Sérgio Azevedo

Sérgio Azevedo (born 1968) is a Portuguese composer of contemporary classical music considered one of the most prolific and important composers of his generation in Portugal. He also writes about music.

Born in Coimbra, Portugal in 1968, he studied composition at the Academia de Amadores de Música (Lisbon) with composer Fernando Lopes-Graça, and finished his studies of composition at the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa, with Christopher Bochmann (a disciple of the mythic Nadia Boulanger) and Constança Capdeville with the highest classification (20/20). Azevedo followed several seminars at IRCAM and other institutions, and worked in short periods with composers like Emmanuel Nunes (at the Gulbenkian Foundation), Tristan Murail, Phillipe Manoury, Luca Francesconi, Mary Finsterer, Jorge Peixinho, Louis Andriessen and Simon Bainbridge. Azevedo won several prizes of composition, in Portugal and abroad (like the United Nations Prize), and his works have been played and commissioned regularly in several countries (Spain, France, United Kingdom, Austria, Germany, Bulgaria, Brasil, Colombia, Canada, USA, Italy, etc) by prestigious ensembles, soloists and conductors (Luca Pfaff, Pascal Roffé, Jürgen Bruns, Nikolai Lalov, Brian Schembri, Fabian Panisello, Bruno Belthoise, Aline Czerny, Lorraine Vaillancourt, Artur Pizarro, António Rosado, Miguel Borges Coelho, Anne Kaasa, Marc Foster, Jose Ramon Encinar, Brian Schembri, Ronald Corp, Galliard Ensemble, Proyecto Gerhard, Le Concert Impromptu, Remix Ensemble, Ensemble Télémaque, Plural Ensemble, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Kammersymphonie Berlin, etc), some of them being available in commercial CD's. Azevedo works frequently with schools and students, composing a great deal of didactic pieces, ranging from piano solo to small ensembles and school orchestras, and also with children's choirs, colaborating mainly with conductor Joana Raposo. He is also a prolific writer on music, and published two books: "A Invenção dos Sons" (Caminho, Lisbon 1999) and "Olga Prats - An Extraordinary Piano" (Bizâncio, Lisbon 2007), and has contributed articles to many publications, such as "The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians", and works for other prestigious magazines and CD labels, like Naxos. He was also author of broadcastings at RDP - Antena 2 and member of the CESEM, Center for Aesthetic and Music Studies from 1993 to 2007. In 2007 Azevedo begun his doctorate degree at Minho University with Elisa Lessa and Christopher Bochmann. Azevedo has composed more than 100 works to date, mostly orchestral and chamber music pieces, in several forms, and his music is performed regularly in Portugal and abroad. He is, since 1993, a teacher at the Lisbon Superior School of Music. His music is published by AVA - Musical Editions (www.editions-ava.com).

Main works (selective list)

Aspetto (wind quintet) 1996 Atlas' Journey (15 instruments) 1998 Keep Going (orchestra) 1998Concerto para Dois Pianos e Orquestra (2 pianos & orchestra) 1999-2003 Concertino (piano & 14 instruments) 2001 Sequenza Ultima (oboe & 10 instruments) 2001Ariane dans son Labyrinthe (wind quintet & piano) 2004 La Vera Storia d'Ulisse in Mare (orchestra) 2005 Berliner Trio (clarinet, violoncello & piano) 2006 Concerto para Orquestra (orchestra) 2006 Sequenza Seconda (clarinet & 7 instruments) 2007Três Visões (flute, oboe, piano) 2008Saccadé (4 saxophones) 2008

External links

* [http://www.classical-composers.org/cgi-bin/ccd.cgi?comp=azevedo Classical Composers Database]
* [http://tonalatonal.blogspot.com Tonalatonal]
* [http://html.editorial-caminho.pt/show_autor__q1area_--_3Dcatalogo__--_3D_obj_--_3D32520__q236__q30__q41__q5.htm Caminho Publishers]
* [http://www.editions-ava.com/store/management_page/9 AVA - MUSICAL EDITIONS]
* [http://www.composers21.com/compdocs/azevedos.htm Composers21]
* [http://www.joanaraposomaestrina.blogspot.com Joana Raposo Conductor]