This month the MIC.PT In Focus section features a new interview with the composer and music teacher Ângela Lopes, who in 2022 celebrates her 50th anniversary.
Ângela Lopes (composer published by the MIC.PT) considers herself an ’inspired artisan’. She uses a large variety of compositional techniques, being interested in experimentation with all music genres – from solo and chamber to orchestral music; from acoustic and mixed to pure electroacoustic music; from opera to theatre and film, or music for exhibitions and installations; from secular to religious music; form romantic to formal music universe; from meticulously notated music works to a freer writing connected with improvisation. Ângela Lopes studied Composition with Cândido Lima, Virgílio Melo and Álvaro Salazar. She finds inspiration in the work of different contemporary composers, such as Olivier Messiaen, Iannis Xenakis, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Jonathan Harvey, among many others. Having various compositional projects ‘in hand’, Ângela Lopes frequently collaborates in the realisation and projection of electronics, in the music by diverse 20th and 21st century composers.
In March visit the MIC.PT In Focus section dedicated to Ângela Lopes.

The pieces constituting the Trilogy Barcas de Gil Vicente, with the music by Fernando C. Lapa, will be presented on March 4 at the CCB – Belém Cultural Centre in Lisbon. ‘They are musical and theatrical chamber pieces, commissioned for the 2018 edition of the Music Days in Belém. In these three works – Auto do Inferno, Auto do Purgatório and Auto da Glória – two actors and five musicians share everything that is presented on the stage. Sometimes, in order to exchange the roles and functions, they leave their own comfort zones’ – reveals Fernando C. Lapa, composer published by the MIC.PT. The Trilogy Barcas de Gil Vicente will be performed by the Toy Ensemble and by the two actresses, Ângela Marques and Filomena Gigante. Also on March 4 the Porto Coliseum will receive the performance of Fernando C. Lapa's new opera, Mátria – aqui na terra (2021).

In March Hugo Vasco Reis' music will be presented in Portugal and Switzerland. In this context the work Micro Images for Violoncello and Piano (2022) will be performed by the Duo Sigma [Miguel Rocha (violoncello) and Ana Cláudia Assis (piano)] at the Municipal Auditorium Casa da Música in Óbidos, at the Nossa Senhora do Cabo Music School in Linda-a-Velha, and at the ESART in Castelo Branco, respectively, on March 5, 7 and 10. The work O Horizonte de uma Borboleta (2014), for flute, violin and piano, will be performed by the ö! Ensemble für Neue Musik, on March 7, 11 and 12 at the following venues in Switzerland (respectively): Postremise Chur, Atelier für Kunst und Philosophie Zürich, and Ackermannshof Basel. Additionally, the new CD by this composer published by the MIC.PT, entitled Voices and Landscapes, is now available on all digital platforms.

In March three works by Igor C. Silva (composer published by the MIC.PT, will be performed in Luxembourg, the United States of America and Austria. The piece Numb (2015), for saxophone and electronics is included in the concert by the United Instruments of Lucilin, which will take place on March 15 at the Philharmonie Luxembourg. At this concert the United Instruments of Lucilin complement their regular instrumental cast with video, electronics, performance elements and resounding everyday objects. Four days later, on March 19, the piece My Empty Hands (2018) for flexible percussion ensemble, electronics and video, will be preformed by the JORF Quartet at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, and Dance. And lastly the PHACE Ensemble will perform the work Smart-alienation (2016) for small flexible ensemble, electronics and video, in the context of the concert entitled Happiness, taking place on March 30 at the Wiener Konzerthaus. In this work Igor C. Silva focuses on the alienation from reality potentiated by the new technologies, especially by the smartphones and company.

Sangue Inverso: Magnetite (I), Sangue Inverso: Ametista (II), Inverso Sangue: Âmbar (I) e Inverso Sangue: Granito (II) – are the four pieces by Jaime Reis (composer published by the MIC.PT), which will be performed by the Sine Qua Non Ensemble directed by Valerio Sannicandro, at the concert entitled Introspezione, taking place on March 28 at the Italian Culture Institute in Paris. Jaime Reis' cycle Sangue Inverso – Inverso Sangue (2015-...) is composed of various pieces inspired in mineral elements. The piece's micro-to-macro structure is based on the ideas of symmetry. Sangue Inverso is constituted of seven movements and Inverso Sangue is likewise composed of seven movements. Every single movement can be performed independently, as an individual piece (for example: Sangue Inverso: Ametista (II) for flute and piano, and Inverso Sangue: Granito (II) for clarinet, violin and cello); or they can be joined into one work, being conceived to be performed simultaneously, for example: Sangue Inverso: Ametista (II) + Inverso Sangue: Granito (II) for flute, clarinet, piano, violin and cello.

Hiante – electroacoustic poetry piece composed by João Castro Pinto, with poetry and voice of Sofia A. Carvalho and released in a CD/ book format by the Grimaces Éditions (Switzerland, 2019) – has been selected to integrate the main programme of the MANTIS 2022 [Sounds in Words] Electroacoustic Music Festival. The 2022 edition of this event will explore the intersections of the spoken word with the electroacoustic medium, and it will be taking place between March 5 and 6 at the Martin Harris Centre for Music and Drama at the University of Manchester (United Kingdom). The piece Hiante will be presented at the second concert of the MANTIS 2022 first day (March 5), and Sofia A. Carvalho and João Castro Pinto will be present at the Festival. In this context this composer published by the MIC.PT will spatialise the piece via the MANTIS (Manchester Theatre in Sound) Loudspeaker Orchestra, which is composed of 56 loudspeakers.

The Miso Music Portugal/ MIC.PT, as the Portuguese Federation of CIME/ ICEM – International Confederation of Electroacoustic Music, has proposed João Pedro Oliveira's visual-music work Coalescence (2021), to integrate the programme of the CIME online concert which will take place on March 10 in the context of the LAMPI. Rassegna di audiovisioni Festival, organised by the Tempo Reale Centre in Florence (Italy). As João Pedro Oliveira explains in the programme note: “Coalescence is the process of joining or merging elements to form one mass or whole. In this visual music piece, both visual materials and music join and separate themselves in distinct units, forming shapes and sounds that are the combination of elements joined together.” Another work by this composer published by the MIC.PT, N’vi’ah (2019), will be presented on March 6 at the MANTIS 2022 Festival in Manchester (United Kingdom).

The work Sou já do que fui (2019) for piano four hands by Paulo Bastos will be performed in the context of the concert by the Kla-Vier Duo constituted by the pianists Patrícia Ventura & Sónia Amaral. It will take place on March 9 at the Casa Comum of the University of Porto Rectory (Portugal-France 2022 Crossed Season). The programme of this recital will also include pieces by Arvo Pärt, Claude Debussy, Fazil Say, Tomás Alvarenga & António Victorino d'Almeida. Another work by this composer published by the MIC.PT, Ad-sum (2014) for piano will be performed by João Tiago Magalhães at three concerts dedicated to Portuguese music, taking place on March 15, 18 & 27, respectively, at the Bomfim Conservatory & the Calouste Gulbenkian Music Conservatory in Braga, and at the Maison du Portugal – André de Gouveia in Paris (Saison Croisée France-Portugal 2022).

After passing through Lisbon and Porto, the next concert presenting the new CD Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc, with Vítor Rua's homonymous piece performed by the guitar duo constituted by José Teixeira and Luís Miguel Leite, will take place on March 5 at the CAAA – Centro para os Assuntos da Arte e Arquitectura in Guimarães (Portugal). The piece Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc for digital unit, video and two electric guitars, is based on various unconventional, instrumental, and improvisation techniques. This performance piece is dedicated to José Teixeira and Luís Miguel Leite, artists who have created the project, Portuguese Contemporary Music for Guitar. ‘In some cultures Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc makes life more fun: the Sun rises when the rooster crows, thus the rooster's crowing makes the Sun rise’ – says Vítor Rua, composer published by the MIC.PT.

On March 17 and 18, respectively, at the Auditorium of Átrio da Música Foundation in Viana do Castelo, and at the Cine-Theatre at the Municipal House of Culture in Seia, the Performa Ensemble will present two concerts in the context of the (In)visible Cities project (Cidades (in)visíveis), which includes works by various composers published by the MIC.PT: Shelter by Igor C. Silva (world premiere), Inverso Sangue Xisto (B) by Jaime Reis, The Artist’s Struggle for Integrity: on a speech by James Baldwin by Rui Penha (world premiere), imponderabilia by Sara Carvalho; as well as EstRatiFicAçÕes by Gerson Batista. The project's objective is to question the urban-sounds ecology through the creations portraying particular ways of listening to the city sounds. The pieces here included reflect on the three lines of creation of the project's theme: the exploration of the missing sonic memories in view of the passing time; the mixture of culture and music derived from immigration or gentrification; the concept of the utopian or dystopian soundscape as basis for the creation of sounds for new cities. The Performa Ensemble is constituted by Jorge Salgado Correia (flutes), Helena Marinho (piano), Henrique Portovedo (saxophones), Belquior Marques (guitar), and Luís Bittencourt (percussion).

Starting the 2022 Concert Season, the Sigma Duo formed by Miguel Rocha (cello) and Ana Cláudia Assis (piano), will be on tour throughout various Portuguese and Latin-America cities, presenting inedited works by 15 Portuguese composers, commissioned in the framework of the two projects: Mémoire... Miroir: Jorge Peixinho's music reflected in the cello and piano repertoire and O Aprendiz de Novos Sons (The New Sounds Apprentice). During the March concerts the Sigma Duo will perform the world premieres of works by four composers published by the MIC.PT: Bruno Gabirro (Sobre a brevidade de todas as coisas), Hugo Vasco Reis (Micro Images for Cello and Piano), Jaime Reis (Sigma.Cobre), Miguel Azguime (Lettre à l'être imbu); and also by Pedro Pinto Figueiredo (Sem Título). Apart from the world premieres the programme of these concerts will also include the music by Carlos Marecos (O Carro de Jorge Peixinho) and Eduardo Luís Patriarca (Suddenly, this silence) – composers published by the MIC.PT; as well as the piece Tantalus by Andreia Pinto Correia. This month the Sigma Duo concerts will take place on March 5 (Municipal Auditorium Casa da Música in Óbidos), March 7 (EMNSC – Nossa Senhora do Cabo Music School in Linda-a-Velha) and on March 10 (Superior Applied Arts School in Castelo Branco).

Portuguese Music for Piano is the title of the recital, which this month the pianist João Tiago Magalhães will perform in Braga, at the Bomfim Conservatory, and at the Calouste Gulbenkian Music Conservatory (March 15 & 24), as well as in Paris, on March 27, at the Maison du Portugal – André de Gouveia (Portugal-France 2022 Crossed Season). The programme of this recital includes works ranging from popular & ethnographic to electronic inspiration, written by various composers published by the MIC.PT: Carlos Marecos (Terras por de Trás dos Montes), Eduardo Luís Patriarca (Mantra 3), Fernando C. Lapa (Variações sobre o “Coro da Primavera” de José  Afonso), Paulo Bastos (Ad-sum); as well as Fernando Lopes-Graça (Variações sobre um Tema Popular Português), João Carlos Pinto (Quatro Canções Tradicionais Portuguesas), and Mafalda Silva (Opiário, para piano e electrónica).

Joining the various and multiple voices already manifested by the international music community, the MIC.PT – Portuguese Music Research & Information Centre and the Miso Music Portugal express their complete solidarity with Ukraine, its People, Artists, Musicians, and Composers. We denounce all acts of aggression and war cruelty threatening Life, Civilisation, Art and Culture. Culture, Art and Music stand for such values as Peace, Freedom, Creation and Development, which are in the core of our whole activity. The brutal attacks presently happening in Ukraine are the total antithesis of these values. Quoting the words of Dr. Glenda Keam, President of the ISCM – International Society for Contemporary Music, this horrible aggression destabilises Peace and destroys Musical Life. ‘Without Musical Life there is no Real Living’. We fervently hope that this unjust and pointless war will be urgently brought to an end.

From now on, two new In the 1st Person Interviews (in Portuguese) – with the composers Ângela da Ponte and Filipe Esteves –, are available on the MIC.PT YouTube Channel.
Presently the MIC.PT YouTube Channel contains 20 New Interviews to composers residing in Portugal, realised since 2019; as well as eight Interviews from the MIC.PT Archive, realised between 2003 and 2005.
The New Interviews, conducted by Pedro Boléo, were filmed at the O'culto da Ajuda in Lisbon and realised in the context of the In the 1st Person cycle of the Music Today and Research & Invention Music radio broadcasts, produced by the MIC.PT and Miso Music Portugal for the >> Antena 2. They constitute a (re)visit to the creative universe of various composers published by the MIC.PT, following the Historical Interviews recorded by the MIC.PT more than 15 years ago. Today they are unique registers of the artistic evolution of each interviewed composer.
In order to access the Interviews (in Portuguese) follow the links below or visit the MIC.PT YouTube Channel.