouste Gulbenkian Conservatoire of Music in Aveiro.

Paulo Ferreira-Lopes, Purity I (2014)

Paulo Ferreira-Lopes, Seven Short Songs From The Forgotten Book (2012)

Paulo Ferreira-Lopes, A menina dos fósforos (2011)

Paulo Ferreira-Lopes, a-Len Verses (1999)

Four composers published by the MIC.PT - Jaime Reis as composition tutor, as well as João Pedro Oliveira, Carlos Caires and António de Sousa Dias, conducting composition workshops - will participate in the 4th International Masterclasses for Composers, organized by the new music platform KCMD (Kyiv Contemporary Music Days) and by the DME Festival (Electroacoustic Music Days) and taking place between June 12 and 16 in Lisbon (Espaço Lisboa Incomum). Other composers and musicians invited for this event are: Hans Tutschku (composition tutor, Germany), Dimitris Andrikopoulos (composition workshops, Greece - Portugal), Nina Janssen-Deinzer (clarinet, Germany), Yuri Matsuzaki (flute, Japan - Germany), Junya Makino (violin, Japan - Switzerland) and Miłosz Drogowski (cello, Poland). The Masterclasses will be accompanied by concerts in the context of the KCMD Festival dedicated to new music and taking place between June 11 and 20. The event will include the participation of the performers: Ana Telles (piano), Ana Cláudia de Assis (piano), as well as members of the Ensemble Modern and the Ensemble Modern Academy, among others. The Festival's detailed programme will be announced shortly - it will include the music of Jorge Peixinho (composer published by the MIC.PT), Karlheinz Stockhausen, Emmanuel Nunes, György Ligeti, Jean-Sébastien Béreau, György Kurtág, Fausto Romitelli, Olivier Messiaen and Helmut Lachenmann, among other composers.

Various Portuguese composers published by the MIC.PT - Paulo Ferreira-Lopes, Filipe Lopes, Rui Penha and Pedro Rebelo; as well as Tiago Ângelo, Gilberto Bernardes, Clara Cardoso, Joana Chicau, Nuno N. Correia, José Alberto Gomes, Pedro Louzeiro, Ricardo Mendes, Henrique Portovedo (among other artists and researchers); are participants at the ICLI 2018 - International Conference on Live Interfaces, taking place between June 14 and 16 in Porto: FBAUP . Passos Manuel . Casa da Música). The aim of this event, whose programme is constituted of presentations of scientific work, symposiums and performances, is to reflect on the use of live interfaces in processes connected with the creation, in the context of performative arts.

In June the MIC.PT website provides online a new Composer’s Page dedicated to Daniel Davis. This young creator was born in 1990 in Porto and he studied Composition at the Music College of Lisbon (ESML) with: Sérgio Azevedo, António Pinho Vargas, Luís Tinoco, Carlos Marecos, João Madureira, José Luís Ferreira and Carlos Caires, among other composers. In 2016 he did his Master’s Degree at the ESML, having been invited by the Department of Composition at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama for Doctoral Studies in Composition (with the support of the Research Department at the same school and the Gulbenkian Foundation). In 2014 he was distinguished with the 1st Prize at the 3rd edition of the Antena 2/SPA Composition Competition. In this context his work ...from the last breath was premiered by the Gulbenkian Orchestra under the baton of Pedro Carneiro. As composer Daniel Davis has participated, on the one hand, in various initiatives at national level, as for example the Baú da Descoberta Musical Tehatre (2015); or the Musicalmente project, where he composed a Concert for Babies (2016). In the 2014-14 Season he was also Resident Composer of the Chamber Orchestra of Cascais and Oeiras. On the other hand, his music has been presented at different, national and international venues like Casa da Música (Porto), Vianna da Motta Auditorium (ESML, Lisbon), Gulbenkian Foundation (Lisbon), Milton Court Music Hall (London), Atis Mons Auditorium (France), among many others.

The Composition Week 2018 (conferences, debates and concerts) of the Music School of Lisbon - organized with the aim to present to the audience new works created by young composers and composition students and to encourage young musicians to perform contemporary music - took place between May 14 and 20. It was a collaborative initiative between the Composition, Instrumental, Voice and Music Technology Classes, in the context of the project Creation, Circulation, Register and Edition of Portuguese Contemporary Music Works, supported by the FCT and FEDER in the framework of the PT2020 project. In this sense numerous new works by composition students, young composers and their professors have been premiered; the works are (in chronological order, according to the premiere date): Rotina Urbana for wind ensemble and percussion by André Simões . Spinning II for four hand piano by José Luís Ferreira . Extraterrestres for flute, cello and piano by Simão Bárcia . Palácio de Cristal by João Damas . Lembranças I for string quintet, harp, and alto recorder by André Lisboa . Song of Happiness for solo electronics performer by Jorge Ramos . Definições for choir by Rodrigo Cardoso . Positive messages in a falling apart world for ensemble by Olívia Silva . 2458208 for ensemble by Nuno Trocado . Um Ressoar Cêntrico Dourado for ensemble by Solange Azevedo . Esconder-se no multiverso for ensemble by Lucas Rei Ramos . Ausência for ensemble by José Maciel . Arritmia interpolada for guitar quartet by André Mota . Idílio for piano by Bernardo Beirão . Quanto Morre Um Homem for tenor and piano by Eduardo Marques . Nothingness as an Emergence for prepared cello and electronics by João Carlos Pinto . Hexagramas for four hand piano by Luís Mandacaru . Richiami II for flute, oboe, cor anglais, and percussion and Le domande di Aldo for saxophone quartet and electronics by Giovanni Zaniol . Submerso for string quartet by Inês Lopes . De tanta ânsia, emudeci for solo clarinet by Bernardo Beirão . Disruption for ensemble by Paulo Novado . Run for ensemble by Pedro Nunes . Linhas for solo bassoon by Inês Matos . Meditações sobre Simbiose, Reverberação e Eco for tenor saxophone and cello by Luís Mandacaru . Colagens sobre Bach, acousmatic, by Pedro Beirão . Saara for solo violin by Sérgio Lopes . Memória/Okiya Flor , chamber opera for 2 sopranos, mezzo-soprano, 2 baritones and choir, by Érica Liane.