NOVA Contemporary Music Meeting
7 TO 9 MAY 2025
Berna Avenue Campus
NOVA UNIVERSITY, LISBON
CONCERT PROGRAM
CONCERT PROGRAM
Isabel Pires – ombres (2006)
for piano
Duration: approx. 14 minutes
There are moments when the lights fade.
What was once presence becomes absence, and in place of clarity, a
dense fog sets in — made of silence and shadow.
Ombres emerged from within that space, an inner landscape shaped
by abrupt gestures and broken fragments, as if the sound itself were
trying to embody a nameless restlessness.
There are impulses on the verge of violence, brief but intense
movements, as if the piano had become an extension of a body
struggling against the weight of overwhelming feelings.
And yet, there is still a flicker of light between these breaks: light:
Delicate melodic lines, ephemeral harmonic sequences that suggest
a kind of comfort – as if the memory of brightness has stubbornly
remained in the darkness.
This is not a story.
It is a state of mind. A transition.
A reflection in sound of a time that is held in suspension.
John Zorn – Merlin (2015)
for trumpet
Duration: approx. 7 minutes
Composer, saxophonist, and a central figure in the New York avant-
garde, John Zorn (b. 1953) presents Merlin (2015), a work of striking
intensity and technical complexity. The piece is part of the
album There is No More Firmament, which reflects Zorn’s deep
fascination with mysticism, the occult, and transcendence.
In Merlin, the interplay between musical notation and free
improvisation creates a deliberate ambiguity between what is
written and what is improvised — a signature element of Zorn’s
aesthetic. This is further enriched by the integration of free jazz
elements and rigorously notated passages.
The performer is challenged to use a wide range of extended
techniques: circular breathing, glissandi, slaps, pedal tones,
multiphonics, noise textures, and split tones.
Maka Virsaladze – Prayer (2016)
for piano
Duration: approx. 5 minutes
This piece was composed for a concert dedicated to Visions de
l’Amen by Olivier Messiaen, reflected in its rich color palette,
contrasting timbres, singular harmonic language, and free allusions
to Messiaen’s modes of limited transposition.
Beyond traditional piano technique, the performer must execute
glissandi on the piano strings, use their voice, and incorporate a
recording (of a choral work with the same name by the composer)
in the final bars.
Rhythmic patterns, overlapping sonic layers with different speeds,
and dissonances evoke the Russian bell tradition, while repeated
notes and flexible chant-like rhythms reflect Orthodox liturgical
prayer. The pianist recites the prayer in Georgian:
“Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us.”
The work ends with a coda the composer describes as “the
movement of the human soul before death.”
Vuk Kulenović – Hilandarska zvona (1992)
for piano
Duration: approx. 7 minutes
The title of this work means The Bells of Hilandar. Hilandar is a
Serbian Orthodox monastery located on Mount Athos, a monastic
community in Greece exclusively inhabited by male Orthodox
monasteries from various national traditions. It is a significant
spiritual center for the Orthodox Christian world.
Composed a year after the beginning of the wars that led to the
breakup of Yugoslavia, this piece — structured in three distinct
movements — is not dark, but rather luminous, full of energy and
elevation. It functions primarily as an onomatopoeic evocation of
bells — specifically, those of this particular monastery — perhaps
reflecting a form of escape from the horrors of war, anchored in
hope and Orthodox faith.
Luciano Berio – Sequenza X (1984)
for trumpet and piano resonances
Duration: approx. 15 minutes
Sequenza X, composed by Luciano Berio in 1984, is one of the most
iconic and demanding works in the contemporary repertoire for solo
trumpet. It belongs to the celebrated Sequenze series, begun in
1958, in which Berio explores the expressive and technical limits of
different instruments.
In this tenth Sequenza, Berio explores the timbral possibilities of the
trumpet, whose sound is enhanced by the resonances of a grand
piano. This is achieved through held keys and the sustain pedal —
without an actual piano part. The effect is intensified by the
trumpeter physically turning toward the piano strings to activate
specific resonances.
Jazz influences are clearly present through the use of doodle
tonguing, flutter-tonguing, and expressive phrasing.
In the composer’s own words: “(…) the trumpet here is used directly,
without ‘makeup,’ revealing its purest sonic essence.”
PERFORMERS’ BIOGRAPHIES
Cláudio da Silva
Cláudio da Silva is a professional musician specializing in
contemporary trumpet performance. He has performed both solo
and with ensembles in cities such as Sydney, Hong Kong, New York,
Maputo, Paris, and Berlin.
He is currently a doctoral candidate in Musical Arts at the Faculty of
Social Sciences and Humanities, NOVA University Lisbon, and a
member of CESEM. He holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in
Musical Arts from the Lisbon School of Music. During his master’s
studies, he worked with David Burt in Lisbon and Christopher
Deacon in London, a professor at the Guildhall School of Music &
Drama.
In addition to his career as a trumpeter, he has been involved in the
musical direction of international contemporary music productions.
In 2023, he was part of the artistic direction team and served as a
musical consultant for Lulu by Alban Berg, in a production by
Theater an der Wien and Wiener Festwochen, featuring the Vienna
Radio Symphony Orchestra, with stage direction by Marlene
Monteiro Freitas and conductor Maxime Pascal.
In 2022, he performed the same role for a production of Arnold
Schönberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, premiered at Wiener Festwochen,
featuring Klangforum Chamber Orchestra Wien, also under the
artistic direction of Monteiro Freitas and conductor Ingo
Metzmacher.
In 2019, he founded the international ensemble The Window
Trumpet Quartet. Since 2017, he has been touring internationally
with the piece The Bacchae by Marlene Monteiro Freitas, performing
works by contemporary composers such as Luciano Berio. The show
has been presented over one hundred times worldwide.
In 2017, he was principal trumpet on the European tour of Gilberto
Gil with the Nova Ópera de Lisboa Orchestra. He has also performed
in contemporary dance works such as Two Maybe More by Marco
Martins, with Sofia Dias and Vítor Roriz, and in theatrical
productions such as The Mother by Bertolt Brecht, directed by
Joaquim Benite (2010).
In parallel, he has performed in jazz projects including the L.A.
Banda Larga Jazz Orchestra, the Tora Tora Big Band, and the Hot
Clube de Portugal Jazz Orchestra. He has also recorded jazz albums
such as Entre Dimensões by João Capinha.
Throughout his training, he has attended some of the most
prestigious international courses in contemporary music, such as
the Stockhausen Concerts and Courses Kürten (Germany) and the
Center for Advanced Musical Studies at Chosen Vale (USA).
Taíssa Marchese
Taíssa Marchese (also known artistically as Taíssa Poliakova Cunha)
is a Portuguese-Russian pianist. She holds a Master’s degree in
Music from the University of Aveiro and is currently a doctoral
candidate in Piano Performance at the University of Évora, where she
also teaches Piano and Chamber Music.
As a soloist and chamber musician, Taíssa has received several
awards, performed at national and international festivals, and
appeared as a soloist with leading orchestras in Portugal, Brazil, and
Ukraine. She maintains an active artistic schedule, performing solo
recitals and participating in chamber music, opera, and theatre
projects.
Her repertoire is wide-ranging, with a particular focus on Romantic
music, 20th-century and contemporary works, as well as
Portuguese composers.
Her discography includes a chamber music album featuring works
by Portuguese composers dedicated to Beethoven (2022), and a
recent release in tribute to Portuguese women pianists, which was
nominated for the Portuguese Music Awards (Play Awards) in 2024.
