Back in 2006, I wrote a solo clarinet piece for Ruben Jacinto, who was studying at the same music school as me. In December 2019 we gathered at Montijo to record it. Editing is now almost finished and the score is being revised.
A new piece for solo piano has been commissioned by emerging pianist Marta Menezes. The work is to become an encore to Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto, celebrating the composer’s 250th birthday.
Artist André Guedes invited me for a collaboration while developing his Formas Antigas, Novas Circunstâncias (2019) installation, which features a sound piece developed with singers Marco Alves dos Santos (tenor) and Nuno Dias (bass). I composed the score and later recorded the singers at Goela. The piece inaugurated on the 21st of November 2019 at Galeria Vera Cortês.
“A tangential approximation to the operatic recitative format, the libretto of the piece introduces a dialogue between two masculine voices: one of them is, possibly, that of an urban design historian detailing the urban and social transformations undergone by Italian cities during the second half of the 20th century, and the second possibly that of an archaeologist alluding to the historical processes that lead to the rise and downfall of the city of Troy.” (João Mourão and Luís Silva, exhibition leaflet)
Alexander Soares is a pianist I admire very much. We met at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama while we were both enrolled on the doctoral programme (DMus). I can never forget his amazing performance of Messiaen’s Des canyons aux étoiles… at the Milton Court Concert Hall. I’m very happy and lucky to be working with him towards a new set of piano etudes which I hope will be an important contribution to the solo piano repertoire. We’ve been testing ideas and I’ve been getting a lot of valuable feedback in terms of piano technique and idiomatic notation.
Below are some pictures of our first working session at LSO St. Luke’s. The London Symphony Orchestra staff has been immensely supportive and deserves a special thanks. This includes the excellent AV team at St. Luke’s which recorded the session.
