António Chagas Rosa

António Chagas Rosa (born 1960) is a Portuguese composer of contemporary classical music, considered one of the leading figures of contemporary musical writing of his generation.

His output includes chamber operas, song-cycles and numerous works for chamber and symphony orchestras. His work has been played all over Europe as well as in Asia and America.

Biography

Born in Lisbon, he studied Piano at the Conservatório Nacional and History at the New University of Lisbon. From 1984 to 1987, with a scholarship from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation of Lisbon, Chagas Rosa studied Contemporary Piano and Chamber Music with Alexander Hrisanide at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam. Between 1987 and 1992, with a scholarship granted by the Portuguese government, he studied composition at the Rotterdams Conservatory under Klaas de Vries and Peter Jan Wagemans.

In The Netherlands, António Chagas Rosa worked as a repetiteur and assistant at the Dutch opera house, Het Muziektheater, and became a teacher of the opera class at the Sweelinck Conservatorium. Among other productions, he worked with Robert Wilson during for De Materie by Louis Andriessen, and with Oliver Knussen during the rehearsals of "Die Glückliche Hand", by Arnold Schönberg. As a pianist he took part in many of the concerts organized by the Gaudeamus and "The Unanswered Question" foundations. In 1989, being invited by the dance group Dansproductie of Amsterdam, he performed music by John Cage for prepared piano in many Dutch cities as well as in London, Mulhouse and Ghent.

In 1994, the ACARTE department of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation commissioned him with the composition of the chamber opera "Canticles for the remission of hunger", upon a libretto by the Portuguese writer Paulo Lages. Others commissioned works: International Music Festival of Macau, the Portuguese Radio (Antena 2), the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon, the Casa de Mateus Foundation, the Nederlands Kamerkoor, and many others.

His works have been performed in several modern music festivals in Portugal, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, the U.S.A., Macau and Hong-Kong, etc. In 1997 he represented Portugal in the Tribune Intérnationale des Compositeurs (UNESCO) in Paris with his concerto for piano and orchestra. During the 1998 edition of Wien Modern, the Austrian ensemble Klangforum premiered Moh (commissioned by the Portuguese festival Music in November); this piece was also performed in Spain (Ensems, Valencia) and Portugal ( Serralves hall, in Porto) by the Remix Ensemble, with Stefan Asbury as conductor.

In 1999 and 2002 he was member of the juri of the Premio Valentino Bucchi Competition for Composition in Rome. In 2000 his song cycle Non Altro for tenor, piano and electronics was premiered at the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, by Marcel Beekman and Hans Adolfsen. Several of his works are published in Portugal and the Netherlands (Fermata, Musicoteca, Donemus), and there are recordings of his Piano Sonata, Altro for piccolo and piano (Numérica, Port.), and of 4 Cartoons for prepared marimba (Deux Elles, UK).

António Chagas Rosa's latest opera - Melodias Estranhas - upon a libreto by the Dutch writer Gerrit Komrij, was the result of a joint commission made by the cities of Oporto and Rotterdam, European Capital of Culture in 2001. It tells three episodes of the life of the 16th century humanist philosopher Damião de Góis, student and friend of Erasmus of Rotterdam. Also a composer, he was accused by the Inquisition of writing inappropriate (polyfonic) music, imprisoned and later killed. The premiere of this opera took place at the Schouwburg of Rotterdam, as a joint production of Casa da Música (Oporto) and the Onafhankelijk Toneel of Rotterdam.

Some of his most recent works include composisitons for the Nederlands Kamerkoor of Amsterdam, the Contemporary Music Group of Lisbon, the Portuguese percussion group Drumming (musical ensemble), Ensemble Musicatreize of Marseilles and the National Orchestra of Porto Casa da Música.

Since 1996 António Chagas Rosa teaches Chamber Music at the University of Aveiro (Portugal), at the Department of Communication and Arts, where he obtained his PhD in 2006.

List of works

Published works

On CD:

External links

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