"The Invisible Musician"

Catia Matos | DOZE, August 2015

(...) "I had a quintet, but after a certain point - I studied piano and guitar - I spent more time with my own compositional experiences, than actually practicing. Slowly I realised what I was really interested in. Studying an instrument is something quite violent, and it became clear my obsessions lied somewhere else. Nevertheless, the process of composing is also quite painful. Everyday I come to work on the tube thinking 'what am I doing here again?' But I suppose it´s inevitable - I don´t know how to do anything else, really.(...)

I´m hugely curious about everything that surrounds me, mostly of people. I try to be as open as possible to what´s happening around me. I like to make my work as autobiographical as possible, which is hard sometimes, because music has such technical demands. But to connect it to my own hesitations, obsessions or personal yearnings is a way of creating a narrower bridge between what I am and what I do."

Today, at 38, Vasco Mendonça is referred to as one of most promising names in composition on the international scene. Even with the natural obstacles to his profession, the artist has been standing out internationally, with pieces such as Boys of Summer (2012) and The House Taken Over (2013). "The contemporary composer is an invisible figure. Doesn´t exist in terms of media exposition.(...) Work has to be pursued on an european level."(...)