Does music unite people and cultures?
Of course, the music unites the people. How many dates didn’t start playing in a band, orchestra, pop group or choir?
Or still watching a concert?How many friendships did not start studying music or watching concerts or even buying a simple CD? Many are not true?
Like all group activities, music is not an isolated and individual act. It is only so at certain times when studying music or composing as is my case.But even so, me and all of us who dedicate ourselves to this music work for others. And the more, the better.
Which musician do you admire the most and why?
Johann Sebastian Bach! Because he is the only one I love all, but all the music.But there are many other musicians I admire too like Ennio Morricone, Leonard Bernstein, Cage…
Live musicians, I have no preferences.
However, everyone I’ve been working with, whether it’s instrumentalists, singers or composers like Galan Trio, Ana Luisa Ramos, Rita Moldão and Catia Moreso singers, Thomas Bramel, Nikos Xanthoulis and Juan Pérez Ribes composers. I admire them a lot.
There are also other musicians, some famous not that I admire too much.
There is a saying in Greece that goes “Music is one, many are the musicians.”
How would you cope with this phrase?
The music is sound, rhythm, harmony, counterpoint, melody. We can sing it, play it, dance it or just listen to it. But if you play the bouzouki, a G is a G, as you play a traditional folk song or a Blues or a Symphony.
Many instrumentalists can play music, but a single singer can sing the same melody.
And all the people know it if it is played or sung. And, all the music is good, only we must find the place and the moment for the music.
Why music education is needed
Music education should be one of the main school subjects. She should accompany all children from cradle to university.
And it is not to train musicians or listeners, but better people, more democrats, smarter, hardworking, respectful and educated people.
Why did ancient Greece and Music play such a fundamental role in society and education?
Just look at our past to understand what we have to do in the future that begins today. For the sake of our young people and the world, music education is needed.
Is it luxury or need?
Music education is not a luxury. It is a necessity! To study music or have music education in our life it should be like health care or learning to read and write.
Music education leads you to a much healthier and happier life.
How can a parent discover their child’s talent in music?
Great question! I don’t know.
There are children whose musical talent only manifests itself much later. I have experience of this with my youngest son.
His musical talent only manifested in adolescence, around 12/13 years. Today is musician and professional music producer. Now, from an early age, he has always had intense music education, whether attending music education classes or attending concerts.
But there’s no formula for discovering anyone’s talent other than attending music lessons, trying to learn to play an instrument, singing in groups, and listening to a lot of music. And then they will be what they will, but they will always be good listeners.
Is music tradition taught through education today?
Unfortunately, it is. There will be true musical tradition only when musical knowledge and experiences are lived and felt like ours. If not, it will be nothing more than a strange and erudite way of passing music of oral tradition.
By this, I do not mean that it should not be written in the score, but your experience must be auditory and real.
Do you believe there are notable Greek musicians with musical training and knowledge?
I was only once in Greece in December 2017.
Apart from Theodorakis, Xenakis, and a few but excellent Greek musicians, he knew almost no one.
When I was in Greece, especially after my stay in Athens, I met and discovered excellent musicians like Star Wound and his more than excellent vocalist Konstantina Stavropoulou, Marina Kolovou cellist, Dimitra Triantafyllou and Babis Kar violinists, Petros Bouras pianist, Nikos Xanthoulis composer and the conductor Christos Kolovos.
What are your future music plans
My plans for the future is to have health to be able to compose, to do concerts and present my works, keep composing for all my friends and new friends who want and like what I do or composing for myself, summarizing, keep composing!
Resume
My name is Vasco M. N. Pereira, a native of Portugal and I’m a music professor, musician, composer and conductor.
My musical studies began at the age of eight, in Portugal and then continued in Spain. In 1996 I founded the Orquesta Luso-Española, which I conducted until 2006. It was comprised of young Portuguese and Spanish musicians, all of which were students of the Badajoz’ School of Music.
The orchestra had the following composition: two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, one trumpet and a number of strings. It’s vast repertoire ranged from Baroque to contemporary that appealed Greatly to the community.
In July of 2011 I conducted the Cameraʇta Iberica in a concert tribute to the Portuguese poetess Glória de Sant’Anna in Ovar, Portugal.
At this tribute, there were songs and poems presented of the poet’s, written for Cameraʇta Iberica . Notably: Mar (Sea), Mágoa (Hurt) and Asas (Wings), as well as their own arrangements of works by Tchailovsky, Bach, Beethoven and Bartok, written expressly for Cameraʇta Iberica.
I continue to conduct Cameraʇta Iberica in concert.This is a musical project to present my works and the works of my friends that I invite to compose for this ensemble.
The compositions are always unique. It’s a project that never has the same musicians or instruments.An important factor is this always has musicians from Portugal and Spain, at least one from each country. Cameraʇta Iberica began in 2011 and continued for one year.
I returned in 2016 with the presentation of my Stabat Mater in Elvas, Portugal.As a composer I’ve worked with numerous concert artists such as Rita D’Arcangelo and Luisa Sello, Italian flutists, Italian soprano Maria Laura Martorana, harpist Alexandra E. Selleri d’Italia, I Cinque Elementi Wind Ensemble of Italy, Galan Trio of Greece, Cuarteto de Clarinetes Vert of Spain, Brazilian soprano Ana Luisa Ramos, Quarteto de Clarinetas Omega of Brazil, French sopranos Sabine Steffan and Cécile Bonnet, Eric Fraj a French popular singer and Eric Taylor popular Brazilian singer and composer , Polish soprano Anna Emanuela Politalska, the Russian pianists Natalia Mogilevskaya, Elena Selezneva and Anna Sutyagina, the Portuguese sopranos Mónica Pais, Marina Pacheco and Rita Moldão and others. I wrote the first cycle of songs for soprano and a quartet of clarinets, a history of the music. The world premiere of the Four Songs for Soprano and Clarinet Quartet are dedicated to soprano María Velasco and the Clarinet Quartet Vert, songs performed by the artists themselves Saturday, November 28, 2015 in Carcaixent Valencia, Spain. It’s a cycle dedicated to Latin poetry, written in Portuguese, French, Spanish, Galician, Valencian and Brazilian. On April the 28th, 2017, the Clarinet Quartet Vert premiered my work Carnavalescas, dedicated to the Clarinet Quartet Vert. My work Terra De Mar (Land of Sea), which I wrote for a magnificent trio, the Galan Trio, formed by three excellent Greek musicians, Dimitra Triantafyllou, Marina Kolovou and Petros Bouras and be a part of their new album Switch. In 2018, I composed a Trio to Mandolina, Flute and Violin for the italian trio” Fiore d’Inverno”, Mediterranescas for the Paisians Spirit Tango. In 2019, I composed Ararat for Galan Trio, 5 Choirs on poetry by Victor Hugo Limón Mancilla, an opera Splintered Flashes for the german opera director Mrs. Martina Veh with libretto of Michael HerrscheI, a work for flute solo for the Swiss flutist Mrs. Myriam Hidber Dickinson – Breeze. I collaborate with the publishing house Music Vall, Edicions Musicals C.B. of Valencia, Spain, who publishes my works.There are four of my musical projects that are waiting to be processed and then presented to the public:
– Mar Falante (Por.) / La Mer Parlante (Fr.) (Talking Sea) . . . first cantata of the trilogy Cantoriana Maritima (Por.) / Chantorienne Maritime (Fr.), a Portuguese / French bilingual project. Including a libretto by Inez Andrade Paes, a poetess and Portuguese writter, who tells of two sailors, Vasco da Gama and Jean-Francois de La Pérouse. It’s composed for a soprano, a female choir, a narrator, electronic mastered sounds, two saxophones, one clarinet, one horn and a piano.Cantoriana Marítima / Chantorienne Maritime . . . a title name invented by myself, with no translation into English. The name is based on the French word ‘cantilène’, meaning a short epic poem and the Portuguese word ‘cantoria’, means a meeting of voices singing. It’s a trilogy of cantatas, which the first is Mar Falante, the second is Transparente Luva de Água (Transparent Water Glove) and the third is Flores de Acanto em Marfileno Lençol (Flowers of Acanthus in Ivory Sheet).Le Canzone di Sarastro . . . written in the four most widely spoken languages in Europe: Portuguese, French, Italian and Spanish. Composed specifically for the Italian soprano Maria Laura Martorana. This project was written for a soprano solo, “a capella”, electronically mastered sounds and with interaction from the public. It’s about two original poems; Castilla, by Gabino Alejandro Carriedo and Le Canzone di Sarastro, by Roberto Brancati; two traditional melodies, Milho Verde, Tarantella Napoletana and an aria from the opera Carmen, by Georges Bizet called L’amour est un oiseau rebelle.The Cycle of 7 Songs “7 canções para uma soprano” (7 songs for a soprano), dedicated to the Brazilian soprano Ana Luísa Ramos is about poems written in Portuguese and Brazilian. This cycle of songs is written for string quintet and piano.Stabat Mater was a hymn written about a Latin text of the XIII century, for soprano, mezzo-soprano or contralto, two violins, two altos and one cello. The first was on October 28, 2016, in the Portuguese city of Elvas.
A video of this first performance can be viewed on https://youtu.be/dp8sTO6WIIs with the Portuguese soprano Rita Moldão and mezzo-soprano Cátia Moreso.Also in the works, I have a musical project being prepared for a soprano and orchestra, not as the composer, but as the orchestral director.
The project is called Mozart and His Contemporaries (Portuguese João de Sousa Carvalho, 1745 – 1798 and the French Chevalier de Saint-Georges 1745 – 1799). I count on and look forward to the participation of the Portuguese soprano Rita Moldão. The orchestra will be composed of professional musicians to be invited personally by myself, the musical director.
