Composer-in-Residence at Casa da Música in 2024

Vasco Mendonça has been announced as the Composer-in-Residence at Casa da Música Porto during the 2024 season. This prestigious position, whose past editions include some of the most important composers in activity, includes two large scale commissions, four world premieres, six concerts and a number of seminars.

New documentary series for MEZZO and medici.tv

Vasco Mendonça is developing a new documentary series commissioned by French channel MEZZO, streaming platform medici.tv and Portuguese public channel RTP2. The series, to be released in 2026, is written and directed by Mendonça, co-produced by Laranja Azul and Proudfoot TV, and aims to present the world of contemporary musical creation to a wider, non-specialist audience, featuring interviews with some of the most important artists in activity today.

CITY OF WIND awarded at Venice Biennale

‘City of Wind’, the debut feature film of award-winning Mongolian director Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir, with original music composed by Vasco Mendonça, has received the Orizzonti Award for Best Actor at La Biennale on September 2024. The film, an international co-production led by French company Aurora Films, has also been selected as Mongolia’s entry to the 96th Academy Awards.

French version of THE GIRL, THE HUNTER AND THE WOLF at Paris National Opera

Opéra National de Paris will premiere the French version of Mendonça´s children´s opera THE GIRL, THE HUNTER AND THE WOLF, premiered last October at the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam . This piece is a commission from DNO, co-produced by LOD Muziektheater, Teatro Municipal do Porto, Cineteatro Louletano and Lu.Ca - Teatro Luis de Camões. Both Dutch and Portuguese versions have been so far been touring in Ghent, Porto, Loulé and Lisbon to great acclaim.

Album PLAY OFF shortlisted for PLAY awards

Vasco Mendonça´s latest album PLAY OFF - performed by percussion group Drumming GP and released by label Holuzam - has been shortlisted for the PLAY awards, in the 'Best Classical Album' category.

World premiere of THE GIRL, THE HUNTER AND THE WOLF at Dutch National Opera

Mendonça´s new children´s opera, THE GIRL, THE HUNTER AND THE WOLF premieres October 15 at the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam - with a libretto by Gonçalo M. Tavares, directed by Inne Goris, and performed by Spectra Ensemble. This piece is a commission from DNO, co-produced by LOD Muziektheater, Teatro Municipal do Porto, Cineteatro Louletano and Lu.Ca - Teatro Luis de Camões. After the premiere, the Dutch version of the opera will then go performed in Ghent, while a Portuguese version will premiere December 9 in Teatro Municipal do Porto, with further dates in the 2022/2023 season in Funchal, Loulé and Lisbon.

European performances of A BOX OF DARKNESS WITH A BIRD IN ITS HEART

Throughout the 2022-2023 season, the violin piece A BOX OF DARKNESS WITH A BIRD IN ITS HEART will be extensively performed throughout Europe, including venues such as ElbPhilharmonie Hamburg, BOZAR Brussels, B:Music Birmingham, Philharmonie de Paris, Mupa Budapest, among others. This piece was a co-commission of European Concert Hall Organization (ECHO), Casa da Música Porto and Philharmonie de Paris, for ECHO's Rising Stars laurate Diana Tishchenko.

New CD for voice and percussion by Drumming GP

In November, Porto-based percussion group Drumming GP will feature in a portrait CD of Vasco Mendonça´s music. Titled PLAY OFF and released by lisbon-based label Holuzam, this album is the outcome of the composer´s artistic residence with the ensemble in 2019/2020, and displays several solo and chamber commissions - including a piece for voice and percussion featuring South African countertenor Stephen Diaz.

ARTE film and tour of ONE OF FOUR PERIODS IN TIME

Throughout the 2022-2022 Season, ONE OF FOUR PERIODS IN TIME (ELLIPSIS), choreographer Tania Carvalho's new piece featuring stage music by Mendonça will be travelling to Italy, The Netherlands, France, Germany and Israel in an extensive European tour. This piece was commissioned by the Ballet National de Marseille and premiered in March 2021.

ONE OF FOUR PERIODS IN TIME (ELLIPSIS) has also been filmed by french/german TV Channel ARTE and is available to watch on streaming until March 2023.

Artistic direction of Encontros Sonoros Atlânticos

The second edition of Encontros Sonoros Atlânticos, a music festival in Azores and Lisboa curated by Vasco Mendonça that turns the spotlight onto contemporary Portuguese creation, will take place between July and September 2022. This festival was created and is promoted by Associação Francisco de Lacerda, with the purpose of promoting Portuguese music, and features some of the most talented Portuguese musicians.

This year's festival also includes the first edition of the Francisco de Lacerda Composition Prize, the single largest composition competition in Portugal. With a money prize of 7500 euros, it features a jury of highly accomplished composers which include US-based Brazilian Felipe Lara and  Portuguese Andreia Pinto Correia .

ONE OF FOUR PERIODS IN TIME

On March 31st, new stage music by Mendonça will premiere in a new commission by the Ballet National de Marseille to coreographer Tânia Carvalho, ONE OF FOUR PERIODS IN TIME (ELLIPSIS). After Marseille, the production will be presented at the Theatre du Chatelêt, in Paris.

A BOX OF DARKNESS WITH A BIRD IN ITS HEART

On October 25th, A BOX OF DARKNESS WITH A BIRD IN ITS HEART for violin solo, will premiere at Festspielhaus Baden-Baden by Ukrainian violinist Diana Tischenko. This piece is a co-commission of the Philharmonie de Paris and Casa da Música, as a part of the European Concert Hall Organisation's (ECHO) Rising Stars initiative. After the premiere in Baden-Baden, the piece will be performed in some of the most prestigious European venues, such as Het Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Barbican in London and Elbphilharmonie Hamburg.

Orchestral portrait CD released on NAXOS

A new CD dedicated to Vasco Mendonça´s orchestral music will be released in November 2019 by international label NAXOS. This orchestral portrait CD - generously supported by the ROLEX Institute, and co-produced by the Gulbenkian Foundation - will feature American conductor Benjamin Schwartz leading the Gulbenkian Orchestra, French pianist Roger Muraro, and will include the piano concerto STEP RIGHT UP (premiered in June 2018) plus two other orchestral pieces, GROUP TOGETHER, AVOID SPEECH (2012) and UNANSWERABLE LIGHT (2016, rev. 2017)

Watch here a short documentary on the recording sessions

"National Sawdust announces second season"

Michael Cooper | The New York Times

National Sawdust, the experimental performance space that opened in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, last fall and quickly became a vital part of New York’s new music scene, said Monday that its second season would feature a roster of guest programmers, 30 newly commissioned works and the start of an online arts journal.(...) Musical highlights include a celebration of the composer Philip Glass at 80; a 12-hour performance of John Zorn’s “Bagatelles”; a new series called Womanproducer looking at how women create sonic worlds; the world premiere of Juliet Palmer’s a cappella opera “Sweat”; and the American premiere of Vasco Mendonça’s “The House Taken Over,” a co-production with the Manhattan School of Music and the Festival d’Aix en Provence.(...)