The year 2025 will be marked by the first-ever hosting of the ISCM World New Music Days festival in Portugal, from May 30 to June 7 in Lisbon and Porto. In this context, the In Focus section for March is dedicated to the history and presence of Portuguese music at the ISCM World New Music Days, an initiative by the International Society for Contemporary Music, and undoubtedly one of the largest and most vibrant annual festivals dedicated to contemporary music.
The history of the relationship between Portugal and ISCM spans nearly 80 years. In this context, highlights include the contributions of the composer Jorge Peixinho, who was active within the ISCM from 1975 until he died in 1995, and the work of Miso Music Portugal, which has served as ISCM’s Portuguese Section since 1999. Thanks to their efforts, over 50 works by Portuguese composers have been presented at the ISCM World New Music Days from 1976 to the present.
In March, explore the In Focus section to learn more about this significant chapter in the internationalisation of Portuguese music and the history of ISCM itself, founded in 1922 in Salzburg, Austria.

The piece Ensaios Sobre Cantos IV (2019) for adufe and electronics, composed by Ângela da Ponte (a composer published by MIC.PT), will be performed on March 22 at the Vila das Aves Municipal Culture Centre in Santo Tirso. The concert will mark the premiere of Nativo, a project by Tiago Manuel Soares. According to its synopsis, the project reflects the musician’s 20 years of ‘in-depth study, training, and career dedicated to traditional music. In this innovative solo performance, the musician will place Portuguese traditional percussion at the heart of the narrative. Nativo explores new aesthetics, offering a contemporary perspective on the diversity of this intangible Portuguese heritage as seen through the eyes of modern artists who remain deeply connected to their roots.’ Alongside Ângela da Ponte’s work, Tiago Manuel Soares will perform pieces by Fernando C. Lapa (another composer published by MIC.PT) and Filipe Fernandes.

On March 21, the work Do lume que pesa from 2019 (Sond’Ar-te commission), by Carlos Brito Dias (a composer published by the MIC.PT), will be performed at O’culto da Ajuda in Lisbon by Pedro Neves (conductor) and the Sond’Ar-te Electric Ensemble, with Sílvia Cancela (flute), Nuno Pinto (clarinet), Vítor Vieira (violin), Filipe Quaresma (cello), João Casimiro Almeida (piano) and João Dias (percussion). The concert will open with the world premiere of Regrowing (2023) by the Polish composer Monika Szpyrka, a work awarded at the International Rostrum of Composers and commissioned by Euroradio. In this sense, the Antena 2 will broadcast the concert live. Its programme, which explores the fusion of acoustic instruments and electronics, also includes Valerio Sannicandro’s Reticulatum (2022), David Miguel’s Gravitas (2023) and Miguel Azguime’s D’un horizon tendu (2019) (the latter two also published by the MIC.PT).

No mais fundo de ti... (2014) by Clotilde Rosa and Llanto por Mariana (1986) by Jorge Peixinho are the two works by these composers (published by MIC.PT) included in the programme of a commented concert that the Lisbon Contemporary Music Group (GMCL), under the direction of Vasco Pearce de Azevedo, will present on March 21 at the Auditorium of the São Teotónio School of Music in Coimbra.  The commentaries accompanying the concert will focus on the connection between poetry and music in Clotilde Rosa’s work and on the theme of freedom, drawing a historical parallel between the Spanish Civil War and Portugal’s Carnation Revolution. Additionally, the concert will feature the creative process results developed in workshops conducted by GMCL musicians with students from the São Teotónio School of Music. In this context, the GMCL and the workshop participants will perform the pieces Improviso I and Improviso II by Peixinho/ Machado.

Three works by David Miguel (a composer published by the MIC.PT) will have their performances in March. The first piece, Soneto do amor e da morte (2014) for mixed choir, will have its presentation at the XXVII Culture Week of the University of Coimbra. The concert by the University of Coimbra Mixed Choir, part of the O Canto dos Poetas cycle, will occur on March 13 at the São Tomás de Aquino Hall of the Major Seminary in Coimbra. Then, on March 21, at another Antena 2 Concert at the O’culto da Ajuda in Lisbon, the Sond’Ar-te Electric Ensemble conducted by Pedro Neves will perform the work Gravitas commissioned by Miso Music Portugal and composed in 2023. At the end of the month, the work Miserere for choir and string quintet will have its premiere performance on March 29. The concert by the Polaris Vocal Ensemble, conducted by Gonçalo Lourenço, will occur at the São Francisco Chapel in Fundão, and it is part of the Quadragésima cycle, dedicated to the traditions of Lent.

The project by Filipe Esteves (a composer published by MIC.PT), Sons Interiores/ Interior dos Sons – uma alquimia doméstica, was recently released on CD by Miso Records. The official release of this new album will occur on March 29 at O’culto da Ajuda in Lisbon. ‘This work can be considered the counterpart to my first monographic CD, Sul e Sueste, from 2021’, says Filipe Esteves. He continues, ‘While for that album I drew inspiration from the urban “soundscape”, this one stems from the domestic environment, emerging from the intentional listening of sound sources that, in daily life, due to being almost inaudible or because of their persistence and ordinariness, tend to be obliterated or ignored.’ As part of the release, Filipe Esteves will realise the sound diffusion of the compositions from Sons Interiores/ Interior dos Sons through Miso Music Portugal’s Loudspeaker Orchestra. On the same evening, another Miso Records CD will also be released – Eight Dialogues by Armando Teixeira (Buchla synthesisers) and Miguel Leiria Pereira (double bass).

On March 8 and 9, at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, a series of community performances will occur as part of the Corpos Sonoros II project, integrated into the Rising Stars programme. These performances will feature the violinist Beatriz Costa and Jaime Reis (a composer published by MIC.PT). Corpos Sonoros II is an initiative by the DME Project that interweaves creation, sound art, sculpture, installation, and community performance. In it, participants create and explore various sounds using the ‘sound body’ conceived from the skeleton of a piano. Additionally, Jaime Reis’s electroacoustic work Fluxus, pas trop haut dans le ciel (2017) will be presented at the SO.UND.ING Acousmonium Octa-Fusion festival on March 17 at Kino Šiška in Ljubljana. The programme for the second day of this initiative by the Institute of Contemporary Art Processing (Slovenia), on March 18, will also include performances of electroacoustic music by Mariana Vieira (a composer published by MIC.PT), Cristóvão Almeida, and Marta Domingues.

João Castro Pinto (a composer published by MIC.PT) has been invited to present his latest acousmatic piece – Circumsphere: to Bounce & Rebounce (2024) – at the 4th edition of the Immersive Festival (organised by the DME Project), an annual event dedicated to electroacoustic music and the exploration of sonic space. This year’s edition will occur between March 20 and 23 at the Lisboa Incomum in Lisbon. The festival focuses on dome-shaped sound systems, offering an immersive listening experience, where the space becomes a key element in musical composition and perception. In this context, João Castro Pinto will spatialise his work using the multichannel sound system at the Lisboa Incomum, DME Project’s headquarters.

The work by Miguel Azguime (a composer published by the MIC.PT), D’un horizon tendu (2019), will be performed on March 21 at the O’culto da Ajuda in Lisbon by the Sond’Ar-te Electric Ensemble and the conductor Pedro Neves. The commissioner of this piece, composed for an amplified quartet, was the Kwartludium Foundation from Poland. The concert will also feature the premiere of Regrowing (2023) by the Polish composer Monika Szpyrka, distinguished at the International Rostrum of Composers. This event will be broadcast live on Antena 2. Established in 1949 as a UNESCO body and organised by the International Music Council, the Rostrum is a forum for representatives of broadcasting organisations that convene to exchange and promote contemporary music.

On March 14, the Interdito Duo (Sofia Marafona, soprano; Duarte Pereira Martins, piano) will perform the work Rente ao chão by Miguel Resende Bastos (a composer published by the MIC.PT), inspired by Eugénio de Andrade’s poem contained in the Rente ao Dizer volume. The concert will occur at O’culto da Ajuda in Lisbon. It is part of the Caderno de Eugénio project, an initiative by the duo to celebrate the centenary of the poet’s birth. To celebrate the ‘links between literature and music, so dear to Eugénio’, as the duo says, the programme also includes works by Erwin Schulhoff and Wolfgang Rihm. Additionally, the musicians will perform pieces by young Portuguese composers directly inspired by Eugénio de Andrade’s poetry. Along with Miguel Resende Bastos’s piece, these works are Camila S. Menino’s Nocturno, Sara Ross’sToda a poesia é luminosa, Carlos Lopes’s Oiço correr a noite pelos sulcos, Pedro F. Finisterra’s Contigo, and Fábio Cachão‘s Lume breve.

On March 2, Sara Carvalho (a composer published by the MIC.PT) will be one of the artists with a work performed at the Portimão Percussion Days at the concert for families Música a Sério para Instrumentos de Brincar. As the concert’s description reveals, this project’s focus is ‘the use of objects, instruments and devices normally associated with play and games in an artistic production context, as an alternative to creation based on conventional sounds and instruments.’ Sara Carvalho’s work included in this concert is where the wild things are (2022) for recorder, toy piano and amplified percussion. Its performers will be the musicians from the Borealis Ensemble – António Carrilho (flutes), Helena Marinho (keyboard) and Nuno Aroso (percussion). The programme also includes works by Francisco Ribeiro, Carlos Caires, Hugo Ribeiro and Nuno Peixoto de Pinho, the three latter being composers published by the MIC.PT.

Carlos Lopes’ New Composer Page has been active on the MIC.PT since February. The young composer has a varied oeuvre, with a particular focus on chamber music and pieces for solo instruments. His career includes participation in the ENOA – Composing for Voices workshop organised by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, where he worked under the guidance of Luís Tinoco. At the final concert of this workshop in July 2019, the Gulbenkian Orchestra and baritone Tiago Matos, under the baton of Pedro Neves, premiered his work 5 Variações do Desassossego. In addition to the Gulbenkian Orchestra, Carlos Lopes has worked with Portuguese ensembles such as the Porto Symphony Orchestra and the Remix Ensemble Casa da Música. He studied Piano and Composition at the Escola Superior de Música e Artes do Espetáculo do Porto and has taken part in workshops with renowned personalities such as Peter Rundel, Helmut Lachenmann, Harrison Birtwistle, Philippe Manoury and the Mosaik Ensemble in collaboration with Luís Antunes Pena, and João Pedro Oliveira, among others. Presently, Carlos Lopes is studying for a master’s degree in Contemporary Music Conducting at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne, where he works with Susanne Blumenthal.

The Immersive Festival 2025, an initiative of the DME Project, will take place from March 20 to 23 at Lisboa Incomum. This annual event is dedicated to electroacoustic music and takes full advantage of the dome-shaped sound systems of the Lisboa Incomum space, offering a unique immersive auditory experience. This year’s edition strongly focuses on Portuguese music, with several Portuguese composers invited to present acousmatic works throughout the festival. The programme, which is still being updated, will include concerts, roundtable discussions, and seminars featuring Annette Vande Gorne, Elizabeth Anderson, João Pedro Oliveira, and Mario Mary. An installation will also be showcasing selected pieces from the Call for Music launched by the DME Project.

The Lajes do Pico Municipality and the Lajes do Pico Choral Group, in partnership with the Portuguese Music Research and Information Centre – MIC.PT promote the 5th Manuel Emílio Porto National Composition Prize. Manuel Emílio Porto was a fundamental and artistically extraordinary figure in the musical and choral universe of the Azores. In this sense, the Lajes do Pico Municipality has taken the initiative to organise this competition to encourage the creation of new works for the choir and, simultaneously, to valorise Portuguese language. The competition is directed at Portuguese composers who reside or do not reside in Portugal and foreign composers who have resided in Portugal for more than two years. There are two categories, Mixed Choir and White Voices, and the jury is composed of Christopher Bochmann, Jorge Matta, and Hildeberto Peixoto. The deadline for submitting works is April 6, 2025.

The applications for the 8th edition of the Accordion Composition Prize, an initiative by the Folefest Association, are open until July 18. This competition aims to promote and encourage contemporary classical music creation for accordion, contributing to this repertoire’s qualitative and quantitative development. The Prize’s dedicatees are Portuguese composers, or those residing in Portugal, of any age. The application works (for accordion solo or accordion with electronica) must be unedited. The prize’s organisers reserve the right to realise the premieres of the awarded works. The prize’s jury comprises Amílcar Vasques-Dias (composer), Ângela da Ponte (composer) and Paulo Jorge Ferreira (accordionist/ composer and jury president).

With the aim to encourage the creation and diffusion of new acousmatic/ electroacoustic works, Miso Music Portugal promotes and organises the 26th International Electroacoustic Composition Competition – Música Viva 2025. The deadline for the works’ submission is July 31, 2025 (11h59 p.m., Lisbon time) and the results will be announced on October 31, 2025. The presentation of the winning work, diffused via the Miso Music Portugal’s Loudspeaker Orchestra, will occur in December, 2025, in the context of the Short Circuit Festival in Lisbon. The jury of the 26th International Electroacoustic Composition Competition – Música Viva 2025 will be announced shortly.

In November the MIC.PT published on the YouTube Channel two new In the 1st Person Interviews (in Portuguese) with the composers Diogo da Costa Ferreira and Luís Neto da Costa. The musicologist and journalist Pedro Boléo conducted these two interviews recorded in 2023 at the O’culto da Ajuda in Lisbon.
Presently the MIC.PT YouTube Channel contains 35 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 almost 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.