The new work by Ângela da Ponte, Oracles from Shiraz (2026), will premiere on October 3 at the Castelo Branco Centre for Contem­porary Culture, as part of the 20th Síntese Festival. The programme for this concert, whose theme is The Urgency of Peace, will be performed by the Síntese – Contemporary Music Group. According to the organisers, this year’s festival holds special significance — throughout two months, from October to November, the fes­tival will celebrate its two decades dedicated to contem­porary music. Meanwhile, Ângela da Ponte stated, in an interview with MIC.PT in January 2024, that in contemporary music, ‘invention leads to research and vice versa’. ‘They feed off each other,’ emphasises the composer (published by MIC.PT), adding that ‘many creators think their art is not re­search, but that is not true. There is always an element of research, how­ever small it may be’.

The premiere of a new work by Ângela Lopes, entitled Melodias – Vozes de Santa Maria, for youth orchestra, youth choir and electroacoustic ensemble, will take place in October — on the 25th, more precisely — at Europarque, a conference and events centre located in San­ta Maria da Feira. The concert, which forms part of the 49th Paços de Brandão International Music Festival, will feature the 3eFes Orchestra, a youth orchestra made up of pupils from the three music schools in the municipality of Santa Maria da Feira: the Paços de Brandão Music Academy, the Santa Maria da Feira Music Academy and the Terras de Santa Maria Music Conservatoire. The new work by Ângela Lopes (a composer published by MIC.PT) will open the con­cert, whose theme is Broadway & Cinema in Concert – the 3eFes Orchestra invites Sofia Escobar and Ricardo Afonso. The composition was written specifically for this occasion.

The concert version of the opera Os Dias Levantados, by the composer António Pinho Vargas (published by MIC.PT), will be performed at the Coliseu Porto Ageas on October 7. Dedicated to the April 25 (1974) revolution, the opera Os Dias Levantados, with music by António Pinho Vargas and libretto by Manuel Gusmão, premiered at the São Carlos National Theatre in Lisbon, in 1998. According to the composer himself, April 25 ‘was marvellous and unfor­gettable’ and, in composing the opera, he sought ‘to cham­pion imperfection and freedom in the creative process’. The cast of this São Carlos National Theatre production, includes a group of renowned soloists — Rui Vieira (countertenor), Eduarda Melo (soprano), Jorge Vaz de Carvalho (baritone), Marco Alves dos Santos (tenor), José Corvelo (baritone), João Miguel Queirós (tenor), Sara Braga Simões (soprano), Sérgio Martins (tenor), Luís Rodrigues (baritone), João Oliveira (bass), Carlos Pedro Santos (baritone) and Sílvia Sequeira (soprano); as well as musical direction by conduc­tor Pedro Amaral and the participation of the Portuguese Symphony Orchestra and the São Carlos National Theatre Choir, whose principal conductor is Giampaolo Vessella.

The work Sete momentos para um agora (2026) by António de Sousa Dias (a composer published by MIC.PT) will have its premiere on October 3 at the Contemporary Culture Centre in Castelo Branco, in the framework of the Síntese Festival. This work for saxophone, accordion, soprano, two violins, viola and cello was com­missioned by the Síntese – Contemporary Music Group. Later in the month, more specifically on October 29, at the Palácio do Sobralinho in Vila Franca de Xira, the concert–performance entitled CIDADE X will have its premiere. The music for the project was composed by António de Sousa Dias, who is also responsible for its direction and the real­isation of the electronics part. This concert-performance is a production by the Inestética – Cultural Association for New Ideas, and the presentations on the stage of the Palácio do Sobralinho will run until November 15. The concert–perfor­mance’s artistic team also features Alexandre Lyra Leite and Rita Leite (artistic direction), Ricardo Cabaça (text), Vítor Hugo Costa (video), Philippe Trovão (saxophone), Francisco Cipriano (percussion) and Emídio Buchinho (electric guitar and electronics).

The premiere of the new work, Celebration (2026) for orchestra, by Carlos Caires, will take place on October 8 at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon. ‘Commissioned by the Gulbenkian Foundation to mark its 70th anniversary’, explains the composer (published by MIC.PT) in the programme notes, ‘Celebration grew out of a challenge set by Fredrik Andersson, who suggested I write a short piece exploring speed, brilliance and festivity. I de­cided to take the proposal literally: I composed a piece last­ing around six and a half minutes, structured precisely into three sections with those names.” The work will be per­formed by the Gulbenkian Orchestra, conducted by Andrey Boreyko, and presented in the Foundation’s Grand Audi­torium not only on the 8th, but also the following day, in a second concert. Then, on October 10, another Carlos Caires’ work, Limiar (2001), for clarinet and electronics, will be per­formed by clarinettist Catarina Crespo as part of the Imersivo 2026 Festival, an initiative of the DME Project, which will take place at Lisboa Incomum.

The ACT – CONCERT by musician and composer Diogo Alvim (published by MIC.PT) will take place on October 17 at the Carpin­tarias de São Lázaro in Lisbon. Exploring different spatial and communicative re­lationships and drawing on the multi-channel set-up of the Actos de Lingua installation, this concert builds on the di­verse sound materials used in this work by Carlos M. Oliveira and James Newitt, with original music by Diogo Alvim. The multi-channel video and sound installation Actos de Lingua, which inaugurated on September 4, is open to the public at the Carpintarias de São Lázaro until October 18. In this work, seven people rehearse conversations across languages, the difference between which lies in the difference between their bodies. Carlos M. Oliveira and James Newitt combine their practices of choreography and moving image, respectively, to portray the friction and bodily expression that occur in com­munication between people. These are acts of translation in which the meaning of what is said is conveyed when it is transformed.

In October, Hugo Vasco Reis (a composer pub­lished by MIC.PT) will participate in various events in Portugal. On the 3rd, in Castelo Branco, as part of the Síntese Festival, the composer’s new albums, Metáforas and Stillness, will get their release. Both feature his chamber music works, performed by: Síntese – GMC, Collective Lovemusic, Duo Nada Contra, QQContem­po­râneo, Borealis Ensemble, Lisbon Contemporary Music Group, Una Corda Ensemble and RePercussion Trio. Be­tween the 4th and 9th, the composer will be in residence with violist Trevor McTait at Lisboa Incomum. There, as part of the Festival Imersivo, his new work Re-Memory I for viola and electronics — commissioned by the DME Project — will have its premiere. On October 17, in Cas­telo Branco, at the Síntese Festival, his work Becoming for violin, viola, cello and percussion — commissioned by the GMCL — will also be premiered. The same piece will be per­formed on the 29th at the Teatro Independente, as part of the CROMA Festival. Also worth highlighting are the composer’s recent releases: Demora, with Drumming GP, and Ténue (viola, percussion and electronics), as part of the Sonic Figures Project.

Tomorrow’s Next Bliss (2026) is the title of the new work by composer Igor C. Silva (published by MIC.PT), for improvisers, electronics and orchestra. The world premiere of the work will take place on October 16 at the Baarsporthalle in Donaueschingen, Germany, in the frame­work of the Donaueschinger Musiktage festival. The concert, featuring Susana Santos Silva (trumpet), Igor C. Silva (electronics), the SWR Experimentalstudio and the SWR Symphonie­orchester conducted by Brad Lubman, and also including music by Stefan Prins, Hannah Kendall and Natasha Barrett, offers a response to the following question: ‘How can the experience of our shaken world be grasped through music?’ Another work by Igor C. Silva, Terminus from 2009 and composed for viola and electronics, will be per­formed by violist Trevor McTait and Hugo Vasco Reis (elec­tronics), in a concert taking place on October 9 at Lisboa Incomum, during the 2026 Immersive Festival. ‘This piece’, explains the composer in the pro­gramme notes, ‘represents the end of everything we know. It is a way of expressing the colours and feelings associated with all cycles that come to an end.’

This month, Jaime Reis will take part in various events in Portugal, Austria and Brazil. On October 2 and 3, at the Bing Bang Festival occurring at the CCB in Lisbon, the composer (published by MIC.PT) and the violinist Beatriz Costa will moderate the installation Corpos Sonoros – Para Ouvir e Participar. On October 4, his ac­ousmatic piece, Corpos Sonoros II: Filigrana Árida (2026), will pre­miere in Austria at a concert organised by the Annette Vande Gorne Foundation during the Echoes Around Me 2026 festival at the Funkhaus in Vienna. The same work, as well as his piece for viola and electronics, Fluxus, Transitional Flow (2013), will be performed at the Festival Imersivo 2026, which will take place from October 9 to 11 at Lisboa Inco­mum. On October 12, his work Fluxus, pas trop haut dans le ciel (2017) will be per­formed as part of the São Paulo Inter­national Electroacoustic Music Biennial; and on the 17th, the piece Estudo de Densidades IV (2026), for didactic orchestra and electronics, will be performed by the Orquestra Ligeira de Gouveia at the Casa da Cultura de Seia.

As part of the release of his new monographic album of electroacoustic music and soundscape composition, entitled Permiotic: coa­lescing scenes, the com­poser João Castro Pinto (published by MIC.PT) will embark on a tour in the United States of America. The tour will begin on October 20 with a concert at Main Drag Music in New York, and will also include stops in New Haven, Washington D.C. and Boston. The album Permiotic: coalescing scenes is released by the US label Flag Day Recordings, and its official release will take place during the tour on a date to be an­nounced. As part of this initiative, João Castro Pinto will perform, both solo and in collaboration other artists, the works featured on the album, extensively (re)working them within an improvi­sational context. ‘My music,’ said João Castro Pinto in the 2020 interview realised by MIC.PT, ‘has structural connections with soundscape composition, exper­imental music in gen­eral, and noise. Nevertheless, my com­positional approach is heterodox, drawing on a broad range of references.’

The composer João Pedro Oliveira has been honoured with several awards for his work. As part of the award he re­ceived from the Fromm Music Foundation (USA), he was commis­sioned to write a piece for bass clarinet and chamber en­semble, to be performed by the Tempo Ensemble in 2027. His work Inquietação, commissioned by the Fajões Sym­phonic Band, won first prize at the Alfonso Perri Altomare competition (Italy). Inspired by Ferreira de Castro’s novel, A Selva, the work will have its Portuguese premiere in December. Furthermore, the work Timshel (2007) won first prize in the competition organised by the 11th Festival of Electroacoustic Music at the Catholic University of Chile. João Pedro Oliveira was one of three composers to receive an award in the SYMPHORIA competition, organised by the AMA – Art and Architecture association. The prize includes a commission for an electro­acoustic work with visuals for a planetarium in Italy. Finally, the composer (published by MIC.PT) was one of the three winners of the Underscore Call for Scores with the piece Improvisação based on a text by Augusto de Campos, and also of the Spark 2 Project, organised by the Vim En­semble. This latter award includes a commission for a work to be premiered next year, during the month of February.

The work Rasgar o tempo (2026), for soprano, cello and electronics, by Mariana Vieira (a composer pub­lished by MIC.PT) will be performed on October 17 at the Esposende Municipal Auditorium, as part of another performance of Corpo Que Canta, a project by MUSICAMERA Produções. With artistic direction and vocals by Nataša Šibalić, chore­ography by Nélia Pinheiro, projections by Nuno Mika, lighting by Anabela Gaspar, cello by Maria Nabeiro, and dance by Rafaela Nunes and Sara Gomes, Corpo Que Canta is a multi­dis­ci­plinary performance that explores and questions the body and its surroundings, its some­times dysfunctional, urban and mechanistic nature, in a liberating dialogue between the sen­sations and the human condition. The starting point for this project is Philippe Manoury’s work En Echo, with poems by Emmanuel Hocquard, for soprano and live electronics. On October 24, Mariana Vieira will lead a workshop on the theme Listening, Recording, Creating – pro­posals for a pedagogy of electroacoustics, as part of the 20th APEM National Meeting, which will take place at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon. The same event will also feature a workshop by the composer Manuel Brásio (also published by MIC.PT) — While We Listen to Things.

In October, two works by Miguel Azguime (a com­poser published by MIC.PT) will be performed in Por­tugal and Spain. The first, entitled Dedans-Dehors (2018) and written for viola and electronics, forms part of the programme for the concert by Trevor McTait (viola) and Hugo Vasco Reis (electronics), which will take place as part of the Festival Imersivo 2026 at Lisboa Incomum on October 9. ‘This piece,’ says Miguel Azguime, ‘explores a duality in the musical character of the viola — on the one hand, exuberant, energetic and abrupt; on the other, delicate, intimate and subtle’. The other work by Miguel Azguime, the 2008 string quartet Le Feu Qui Dort, will be performed by the Miso String Quartet — Pedro Lopes (violin), César Nogueira (violin), Joana Cipriano (viola) and Luís André Ferreira (cello) — on October 31, as part of the Vertixe Festival in Vigo. In addi­tion, on the 4th at Estação das Artes in Santa Clara/Sabóia (Odemira), Miguel Azguime will perform the role of a speaker in the context of the Diz-Concerto, with the Sond'Ar-te Elec­tric Ensemble conducted by Pedro Neves. The concert programme will include works by Daniel Martinho, João Madureira, Pedro Rebelo, Rui Penha and Sofia Sousa Rocha.

Ópera no elevador is a production developed as part of the re:opera project, with music by the com­poser Sofia Sosua Rocha (published by MIC.PT), a libretto by Edward Ayres de Abreu and Tatiana Bina, and staging by Manoel Candeias. In this new work, four char­acters cross paths in a shopping centre lift in a Portuguese-Brazilian encounter. Amidst de­sires to go up, go down or uncertain destinations, a breakdown forces the group to commu­nicate or pass the time making important calls whilst waiting for the technician Ícaro Ascensão. Conducted by Rita Castro Blanco and with artistic direction by Joaquim Pereira, the cast com­prises Sara Braga Simões, Lilian Raquel, Mariana Fabião and Nuno Dias. The music will be performed by the Braga Sinfonietta, and the presentations of Ópera no elevador occur on October 21 and 23, respectively, at the Theatro Circo in Braga and at the Casa das Artes in Vila Nova de Famalicão. In addition, Sofia Sousa Rocha’s work Fala do velho do Restelo ao astronauta, based on José Saramago’s poem, will be presented as part of the Diz-Concerto series, featuring Sond'Ar-te, Miguel Azguime (speaker) and Pedro Neves (conductor). The concert will occur on the 4th at Estação das Artes (Odemira).

The Portuguese Music Research and Information Centre (MIC.PT) announces the list of authors and researchers whose papers have been selected for the 4th Meeting on Music, Technology and Research, in alphabetical order: Ângela da Ponte, Cláudio de Pina, Francesco Mariano, João Coimbra, Luam Nunes, Luís Neto da Costa, Marta Domingues, Pedro Rebelo and Yuanyan Kay He. The selected papers fall within the theme of the 4th MMTR, which pro­vides a fo­rum for critical reflection and the sharing of research in the fields of contemporary music creation, performance, music theory and technology. The 4th MMTR will place particular emphasis on the practices of spatialisation, electroacoustics and sound diffusion via loudspeaker systems, taking place in conjunction with Espaços de Escuta, a series of concerts dedicated to electroacoustic music and the exploration of the Miso Music Portugal Loudspeaker Orchestra. This year’s key­note speaker will be António Ferreira, a winner of several competitions, composer of electroacoustic music, and consultant and expert in noise pollution and bio­acoustics; the event will take place on December 11 at O’culto da Ajuda in Lisbon.

The New Music Review Lounge has published a new article by the journalist and musicologist Pedro Boléo, entitled The Old New For the First Time — a Discovery from Constança Capdeville. The piece reviews the concert by the Miso String Quartet, which took place on September 22 at O’culto da Ajuda in Lisbon, and during which it was possible to hear, for the first time, a composition by Constança Capdeville from 1965 — Concertino for string quartet —, rediscovered by António de Sousa Dias. The programme also featured works by Miguel Azguime and Steve Reich.

MPMP Património Musical Vivo announces the eighth edition of the Musa Prize, created with the aim of recognising excellence in contemporary musical composition within the Western classical tradition, whilst promoting the Portuguese language as a vehicle for expression. In 2026, the poet in focus is Alexandre O’Neill. The works entered into the competition must be unpublished and take Alexandre O’Neill’s poetry as their departure point. They must be composed for voice (high or low, of any gender) and another instrument, and have a maximum duration of 10 minutes. The 2026 Musa Prize is open to composers of all ages and nationalities, and its jury consists of Carlos Caires (chair), Eduardo Luís Patriarca and Luís Duarte. Entries must be submitted by January 31, 2027.

In March, the MIC.PT published on its YouTube Channel one new In the 1st Person Interview (in Portuguese) with the composer João Pedro Oliveira. The musicologist and journalist Pedro Boléo conducted this interview recorded in 2024, in Lisbon, at O’culto da Ajuda.
Presently the MIC.PT YouTube Channel contains 38 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 Invention and Research radio broadcasts, produced by the MIC.PT and Miso Music Portugal for the RTP 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 over 20 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.