Simantra Grupo de Percussão + Luís Figueiredo
Guest: Tiago Manuel Soares [adufe]

This project is the result of a partnership between Simantra Percussion Group and the Pianist and Composer Luís Figueiredo. A unique work that will allow the public a new vision of the traditional Portuguese songbook and the rediscovery of Traditional Portuguese music. The concert includes songs from several Portuguese regions, from Trás-os-Montes to the Algarve, and from Beira Alta, Beira Baixa and Alentejo. Work songs, novels, lullabies and other genres, as well as popular music by José Afonso, Fausto Bordalo Dias and Sérgio Godinho. The great challenge of this project is to communicate the collective references we have of Portuguese traditional and popular music, while at the same time building pieces with an idiomatic language of erudite percussion. It combines written and improvised music, uses resources associated with writing for a big band, and a timbrical vocabulary that results from the exploration of the countless possibilities offered by the universe of percussion. Harmonically, an approach easily identifiable with jazz is latent. This desire, now realized, promotes the appreciation of the rich Portuguese musical culture, crossing the vectors of various musical practices.

Credits:

Simantra Grupo de Percussão:
Andrés Pérez, Leandro Teixeira, Luiz Ferreira, Ricardo Monteiro: percussion
Luís Figueiredo: piano & arrangements
Tiago Manuel Soares: adufe

Simantra Percussion Group

The Simantra Percussion Group was born out of the need to organize a group of studies and interpretive practices aimed at performing written music for percussion in the 20th and 21st centuries. Functioning as an artistic laboratory, it also aims at the interaction of different artistic expressions with contemporary music. Its mission is to enhance and perform the Portuguese and foreign percussive repertoire, performing premieres, first auditions and commissioning works. Over these 11 years of activity, the group had the opportunity to play in several national and international festivals, such as Guimarães 2012 - European Capital of Culture, Spring Festival, Autumn Festivals, Cistermusica, Musicalvão, Tomarimbando, Patagonia International Percussion Festival (ARG), Villahermosa International Festival of Marimbists and Percussionists (MEX) or IPEW 19 (CRO). They accompanied several international soloists such as Kuniko Kato (JAP), Katarzyna Mycka (POL), Ching Chen Lin (TWA), Ludwig Albert (BEL) or Mark Ford (USA). Premiered and commissioned works by Evgueni Zoudilkine, Hugo Correia, Carlos Alberto Augusto, Nuno Leal or Jorge Salgueiro. Internationally awarded, the group won first place at CIMCA 2011 - superior category.

linktr.ee/simantragp

Luis Figeiredo

Luís Figueiredo is a pianist, composer, arranger and a music producer. He was born in Coimbra in 1979. He studied piano at the Coimbra Music Conservatory and later at the University of Aveiro and the Hot Clube de Portugal, in Lisbon. He studied with Vitali Dotsenko, Mário Laginha, António Chagas Rosa and Filipe Melo, among others. He released his first author album in 2010 (Manhã, JACC Records). He worked and/or recorded with Cristina Branco, Bruno Pedroso, Carlos Bica, André Fernandes, Luísa Sobral, Alexandre Frazão, Reinier Baas, João Moreira, Ana Bacalhau, Mário Delgado, Bernardo Moreira, David Binney, João Hasselberg, Perico Sambeat, Mário Laginha , Ricardo Toscano, Eduardo Raon, Rita Maria, Diogo Duque, Mário Franco, Carlos Barretto, Jorge Moniz, Gisela João and Jeffery Davis, among many others. He has worked with Orquestra Filarmonia das Beiras, Orquestra Clássica do Sul, Orquestra XXI, Hr Frankfurt «Rundfunk Big Band (DE), Het Gelders Orkester (NL), in addition to several chamber music ensembles. He was the arranger of the winning song of the Eurovision Song Contest 2017, “Amar Pelos Dois”, and was also the composer of the original soundtrack for the 2018 edition of the same festival. Luís Figueiredo holds a PhD in Music from the University of Aveiro, where he worked until 2019 as a Guest Assistant Professor in the jazz area.

linktr.ee/luisfigueiredomusic

Tiago Manuel Soares

Born in 1989 in Porto. He completed the interpretation course at the ACE in 2007 and began his training as a musician in 2003, in a traditional Galician percussion course with Maria Xosé Lopez Vilar and in 2019 he finished a degree in classical percussion, at the University of Minho, with Nuno Aroso. He held several masterclasses with big names on the international scene such as Trilok Gurtu, Yshai Afterman, Pandit Kishore Banerjee, Filippo Lattanzi, Mark Braafhart among many others. His main musical motivation lies in Portuguese rhythms and instruments. Fascinated by this richness of heritage, he gives equal importance to the vast legacy left to us, as well as to the construction of new approaches, where the study in the erudite strand and the knowledge of different cultures of the world helped him to open new horizons and possibilities. As a result of this symbiosis between different universes, he premiered, in recital, four pieces (by the composers Fernando Lapa and ngela da Ponte), interpreting works written purposely for himself and strongly inspired by the traditional portuguese songbook; one of these works, "Ensaio sobre Cantos IV", by ngela da Ponte, was one of the first two pieces for adufe and electronics to be created and edited. As a trainer, he teaches at the Limina school (contemporary percussion research center, under the direction of percussionist Nuno Aroso) and at the Cardo-Amarelo school (traditional music school). This year he is doing research for a book, which will be published with the support of DGARTES, about the musical culture of the Zés Pereiras between Douro and Minho. So far, he has published 20 albums and highlights his participation with the groups/artists Mário Lúcio e os Kriols, Gisela João, Viola Popular, Manuel Maio, Ensemble Portingaloise, Maria Monda, Retimbrar, Projeto Cardo, Pé na Terra, Toque de Caixa , Gambuzinos, Senza, Orchestra of the University of Minho and Orchestra Without Borders. ​He has performed in several countries all over Europe ( Portugal, France, Germany, Belgium, Serbia, Croatia, Poland, Slovenia, Spain), in Africa (South Africa, Reunion Islands, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Cape Verde and Morocco), Asia (China, India, Dubai) and Oceania (East Timor).

www.tiagomanuelsoares.com