Composer, teacher and performer Daniel Martinho, who celebrates his 40th birthday in 2025, will be In Focus at MIC.PT in December. He completed his Composition degree at ESMAE in Porto, working with Carlos Guedes, Dimitris Andrikopoulos, Eugénio Amorim and Fernando C. Lapa. He also attended seminars and took private lessons with Klaas de Vries, Magnus Lindberg, Jonathan Harvey, Helmut Lachenmann, Vic Hoyland and Ricardo Climent. He went on to complete a Master’s degree in Composition and Music Theory at ESMAE. In 2010, he was the Young Composer in Residence at Casa da Música. His works have been commissioned by the Portuguese Symphonic Band, Sond’Ar-te, the MR SC & Wild Bones Gang ensemble and others. His music has been performed not only in Portugal, but also in the USA, Japan, China and Switzerland. Daniel Martinho is interested in the intersection between acoustic and electronic instruments, seeking an intelligible and emotional use of ambiguous familiarity and exploring unusual forms of sound creation. Recently, he has been developing his skills as an instrumentalist and composer, focusing his performances on real-time creation with a modular synthesiser. In December, don’t miss the In Focus section on MIC.PT, featuring a new interview with Daniel Martinho.

On December 30, the work Dissolves me into geometrics (2025) by António Pinho Vargas (a composer published by MIC.PT) will be premiered at the Museu do Oriente in Lisbon. This piece is for percussion septet and will be performed by the following young musicians: Carolina Gomes, Diogo Pinto, Francisco Franca, Raúl Eira, Leonardo Simões, Pedro Arrieche and Paulo Dias, under the guidance of Nuno Aroso. The concert will feature students from Portuguese higher education institutions offering a Percussion course and will also include premieres of works by Bernardo Lima and Nádia Carvalho. It is part of the 6th Itinerant Percussion Festival, an initiative of the Arte no Tempo association. In interview with MIC.PT in 2021, António Pinho Vargas: ‘I have never sought to explain my works from a technical point of view. There is a group of composers who analyse and describe methods and techniques, and another group who prefer to talk about their intentions. I belong to the latter group. Each work is a “thing” that we were able to create, a kind of craft that can ultimately produce a meaning that transcends us. It becomes something that either exists or doesn’t, and in the latter cases I remove it from the catalogue. The process is contingent, mysterious and sometimes uncontrollable...’

The solo-piano work Remember by composer Christopher Bochmann (published by MIC.PT) will premiere in December. It was commissioned by Impacto Ímpar as part of the celebrations marking the 250th anniversary of João Domingos Bomtempo’s birth. The piece will be performed on the 8th, at the Culture Centre in Lagos. This premiere is part of the 4th edition of the Infante D. Henrique Music Festival and Competition, an event dedicated to promoting classical and contemporary music creation. The performer of Remember will be the pianist Rem Urasin. With this premiere, Christopher Bochmann nurtures the dialogue between tradition and contemporaneity, contributing to the commemoration of Bomptempo — one of the most significant figures in the history of Portuguese music, recognised as a symphonic music pioneer. The programme of the Lagos concert will also include the premieres of six works by Algarve composers, performed by Rui Mourinho (guitar), Pablo Lapidusas (piano) and Vasco Ramalho (marimba); by Ricardo Martins (Portuguese guitar), Vítor Bacalhau (electric guitar) and Bruno Martins (double bass); by Mariana Picado (soprano), Francisco Brazão (tenor) and Valter Fralda (piano); by João Cunha (violin) and Gonçalo Duarte (guitar).

In December, Fernando C. Lapa (a composer published by mic.pt), will have works performed in Turkey and in Portugal. Claridades, a piece for guitar duo written this year, will be performed on the 6th at the Yaşar Kemal Cultural Center in Ankara, the capital of Turkey, as part of the 4th International Ankara Guitar Festival. Claridades will be performed by the Euterpe Guitar Duo formed by guitarists Pedro Lopes Baptista and Titus Isfan, to whom Fernando C. Lapa dedicated the composition. This concert will be followed by the presentation of Margato son, a work based on a traditional Mirandese melody. The performance, on the 13th, at the Laboratório de Artes — Teatro Vista Alegre in Ílhavo, will be held by the percussionist Tiago Soares, also presenting works by Ângela da Ponte (a composer published by MIC.PT) and Filipe Fernandes. Then, on the 20th, Para um Natal português, by Fernando C. Lapa, based on traditional Portuguese melodies, will be presented in the Grand Auditorium of the Vila Real Theater. It will be performed by the choir and the orchestra of the Regional Conservatory of the city, conducted by Valter Palma. On the same day, in the Cathedral of Porto, the Cathedral Choir and the Maia Classical Orchestra, conducted by Tiago Ferreira, will perform the work Natal português, composed by Fernando C. Lapa, together with Carlos Azevedo, Fernando Valente and Eugénio Amorim.

Two acousmatic works by composers António Ferreira and Filipe Esteves (published by MIC.PT) are part of the programme for the Short-Circuit 2025 — Lisbon Electronic Music Festival, which will take place at O’culto da Ajuda on December 5 and 6. By the former composer, the Short-Circuit audience will have the opportunity to hear a new version of the 2009 composition Les Barricades Mystérieuses, now with the Reload 2025 subtitle, which António Ferreira will diffuse via the Miso Music Portugal’s Loudspeaker Orchestra on December 5. The following day, it will be the turn of Filipe Esteves, who, also through the Loudspeaker Orchestra, will spatialise the world premiere of his work entitled Rio imaginário II. With the participation of Portuguese and foreign musicians, namely daRocha/Strassmüller, Manuella Blackburn, Cláudio de Pina, Carla Santana & Carlos Santos and Hans Tutschku, Short-Circuit 2025 celebrates contemporary creation through duos with instruments and live electronics and acousmatic works spatialised by the composers themselves via the emblematic MMP Loudspeaker Orchestra. The programme also includes the presentation of the award-winning work at the 26th Música Viva 2025 International Electroacoustic Composition Competition, and the release of the CD Audiotopia by Carla Santana & Carlos Santos, under the Miso Records label.

Isabel Soveral and Patrícia Sucena de Almeida, both composers published by MIC.PT, were selected as part of the Open Call — Cadavre Exquis, launched in the context of the European project Mind the Gap, which brings together eight female composers from France, Portugal, Latvia and Hungary to jointly create a musical Exquisite Corpse. The starting point for this process of shared creation is the arrangement of Lili Boulanger’s D’un jardin clair (1914) by the young French composer Lisa Heute. The composition process then develops as a creative chain: each composer writes the next 30 seconds based on the previous piece, without knowing the full composition. In addition to Isabel Soveral and Patrícia Sucena de Almeida, the following composers were selected to participate in this Cadavre Exquis: Gundega Šmite (Latvia), Anne Castex (France), Virág Anna Virág (Hungary), Alise Rancāne (Latvia), Daphné Hejebri (France) and Abigél Varga (Hungary). The Mind the Gap project celebrates diversity and promotes gender equality in the creation of contemporary music. It is co-funded by the European Union’s Creative Europe programme, and is the result of an international consortium of contemporary music organisations led by Piano and Co. (France), in partnership with Miso Music Portugal, Sansusī (Latvia) and Pro Progressione (Hungary).

The composer Jaime Reis (published by MIC.PT) has a busy schedule in December, with concerts in Portugal and Belgium, as well as one of the most significant annual events of Projecto DME, the organisation he directs. On December 5, an acousmatic concert will be held at the Manoel de Oliveira Hall in Fafe as part of the Introductory Workshop on Electroacoustic Music, promoted by Projecto DME. The programme will feature two of Jaime Reis’s works: Fluxus, pas trop haut dans le ciel (2017) and Corpos Sonoros I: reencarnação (2024). On December 17, at the Le Senghor, in Brussels, Belgium, during the Fondation Annette Vande Gorne – Concert 3, Jaime Reis will diffuse his work Fluxus, Lift (2013). At the end of the month, as part of the 6th Itinerant Percussion Festival, an Arte no Tempo initiative, percussionist André Dias will perform Jaime Reis’s 2004-piece Reificação Espectral. The concert will be held on December 28 at the Lisbon School of Music. Finally, between December 11 and 14, Projecto DME will host one of its most notable annual events in Seia: the DME 2025 Festival. This event will bring together composers, performers, and researchers — including Diana Botelho Vieira, Marina Camponês, the RePercussion Trio, Beatriz Costa, Frederic Cardoso, among others — thereby reinforcing the festival’s position as a central platform for the creation and dissemination of contemporary music in Portugal.

This month, two percussion pieces by João Pedro Oliveira, a composer published by MIC.PT, will be presented in Seia and Lisbon. The first, titled Kairos (2025), will be performed by the RePercussion Trio as part of the Metatempo concert on December 14 during the DME 2025 Festival in Seia. As part of this programme, the trio will also perform Fragile Movements Towards Absence (2025) by Hugo Vasco Reis and Did We Speak Up? (2025) by Luís Antunes Pena (composers published by MIC.PT). Metatempo is ‘a provocation around the implications of time, or the perception of its passage, in the sequence of events associated with the climate crisis, in dialogue with its causes and cultural impacts’. Then, on December 27, the Lisbon School of Music will host one of the concerts of the 6th Itinerant Percussion Festival, an Arte no Tempo initiative. This event will feature a performance of João Pedro Oliveira’s Kinetic Energy (2020) by João Dias (marimba) and Nuno Aroso (vibraphone). At this concert, the audience will also have the opportunity to hear Trio for Vibraphone and Electronics — Paráfrase (2024) by Ângela Lopes (a composer published by MIC.PT), as well as pieces by José Alberto Gomes, Daiki Kato, Vasco Ramalho, and Keiko Abe.

The works String Quartet No. 1 (2023) by Mariana Vieira and TO_mbeau (2023) for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano by Carlos Lopes — both composers published by MIC.PT — are featured on the first CD by the ars ad hoc ensemble, which was founded within the Arte No Tempo structure in 2018. This new double album, published and released in November by neper music, showcases the first phase of the ensemble’s journey, bringing together pieces by seven composers. It pairs three renowned figures in contemporary music — Emmanuel Nunes, Gérard Grisey, and Beat Furrer — with four emerging Portuguese composers whose works were premiered by the ensemble. These composers include Mariana Vieira, Carlos Lopes, Pedro Berardinelli, and João Moreira. The album reflects the ensemble’s commitment to in-depth interpretations and forging close ties with composers, valuing artistic processes that transcend premieres. ars ad hoc is composed of Ricardo Carvalho (flute), Horácio Ferreira (clarinet), Diogo Coelho and Matilde Loureiro (violins), Ricardo Gaspar and Francisco Lourenço (violas), Gonçalo Lélis (cello) and João Casimiro Almeida (piano), with programming by Diana Ferreira.

The new 6-volume compilation album Obras Incompletas, under the Miso Records label, and featuring 23 pieces by Miguel Azguime (a composer published by MIC.PT) for various sets — ranging from solo instrument pieces to orchestral works created between 2001 and 2024 — will be released on December 16 at the São Luiz Municipal Theatre in Lisbon. At this release session, Clara Saleiro (flute) and Pedro Carneiro (marimba) will perform Paula and Miguel Azguime’s work Constelações, and Camila Mandillo (soprano) with João Casimiro Almeida (piano) will present two arias from the opera A Laugh to Cry. On this occasion, a commemorative book entitled Sentem Sem Som Cem Sons Sempre, celebrating the 40th anniversary of Miso Music Portugal, will also be released. The book revisits the history of Miso Music from 1985 to the present day. Finally, on December 19 and 20, the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra, conducted by Pedro Neves, will perform Illuminations, an orchestral piece composed by Miguel Azguime in 2016. The concerts will take place in the Auditorium of the Rectory of NOVA University Lisbon (Campolide Campus) and at the Estação das Artes in Santa Clara/Sabóia, respectively.

Composer Vítor Rua (published by the MIC.PT) has two significant events in his December agenda. On the 7th, the O’culto da Ajuda in Lisbon will host a video projection of the opera 16 Poemas Zen, with music, direction and conception by Vítor Rua. Composed for soprano, violin, double bass, guitar, piano, flute, clarinet, trombone and audiovisual devices, this work — developed since 1999 and premiered in 2023 — pays homage to Herberto Helder, drawing on his poetry and combining it with music, spoken text, staging and video. Then, on December 16, the Coletivo Phoebus presents the concert Os Nossos Anjos at the Salão Nobre do Edifício dos Congregados of the University of Minho in Braga. This concert will feature the world premiere of Vítor Rua’s new work, Quatro Mãos e Dois Pés Espelhados no Silêncio (2025), written for two guitars, a kick drum and a hi-hat. This piece is dedicated to the guitarists and performers Luís Miguel Leite and José Teixeira, who will give the first public execution of Quatro Mãos e Dois Pés Espelhados no Silêncio. The programme will also feature works by John Cage and Cornelius Cardew, as well as two other premieres by Paul Beaudoin and David Teixeira da Silva.

In November, Espaço Crítica para a Nova Música published two new texts (in Portuguese) by Pedro Boléo: A vitalidade de Christopher Bochmann and Misericórdia para a música contemporânea. In the first text, the author discusses two concerts that included, in their respective programmes, two premieres of works by Christopher Bochmann, a composer who is celebrating his 75th birthday this year: a concert by the Youth Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the composer himself, which took place at the São Luiz Theatre in Lisbon on October 23; and a concert by the Lisbon Contemporary Music Group, conducted by Vasco Pearce de Azevedo, which took place at O’culto da Ajuda, in Lisbon, on November 8. In the second text, Pedro Boléo focuses on the opening concert of the 37th Music Season in São Roque, in which the ECCE Choir, conducted by Paulo Lourenço, premiered two new compositions on November 13 at the Church of São Roque in Lisbon: one by Carlos Caires and the other by Sara Ross.

Presently the MIC.PT YouTube Channel contains 36 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 Music of Research & Invention 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.