Portugal: Miso: May 2006 Report

Circuits Project: Linking Portuguese Music to the World

Portuguese New Music and Portuguese composers were until now mostly unknown outside Portugal. This condition has lasted for decades in our country and threatens to continue, since there is no governmental strategic plan concerning the internationalization of Portuguese music. The challenge that Miso Music Portugal and the Portuguese Music Information Centre face is to overturn such circumstances with the small financial resources available. Therefore, we envisaged the Circuits Project to battle against this Status Quo.

We have the versatility and motivation to establish such a rewarding and creative cross-artistic collaboration in an innovation process raised upon cultural enrichment of our world. We have idealized this as a project based on co-operation and exchange, and since its conception, our ideas received a strong and generous support from the British Council. Later on, others partners around Europe got involved. Currently, several presentations of the Circuits are scheduled and we have the certainty that more will be organized.

It is for us a privilege that the first production of the Circuits will be presented in Paris at "L'Itinéraire II de Nuit", and we are delighted that this initiative gathered the complicity of other institutions like the Gulbenkian Foundation and the Camões Institute.

— Paula de Castro Guimarães – Miso Music Portugal Director

Circuits Fosters a British-Portuguese Partnership

The British Council's music work attempts to update perceptions of the United Kingdom overseas and at the same time foster partnerships and valuable long-term friends. One of the areas where we can expect to make a difference is by encouraging the development of international inter-cultural musical collaboration and creative exchanges between the UK and other countries.

In 2004 we had a discussion with the extraordinarily creative Miguel Azguime, a formidable and inspiring advocate for an exciting, experimental, innovative strand of contemporary music making and we found that Miguel's projects aligned themselves closely to the British Council's interests. A project was conceived, a marriage of mutual interest achieved.

The Smith Quartet has the kind of international profile and commitment to dynamic forward-looking programming that makes them ideal partners for both the British Council and Miguel Azguime's vision. The ensemble's diverse range of repertoire and stimulating mix of the acoustic and electro-acoustic demonstrates its enthusiasm for exploring new artistic and stylistic directions. But perhaps most important is the musician's flexibility and willingness to establish fruitful creative cross-cultural collaborations in a spirit of generosity and co-operation.

In Circuits, such pooled values and expertise can only offer the promise of events that deliver much more than the sum of their parts.

— Paul Parkinson – Music Projects Manager – Performing Arts – British Council, London

Further International Collaborations Through Circuits

Paris – France
9 portuguese composers represented
Festival Itinéraire II de Nuit – Cité Internationale Universitaire
1 of April 2006
Co- Production Miso Music Portugal / Ensemble Itinéraire
Funded by: British Council
Supported by: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Instituto Camões, Ministério da Cultura / Instituto das Artes

Vilnius – Lithuania
Jauna Muzika Festival
21 and 22 of April 2006
Co- Production Miso Music Portugal / Festival Jauna Muzika & Lithuanian Composers' Union Funded by: British Council
Supported by: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Instituto Camões, Ministério da Cultura / Instituto das Artes

Madrid – Spain
5 portuguese composers represented
Centro Reina Sofia – CDMC
30 of October and 6 of November 2006
Co- Production Miso Music Portugal / Centro de la Difusion de la Musica Contemporanea (Ministerio de la Cultura)
Funded by: British Council
Supported by: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Instituto Camões, Ministério da Cultura / Instituto das Artes

For more information on Circuits, visit: www.misomusic.com/ingl/internatio/circuits.html.

International Musical Resources Online Database

Call for international Musical Resources to be included in the database of the Portuguese Music Information Centre and to be shown online at www.mic.pt
We accept written information, logos, images and quick-time videos.
Ask for technical specifications at mic@mic.pt, or visit: www.mic.pt.

Música Viva 2006 Competition

In order to encourage the creation of electro-acoustic music, Miso Music Portugal is organizing the 7th Música Viva Electro-acoustic Composition Competition 2006.
This competition is sponsored by the Ministry of Culture/Instituto das Artes

For further information – tel:+351.21.4575068; fax:+351.21.4587256; concurso@misomusic.com; www.misomusic.com/ingl/crea/comcomp/2006.html.