The World New Music Days 2025 (Lisbon–Porto–Lisbon) kick off on May 30. The festival, an initiative by the ISCM – International Society for Contemporary Music, is organised for the first time in Portugal by Miso Music, the ISCM Portuguese Section, and marks the organisation’s 40th anniversary. Running until June 7, it serves as a global platform for contemporary music, inviting audiences to reflect on the present time and explore the future. Under the theme Thirst for Change, the festival aims to inspire a rethinking of artistic creation’s role in a rapidly evolving world, calling for transformation and highlighting how music can awaken new perspectives on the urgent challenges facing our planet. The festival’s concerts will showcase a wide variety of contemporary music works from around the globe, with a significant focus on pieces by composers residing and working in Portugal. Among these are numerous composers published by the MIC.PT, such as Ângela da Ponte, Ângela Lopes, António de Sousa Dias, António Ferreira, António Pinho Vargas, Bruno Gabirro, Cândido Lima, Carlos Brito Dias, Carlos Marecos, Christopher Bochmann, Diogo Alvim, Eduardo Luís Patriarca, Fátima Fonte, Filipe Esteves, Francisco Ribeiro, Gerson Batista, Gonçalo Gato, Hugo Ribeiro, Hugo Vasco Reis, Isabel Soveral, Jaime Reis, João Madureira, João Pedro Oliveira, João Quinteiro, Jorge Peixinho, Mariana Vieira, Miguel Azguime, Paulo Ferreira-Lopes, Patrícia Sucena de Almeida, Ricardo Ribeiro, Rui Penha, and Sara Carvalho. The festival will also include works by other Portuguese composers, including André Ruíz, Carlos Garcia, Cláudio de Pina, Diana Andrashenko, Eva Aguilar, João Caldas, Luís Salgueiro, Luís Tinoco, Pedro Lima, Simão Costa, and Vasco Mendonça.
‘World New Music Days 2025 carry a very special meaning’, emphasises Miguel Azguime, artistic coordinator of the World New Music Days 2025. He continues, ‘The realisation of this dream is happening in a context of great artistic vitality in our country. Portuguese contemporary music has been gaining recognition for its creative proposals’ quality and diversity. Undoubtedly, Portugal today positions itself as one of Europe’s emerging hubs of contemporary musical creation. Therefore, the Portuguese edition of the World New Music Days festival is more than an achievement: it is a meeting point, a window to the world, and a celebration of music of research and invention as a future-forward musical language.’

Ângela Lopes (a composer published by the MIC.PT) will have two of her works performed in June. Firstly, one should highlight the inclusion of her work Reciclo-Recírculos – em forma de sanza (2019) in the World New Music Days 2025 festival. It will be presented on June 4 at O’culto da Ajuda in Lisbon. The audiovisual work is part of the Cinema for the Ear concert, which will feature the Miso Music Portugal Loudspeaker Orchestra. In the programme notes, the composer explains the meaning of the title of the work: ‘Recírculos symbolises the circular and repetitive character, as in a loop, and em forma de sanza in the subtitle is an allusion to the sound of the African instrument sanza.’ Through water sounds, the work creates movements synchronising with the musical composition. Then, on June 25, at the Regional Conservatory of Ponta Delgada, the percussionist Nuno Aroso will perform the work Trio for vibraphone and electronics – Paráfrase (2024) at the Azores Percussion Weekend.

The release of the new CD by António Pinho Vargas (a composer published by the MIC.PT) – Oscuro | Six Portraits of Pain – will occur on June 15 at Casa da Música. This new edition, by Artway Next, brings together live recordings of the premiere performances of both works. On the CD, the piece Oscuro (2022), written for orchestra, is performed by the Porto Symphony Orchestra with the conductor Pedro Neves. Six Portraits of Pain (2005), for cello and ensemble, features the cellist Anssi Karttunen, the Remix Ensemble, and the conductor Franck Ollu. Additionally, the documentary about António Pinho Vargas, directed by Adriana Romero, will also premiere on the same day. This brand new film offers a fresh perspective on the composer’s life and work. Additionally, in the context of the World New Music Days 2025, on June 4 at the São Luiz Municipal Theatre in Lisbon, the Komorebi Duo, with Camila Mandillo (soprano) and João Casimiro Almeida (piano), will perform António Pinho Vargas’s 2006 work, A Maior Tortura.

Two world premieres of two works by Cândido Lima (a composer published by MIC.PT) will occur in June. The premiere of the first piece, PARÁFRASE-sobre Lettera Amorosa de Claudio Monteverdi (2015), performed by pianist José Pedro Ribeiro, will occur on June 2 at the Centro Cultural de Belém in Lisbon as part of the Piano Marathon of the World New Music Days 2025 festival. Later in the month, on June 23, at the Teatro Municipal Sá de Miranda in Viana do Castelo, the ARTEAM Symphony Orchestra, conducted by maestro Javier Viceiro, will give the first performance of MÚSICA AQUÁTICA – lendas de Rio a mar, a piece composed by Cândido Lima in several stages between August 2024 and January/ February 2025.MÚSICA AQUÁTICA – lendas de Rio a mar was commissioned by the Viana do Castelo City Council, originating from the idea of a ‘need for a contemporary work in Viana’, and is part of the cultural programme for Viana do Castelo – Capital of Culture of the Atlantic Axis 2025.

The oratorio O Mar sem Fim (2024) by Daniel Schvetz (a composer published by MIC.PT) will have its performance on June 7 at the Casa de Mateus Foundation in Vila Real. The work was inspired by Os Lusíadas, marking the 500th anniversary of the birth of Luís Vaz de Camões and the 200th anniversary of the death of D. José Maria, 5th Morgado de Mateus. The performance, to be conducted by Daniel Schvetz, will feature Susana Gaspar as soprano soloist, the Olisipo Vocal Group (Armando Possante, Carlos Monteiro, Lucinda Gerhardt, Elsa Cortez) and an instrumental ensemble comprised of Mariana Santos (lute/ theorbo/ baroque guitar), António Carrilho (recorder), Salomé Pais Matos (harp), Catherine Strynckx (cello), Jeremy Lake (cello) and Mário Delgado (electric guitar). As the programme notes, ‘O Mar sem Fim is a project that oscillates between oratorio and cantata, exploring the multiple readings and interpretations that Camões’s Os Lusíadas continue to inspire’.

On June 3 at the CCB in Lisbon, the composer Diogo Alvim (published by the MIC.PT) will have his work Music for Sax and Boxes (2012-2025) presented at the World New Music Days 2025, the prestigious international festival for contemporary music, promoted by the ISCM and taking place in Portugal for the first time this year. Music for Sax and Boxes will be presented in a revised version by the renowned saxophonist Henrique Portovedo. The programme also includes other saxophone pieces by Christopher Bochmann and Paulo Ferreira-Lopes (also composers published by the MIC.PT). At the end of the month, on June 26, Diogo Alvim will also participate in the Cidade Pre0cupada festival, organised by Oficinas do Convento in Montemor-o-Novo. ‘In its 16th edition, Cidade Pre0cupada invites new audiences to experience an event that transforms spaces, challenges the perspective and proposes new ways of thinking about the territory,’ says the festival’s website. Diogo Alvim will be responsible for live electronics at one of these meetings in collaboration with the Piropeep collective, a group developing improvised performances with Super8 film projections.

In June, works by Fernando C. Lapa (a composer published by the MIC.PT) will be performed in Portugal and Europe, including the premiere of claridades (2025) for guitar duo. The world premiere will occur on the 13th at the Casa da Música Jorge Peixinho in Montijo, and the performers will be Pedro Baptista and Titus Isfan from the Euterpe Guitar Duo. This concert, dedicated exclusively to the premiere of new Portuguese music for guitar duo, will be part of the 3rd International Tejo Festival. Then, two movements from Quatro versos de olhar suspenso – A paz das águas and Do miradouro – will have presentations in France and United Kingdom as part of the ...Do Miradouro project. The performers will be Diogo Ferreira (flute) and Joana Resende (piano) in concerts at St James's Church, Sussex Gardens, in London (June 17) and at the Maison du Portugal, in Paris (the 18th). These concerts promote Portuguese music to a new international audience by presenting works by contemporary Portuguese composers such as Paulo Bastos, Fernando C. Lapa and Miguel de Oliveira Carvalho, alongside significant 20th-century figures, such as Luiz Costa and Joly Braga Santos.

The composer Jaime Reis (published by the MIC.PT) will have an intense schedule throughout June. He will participate in the World New Music Days 2025, held for the first time in Portugal. In this sense, his work Fluxus – Pas trop haut dans le ciel will be performed at an acousmatic music concert at O’culto da Ajuda in Lisbon on the 6th. Additionally, the piece untitled.paula. will be presented on June 14 at the Gil Vicente Cultural Centre in Sardoal and on June 23 at Lisboa Incomum as part of the O Meu Nome é Ópera recital. Another work, emoliente. mavioso., will have its presentation by the Borealis Ensemble touring on June 5, 6, 8 and 13 in the following locations: Aveiro, Riba d’Ave, Vila Real, and Salamanca (Spain). Lastly, on June 3 and July 1, the DME Project will present the Electroacoustic Community Performance, with events held at the Casa de Santa Isabel and the Casa da Cultura de Seia. This community-based initiative involves the Casa de Santa Isabel residents and students from the Collegium Musicum – Conservatory of Music in Seia. There, one of the students will perform a clarinet-and-electronics excerpt from Jaime Reis opera Bartolomeu, o Voador.

João Pedro Oliveira’s monographic CD City Walk, featuring performances by percussionist Nuno Aroso, was released on May 16 as part of the 5th edition of Reencontros de Música Contemporânea in Aveiro. This first release by Arte no Tempo on its label covers a decade of production, bringing together five works resulting from the collaboration between João Pedro Oliveira (a composer published by MIC.PT) and Nuno Aroso: from Vox Sum Vitae (2011) to In the House of the Glass King (2021), not forgetting the title work, commissioned by Arte no Tempo for the performance A Fog Machine e outros poemas para o teu regresso. Alongside Nuno Aroso, four young musicians from Clamat – colectivo variável participate in this album: Bernardo Cruz, Henrique Ramos, João Pedro Lourenço, and Vitória do Bem. Additionally, in June, the work Time Spell (2004) for clarinet and electronics by João Pedro Oliveira will be performed by Nuno Pinto on the 1st at Casa da Música in Porto as part of the World New Music Days 2025 festival, an initiative of the International Society for Contemporary Music, organised for the first time in Portugal by Miso Music.

Madrugada II (2024-2025) is the title of the new work for string orchestra by João Quinteiro (a composer published by MIC.PT), whose premiere will occur as part of the World New Music Days 2025 on June 4 at the São Luiz Theatre in Lisbon. At this concert, the Camerata Alma Mater, conducted by Pedro Neves, will also perform contemporary music from various parts of the world, including New Zealand, South Korea, Lithuania, Sweden, and Iceland. João Quinteiro writes in the programme note: ‘Madrugada II is a work for string orchestra which forms part of the satellite composition cycle of the opera Regresso. These ten pieces are inspired by José Mário Silva’s poetry collection with the same title’. Then, on June 23 at Mise-En_Place in New York (USA), the Ensemble Mise-En will perform João Quinteiro’s Canção III Pairs: à propos de l’intériorité (2023) during the Mise-En Music Festival.

The premiere of the work Palestina (2024) by the composer Manuel Pedro Ferreira (published by the MIC.PT), performed by the Chamber Choir of the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa, will occur on June 21. The concert’s venue will be the German Evangelical Church at Praça de Espanha in Lisbon, and the concert will offer a moment of artistic and spiritual reflection on an intensely current and poignant subject. Manuel Pedro Ferreira’s work Palestina is based on a bass evoking the name of the suffering country. At the same time, the female voices chant a prolonged ‘ai’, expressing pain and lamentation. At the centre of the piece, the tenor/ baritone soloist performs a melodic line inspired by paraphrases from the Book of Job, interwoven with lines from the poem by Refaat Alareer, a Palestinian writer and teacher who was murdered in bombings in Gaza on December 6 2023.

Miso Ensemble’s opera A Laugh to Cry, with Miguel Azguime’s music and libretto and Paula Azguime’s staging and sound diffusion, will be presented on June 2 at O’culto da Ajuda in Lisbon, during the World New Music Days 2025. The opera’s performers will be Camila Mandillo (soprano), Andrea Conangla (soprano), André Henriques (bass-baritone), Miguel Azguime (speaker), Jade Mandillo (speaker), and the Sond’Ar-te Electric Ensemble under the baton of Pedro Neves. The opera’s technical production team includes notable contributions from Andre Bartetzki, responsible for technological and live electronics direction, and Perseu Mandillo, overseeing VFX and 3D photography. As the programme note highlights, ‘A Laugh to Cry is a scream, a warning, a new world, a utopia. This New Op-Era is conceived as an initiatory journey – a passage through the darkness of night towards the light of dawn, led by the dream of those who dare to dream’. Furthermore, during the World New Music Days 2025, Miguel Azguime will also participate in the Thirst for Change colloquium on June 5 at O’culto da Ajuda. There he will give a presentation titled Listening to the Earth: Spectral Music, A Laugh to Cry and Ecological Activism.

On June 17 and 18, Diogo Ferreira (flute) and Joana Resende (piano) will perform the work Cinco Quadros para Alice (2009) by the composer Paulo Bastos (published by the MIC.PT) as part of the ...Do Miradouro project. With performances planned at St. James’s Church, Sussex Gardens, in London (the 17th) and the Maison du Portugal in Paris (the 18th), these concerts bring Portuguese music to a new international audience. In addition to Paulo Bastos’s work, the project includes compositions by contemporary Portuguese authors such as Fernando C. Lapa and Miguel de Oliveira Carvalho and key figures of the 20th century such as Luiz Costa and Joly Braga Santos. The project’s artistic concept is summarised in the accompanying note: ‘The diversity of our repertoire in Miradouro reflects the versatility of our musical approach, which aims to fuse the classical tradition with contemporary expressions, offering the audience a rich and varied experience that is both challenging and accessible, without ever forgetting the children. For example, Paulo Bastos’s work Cinco Quadros para Alice appeals to the true imagination, without images and words, only with titles and sounds that come together in space or time’.

The Cadavre Exquis Call is open until June 15 as part of the Mind the Gap project, supported by the European Union’s Creative Europe programme, dedicated to promoting and recognising works by women composers of all ages in Europe. Led by PIANO AND CO (France), Miso Music Portugal (Portugal), Sansusī (Latvia), and Pro Progressione (Hungary), this initiative aims to create a space where the work of these composers receives the recognition it deserves. The call is open to women and non-binary composers of any age who are nationals or residents of France, Portugal, Latvia, or Hungary. Through this project, four composers (women and non-binary persons) will be invited to contribute to a collective musical work based on the Cadavre Exquis format. This work will be performed and recorded live in Lisbon, Portugal, in 2026 at O’culto da Ajuda, with another performance in 2027 in Budapest, Hungary, during the Transparent Sound New Music Festival.

Applications are now open for the 2nd Young Chamber Music Season, with concerts scheduled for November 2, 9, 16 and 23 at the O’culto da Ajuda in Lisbon. In this context, the jury composed of Nuno Pinto (clarinettist), Filipe Quaresma (cellist) and Miguel Azguime (composer) will select four chamber music groups for this Season. The concert programmes, lasting approximately 50 minutes, must include at least one Portuguese piece and one international piece, both from the 20th or 21st centuries. The deadline for submitting applications is June 30. The Young Chamber Music Season, a project by Miso Music Portugal and the Portuguese Association of Friends of Music, aims to foster chamber music by promoting and encouraging the performance of works by Portuguese composers and supporting young musicians in Portugal.

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 comprises Hans Tutschku, Manuella Blackburn and Miguel Azguime.

In April the MIC.PT published on the YouTube Channel one new In the 1st Person Interview (in Portuguese) with the composer Paulo Ferreira-Lopes. 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 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 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.