ARTE MINIMA is a proud partner of the project
Towards an Anthology of Portuguese Renaissance Music

Artistic Residency

Porto, 14th February – 28th July 2024

dir. Pedro Sousa Silva

Arte Minima and ESMAE are organising an extended artistic residency (5 months) to explore the music from Portuguese manuscripts and prints circa 1500-1700, the vast majority never performed in modern times. To that end, we are selected 5 musicians with previous experience in performing renaissance polyphony. The artists will receive circa 200h mentoring hours from prof. Pedro Sousa Silva (ca. 180h), prof. João Pedro d’Alvarenga (ca. 10h), and other researchers from CESEM.

The work will be conducted in 4 stages: 1. Introduction to the Aural Method (the non-formal learning method that will be used); 2. Individual and collective development of the Aural Method and exploration of repertoires; 3. Public presentations in Portuguese monuments; 4. Recording of at least 2 albums with unpublished music from Portuguese manuscripts and prints.

The Portuguese renaissance ensemble Arte Minima is a partner in the project, and artists will integrate the ensemble's activities scheduled for the period.

This project is funded by the European Union - Creative Europe program.

THE MENTORS

Pedro Sousa Silva (principal mentor)

Born in 1974, Pedro Sousa Silva studied the recorder with Pedro Couto Soares at Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa (1992-1996), Reine-Marie Verhagen at Utrecht Conservatory (1994) and Pedro Memesldorff at Civica Scuola di Musica di Milano (1996-2000). After musicology studies at Universidade Nova de Lisboa (1999-2000), where he was tutored by Manuel Pedro Ferreira, he obtained in 2010 the title of Doctor in Music at Universidade de Aveiro, with a thesis that discusses the interaction between practice and theory in the performance of renaissance polyphony.

As a musician, he has an intensive artistic career in the field of renaissance and baroque performance, having performed around 200 times, both as a recorder player and musical director, in countless venues and early music festivals in Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Netherlands and Brazil. He has collaborated with world renowned early- music musicians such as Amandine Beyer, Enrico Onofri, Riccardo Minasi, Jill Feldman and Laurence Cummings.

As a musical director and researcher, Pedro has been focused primarily on the rescue and promotion of Portuguese musical heritage from the 16th and 17th centuries. With his ensembles A Imagem da Melancolia and Arte Minima, Pedro was responsible for the first modern performance or recording of works by Pedro de Cristo, Estevão Lopes Morago, Manuel Rodrigues Coelho, Pedro da Esperança and Pedro de Araújo, as well as works by many anonymous composers (as most works from that period had an anonymous attribution).

Pedro has been a music teacher since 1992, teaching full time at ESMAE, where he is currently Coordinator Professor. He was jointly responsible for the creation of ESMAE’s Early Music Department in 2005 and responsible for the creation of the Post-Graduate Polyphonia course in 2018. Both as a recorder teacher and an expert in the performance of renaissance polyphony, he has been invited by some of the most prestigious music institutions to give lectures and masterclasses (including Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien, Joseph Haydn Konservatorium, Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel, Norges Musikkhøgskole, Akademie für Alte Musik Bremen, Hochschule für Musik Trossingen and Universidade Estadual de São Paulo).

Pedro is also an Integrated Researcher at CESEM, in the Early Music Studies group, where he is especially concerned with the dialogue between theory and practice in the renaissance.

João Pedro d’Alvarenga (historical musicology)

João Pedro d’Alvarenga is a Principal Researcher and Coordinator of the Early Music Studies Research Group of CESEM–Centre for the Study of the Sociology and Aesthetics of Music at Universidade NOVA de Lisboa and is also a Thematic Line Coordinator of IN2PAST– Associate Laboratory for Research and Innovation in Heritage, Arts, Sustainability and Territory. He served as Executive Secretary of the

Board of Directors of CESEM (2015-23). He was the commissioner for the establishment of the National Music Museum (1993-94), and was also in charge of the organisation of the Music Service at the National Library of Portugal, which he headed in 1991-97. He is currently leading the FCT-funded project Lost&Found: Recovering, Reconstituting, and Recreating Musical Fragments (c.1100-c.1600), PTDC/ART- PER/0902/2020, and is Co-PI for the project The Musical Manuscripts from the Monastery of Belém, EXPL/ART-PER/1031/2021. He has published extensively on Aquitanian-Iberian medieval chant sources and notation, Iberian polyphony and keyboard music from c.1500 to c.1750, including articles in top-rated musicological journals and chapters in books for reference publishers. He recently co-edited (with E. Rodríguez-García) The Anatomy of Iberian Polyphony around 1500 (Reichenberger, 2021).

ORGANIZATION

ESMAE-IPP

Arte Minima

CESEM-P.Porto

CESEM-UNL

Polyphonia Post Graduate

STAKEHOLDERS

Antena 2

Direcção Regional de Cultura do Norte

Museu Nacional da Música

Museu Nacional Frei Manuel do Cenáculo de Évora

Casa Museu Elysio de Moura

Museu Alberto Sampaio