A - The Navy Band

All of us associate the Navy Band to our military career’s most symbolic moments.

In our memory there also are present concerts and other musical presentations, which take the “adventurous sailors” all over the country, turning the Navy Band in one of the Navy’s ambassadors all over the country.

The Navy Band men and women do not embark, but are one of the Navy’s most visible faces and from those whose are “always the first on land and sea”.

A1 - The Band’s History

Over more than five hundred years of musical formations existence in the Armada, these ones suffered numerous alterations, since the designation to the number of elements which constitute them, turning the enumeration practically impossible.

In fact, the historic sources only are reasonably safe, under this matter since the first half of the XVIII century, and indicate that in August of 1740 it existed a band named “Charamela” in the Royal Armada.

On 3^rd April 1903, the Armada Sailor’s Band records, at the Sailors Corpus Barracks, in Alcântara, which is considered the first record produced in Portugal, a pretty rare historic and phonographic document. The cover contains the royal seal and the inscription “Offer to the King D. Carlos from the Maestro António Maria Chéu”. The record made by The Gramophone and Typewriter Ltd from London , pretended to celebrate the visit to Portugal of the King England Eduard VII, through the perpetuation of one of the most notorious musical works relative to the national identity , the “Cantos Populares Portuguezes n.º 2 ” of Rodriguez.

Fruit of the effort of renovation and dinamization carried out in the last years, the results reflect themselves into the great value and national and international visibility of its live actuations and constant CD`s record and edition. In fact, over the times various compositors of recognized merit and some of the best Portuguese instrumentalists have belonged and continue to appear in the Navy Band, many of whose with high education and an average age of 33 years. The future comes, because of that, impregnated with hope and determined will of perpetuate and dignify the country’s cultural legacy through music.

A2 - Values, Identity and Memory

Symbol of the Navy’s professionalism and cultural excellence

“ … And soon it began to sound four or five flutes … And the Capitão-mor ordered to play the trumpets, and we were dancing inside the boats, and also the Capitão-mor danced back with us from Vasco da Gama’s Diary.

Over more than fifty hundred years of musical formations existence in the Armada, these ones suffered numerous alterations, from the designation to the number of elements which constitute them, turning practically impossible one exhaustive numeration, also because of the reliable information´s manifestly absence.

In fact, the historical sources only are reasonably safe about this matter since the XVIII century ´s first half, and indicate that. On August of 1740, it existed in the Royal Armada a music named “Charamela”. It´s appearance coincides with one of the Portuguese music gold periods, in which the Queen D. Maria I Chamber´s Orchestra was only supplanted, in dimension and quality, by the Pope´s one. From the first maestro which it has historical memory, Caetano Tozzi, it is only known that he was Italian and musician of the Royal Chamber.

On 27^th November 1807, during the Napoleonic invasions, the Navy’s Royal Brigade Band accompanied D. João VI and the Royal Family on its withdrawal to Brazil. It has the Italian Pascoal Corvalini as regent. In 1821 when the sovereign returned to the reign, it only turned back two musicians, having the remaining been integrated in the Brazilian Armada, created by D. Pedro. In 1863, the Charanga, constituted by 27 executants and directed by Arthur Reinhardt, accompanied D. Fernando II to Bordeaux, aboard the “Mindelo” Corvette. Is of this monarch responsibility the maestro’s Mark Holzel came to Portugal, which passed to be responsible for the direction of 20 musicians of the Navy’s Battalion.

In 1922 the Armada’s Sailors band integrated the official voyage of the President António José de Almeida, aboard the “Porto” ship, to participate on the Brazilian Independence 1^st Centenary. They were realized diverse concerts at Rio de Janeiro, with resounding success of the public and critic, being chief the lieutenant commander Artur Fernandes Fão. During the 35 years of its regency (1920-1955) the Armada’s Sailor Band is mentioned in multiple Laws and Decree – Laws, which invocate diverse restructuring, including the designation, the composition, the admission form and the musician’s salary adjustments.

Many were the Armada’s ships which made use of charangas and fanfares. An example of this is the 1955’s trip to India, aboard the “Bartolomeu Dias”, in which it highlights the charanga actuation in the parade of honour to Afonso de Albuquerque, in Damão. This travel was immortalized in the Urbano Tavares Rodrigues magisterial description, in the book “Jornadas no Oriente”. In the memory of many ones, it was also the musical set “Os Náuticos” that, on the beginning of the 70’s decade, acted to the parked military forces at the ultramarine provinces. Along almost two years going through Guinea, Cape Verde, Angola and Mozambique, on many digressions aboard the merchant ship “Vera Cruz” and in naval units.

At the beginning of the 80’s decade, under the direction of the lieutenant-commander Manuel Maria Baltazar (1976-1987), the Navy Band won a consistent visibility next to the civil society, verifying its deserved inclusion in the country’s best band groups. The systematic contact with the great public was the beginning of a long succession of plenty rooms and extraordinary innovations, giving the Navy prestige through the virtuosity, dedication and talent of its musicians. In the next decade, now with the lieutenant-commander José Joaquim Araújo Pereira as maestro (1987-2006), it has undertaken various dislocations cross the country and foreign territories, all of them full of success. There are detached the actuations across France, by the occasion of the 5^th Azaleas International Festival. In 1998 it has acted at the IPO´s Diamond Wedding and in diverse events under the Expo 98´s scope, among which two concerts were apotheotic ally applauded by thousands of people. Already under the command of the lieutenant-commander Carlos Silva Ribeiro (2006-2010) there are detached the actuations of the 44^th Musikschau der Nationen in Bremen – Germany, as well as on the “Festa da Primavera” integrated concert realized at the CCB’s large auditorium.

In all the concerts, the Navy Band highlighted the Portuguese music, demonstrating its public service vocation and a fundamental role in the national musical tradition preservation. Because of that, in 1999 it was conceded the Gold Medal of the Distinct Services by the CEMA Admiral. On its praise he demarked the “notable role, exemplary dedication and well serving will, thanks to the musician’s professionalism and excellence, from whose it has come brightness, honour and prestige to the Navy”.

Since 2010 the Navy Band direction is under the charge of the lieutenant-commander Délio Alexandre Coelho Gonçalves , who in the line of his ancestors , has conducted it through high quality and efficiency patterns, executing attractive and of well recognized technical quality programs , obtaining significate successes and raising the most alive and warm audiences enthusiasm .

Lieutenant-commander Délio Gonçalves

Born at Azambuja, where it has started his musical studies first in clarinet with the Maestro João Teófilo, and later in bassoon with the Professor Carolino Carreira. In 1990, he has done the Orchestral Techniques Course to Bassoon’s Wind Players at Menendéz Pelayo University with a scholarship of the same university, which would become to reveal fundamental in this option and decision of embracing an artistic career. In 1991, after the national competition, he joins the Portuguese Navy Band where he played 1^st Bassoon functions. In 1992, he joins the Almada’s Professional Music School, where he continued and finished his bassoon studies with the Professor Carolino Carreira. When being a young musician , he cooperated with the Country´s Young Orchestras , and professionally with an intensive activity , he worked with the most variated groups , he recited alone , and played in concerts with numerous and diverse chamber musical groupings. In 2001, he finished his studies in band Direction, Fanfarra and Brand Brass, at the Maastrich’s Royal Music Conservatorium in Netherlands, where he studied with the professor Jo Conjaerts. Nowadays it´s activity is focused in direction, working not only with musicians and professional groups, but also teaching in musical Internships and Workshops, and collaborating with the major diverse musical events, in Portugal as much as in the abroad. He mentors and organizes some important events in our country as the case of the S.I.M.P.S Direction Workshop, and of the S.F.U.P Direction and Amateur Musicians Workshop at Faial Island (Azores), and of the International Contest of Amateur Bands of Vila Franca Artistic Athenaeum. Today, with the lieutenant-commander charge, Délio Gonçalves is the Portuguese Navy Band Maestro Chief.

The Délio Gonçalves Commander received various awards and praises: a medal of Distinct Services (Silver Grade), four medals of the Naval Cross (2^nd and 3^rd Class) and the Exemplar Behaviour Medal (Silver Grade).

LIEUTENANT JOSÉ VELOSO

Born in Lisbon, where he began his Musical studies with Mário Cândido and Inácio Santos. In 1990 joins the Music School of the Lisbon’s National Conservatory, at the professor’s Jaime Carriço class. In 1991, after the national competition he joins as clarinetist in the Portuguese Navy Band. In 1996, he joined the Lisbon’s Superior College of Music, where he studied Clarinet with the Professor Manuel Jerónimo and Chamber Music with the professors Jorge Moyano, Irene Lima and Olga Prats, where he concluded his studies in the year of 2000. In parallel, he proceeded clarinet studies in Portugal and abroad with the professors Alois Brandhofer, Anders Aberg, among others, also having collaborated and took part of the Corsi de Perfezionamento Musicale of the Wind Orchestra directed by the Maestro Jo Conjaerts in Spilimbergo Itália, on which he directed some concerts in many of the North Italian localities. In the years of 2005 and 2006 he studied at the Netherlands (orchestra and band direction), with the professor Jo Conjaerts. In the year of 2006, he gave public examinations to the Navy’s Official Musician charge. Having later joined the Officials Complimentary Military Formation Course, after which he was promoted to sub lieutenant’s charge. Actually, in the lieutenant charge he operates as the Deputy Chief of the Navy Band functions. In parallel with his military career, he also develops the direction charge of the Recreational Bands. The lieutenant José Veloso received several praises and awards: Two Naval Cross Medals (3^rd Class) and the Exemplary Behaviour Medal (Silver Grade).

Major (Mus.) Juha Ketola (born 1964) studied conducting in the Military Music School in Lahti and the Sibelius Academy between 1998 and 2000. His teachers included such prominent figures as Kalervo Kulmala, Pertti Pekkanen and Atso Almila.

Ketola’s own instrument is the trumpet, and he graduated as a teacher of trumpet in 1994. He completed his postgraduate degree in 1996. He has studied singing as a minor subject and performed as a solo vocalist for many orchestras.

Juha Ketola served as a trumpet leader for the Navy Band from 1990 to 2002. He also performed as a hired musician in a variety of musical productions at the Åbo Svenska Teatern and the Turku City Theatre, along with playing at numerous large festivals throughout Finland.

Ketola also served as the chief and conductor of the Kainuu Military Band from 2003 to 2006, the Conscripts Band of the Finnish Defence Forces from 2006 to 2011 and the Lapland Military Band 2015-2017. He assumed the position of the senior conductor of the Air Force Band in July 2017.

Pasi-Heikki Mikkola (born 1965 in Hämeenlinna) took over as the chief of the Guards Band on 1 June 2015. He began his career in professional music as a flutist in the Armoured Band, after which he got his conductor’s degree in 1993 from the military conductor course arranged by the Military Music School and Sibelius Academy. His teachers were Professor Jorma Panula and Conductor Kalervo Kulmala.

Pasi-Heikki Mikkola has served as a conductor and chief of the Satakunta Military Band (Niinisalo) 1993–1998, Savo Military Band (Mikkeli) 1998–2009, Armoured Band (Hämeenlinna) 2009–2013 and Navy Band (Turku) 2013–2015. In addition to this, he has conducted the symphony orchestras of many cities, including Mikkeli, Kuopio and Hämeenlinna, and served as the conductor for the Mikkeli Theatre.

Mikkola is a productive composer and arranger. He has produced music for a variety of ensembles, such as wind orchestras, big bands and symphony orchestras.

Tomi Väisänen began studying music according to the Kodály method already as a child in Lahti. Around the same time, he also began studying piano at the Päijät-Häme conservatory. He later continued his music studies in the Navy Band in Turku, where the oboe became his main instrument. After completing his studies, he was posted as first oboe player in the Pohja Military Band in Oulu and took part in the Defence Force's military band championships where he placed first three times consecutively.

Tomi Väisänen has studied choral leadership and was choral leader of the Kajaani male choir for eight years. He has made arrangements for choirs, wind orchestras and Big Bands. Väisänen graduated as conductor from the Military Music School and the Sibelius Academy's military conductor course. Tomi Väisänen has worked as chief and conductor of the Kainuu Military Band, Lapland Military Band and the Air Force Band.

Major (Mus.) Tomi Väisänen continued his music studies majoring in wind orchestra conducting and graduated from the Sibelius Academy with a master's degree in music.

Petri Junna, who assumed the duties of Senior Conductor of the Navy Band in September 2015, completed his conductor’s studies in the Military Music School and the Sibelius Academy, from which he graduated in 2000. He has been taught by Kalervo Kulmala, Pertti Pekkanen, Atso Almila and Jorma Panula. Over the course of his career, Junna has served as the conductor and senior conductor of the Conscript Band of the Finnish Defence Forces, the Pohja Military Band, the Karjala Military Band and the Dragoon Band. In addition to his own orchestras he has also conducted other military bands, such as the Oulu Symphony Orchestra and the Joensuu City Orchestra. In addition to his primary work, Junna has trained numerous Finnish wind orchestras and served as a conductor and teacher at a variety of music camps and events. Petri Junna is also known as an arranger of wind music. Among a multitude of other pieces, he has arranged Einar Englund’s orchestral series The White Reindeer and Mozart’s Requiem for soloists, a choir and a wind orchestra. Before his work as a conductor, he served as a trombonist in the Uusimaa Military Band, the Guards Band and the Lohja City Orchestra.

Lieutenant commander (Mus.) Jarkko Aaltonen

Jarkko Aaltonen began his musical studies playing church organ at the Varsinais-Suomi Music School at age 6. He completed his military band training between 1991 and 1995 in the Military Music School in the Häme regiment. Aaltonen studied the clarinet at the Päijät-Häme Conservatory and TUAS Arts Academy. He served as the Navy Band’s concertmaster from 2000 to 2005. Jarkko Aaltonen studied wind orchestra conducting at the Sibelius Academy, graduating with a Master’s degree in 2010.

Aaltonen served as the artistic director of the Helsinki Symphonic Winds and the conductor of the Helsinki Saxophone Orchestra. In 2011 he began working as chief of the Savo Military Band, where he explored big band, string orchestra and symphonic wind orchestra concerts. He served as the chief of the Conscript Band of the Finnish Defence Forces from 2013 until September 2015, when he became the conductor of the Navy Band.

Before his career as a military conductor, Jaakko Nurila was an officer-level member of first the Lapland Military Orchestra and then the Pohja Military Orchestra.

Captain Amílcar da Fonseca Morais was born on March 17, 1931, in the parish of Valongo do Vouga, Portuguese Municipality of Águeda, into a family of amateur musicians.

He began his musical learning in 1940 in the community band of his parish, at the time, directed by his godfather and older brother: Manuel da Fonseca Morais.

His military and artistic career developed fundamentally in army bands schools, where he reached the rank of Captain.

In the nineteen-seventies he participated in several national competitions with compositions for Military Bands, obtaining honorable classifications, among which two first prizes with the Cidade Invicta and Os Caçadores do 1.

As a conductor of community concert bands, he directed Filarmónica Lorvanense, the Banda dos Bombeiros Voluntários (Volunteer Firemen) of Riba d'Ave, the Banda Visconde Salreu and the Orquestra Filarmónica 12 of April of Travassô.

To the Orchestra Filarmónica 12 de Abril, he left the exclusivity of some of his most representative works, namely: Odisseia (Odyssey), No Trilho do Sol (On the Sun Trail) and Festa do Mar (Feast of the Sea).

His name is generally associated with the popular selections he arranged under the name of "POP SHOWS", as a repertoire of change that he intended to mobilize and motivate the more youthful members with and thus try to reverse the very worrying crisis of aging musicians in most of community bands in the country. These are arrangements of popular themes, foreign and national, selected and submitted to a new rhythmic, harmonic and formal treatment characterized by syncopated rhythms and varied harmonies and in which a more prominent role is given to percussion instruments.

Still in the scope of the work with community bands he composed the Hino de Ponte do Lima, to verses of the poem Ilha dos Amores by the poet António Feijó.

He has also cooperated with Portuguese friendship organizations with other countries, writing the Hino da Liga da Multissecular Amizade Portugal – China, with eastern and western musical ideas, recorded by the Banda Sinfónica da Guarda Nacional Republicana (National Republican Guard Symphonic Band).

In 1976 he was commissioned to form and direct what would become the prestigious Orquestra Ligeira do Exército (Army Light Wind Orchestra), headquartered at the Military School of Electromechanics, now CME, in Paço d'Arcos, a post he held for ten years.

In 1980, in compliance with a cultural protocol of the Presidency of the Republic Amílcar, Morais is appointed by the Office of the Portuguese President, General Ramalho Eanes, to lead a Military Mission of Cooperation with the People's Republic of Guinea Bissau. In this new African country he studied the traditional culture of the Balantas and Mandingas, collecting important thematic material from their traditional songs.

In 1985, by invitation of the Secretary of State for Emigration, Amilcar Morais travelled to the city of Fall River, as a band conductor representing the Portuguese Army, to join the Jury of the Second Luso-American Philharmonic Competition of New England (USA) where his Nas Margens do Águeda (On the Banks of Águeda River) was the obligatory score.

Amílcar Morais also inspired ​​the creation of a Band Union in the Municipality of Águeda, the União das Bandas de Águeda (Union of Agueda Bands), for which he scored the anthem União das Bandas de Águeda, to be performed by the five bands together in their annual festivals.

Amílcar Morais has composed abundantly for small groups, big bands, choirs, wind community and military concert bands. Present in many of his compositions is the culture and landscape of his native region, namely in Nas Margens do Águeda (On the banks of the Águeda River), Águeda Florida, (Flowering Agueda), Ressonâncias de Águeda (Sounds of Agueda), and also Campos do Marnel (Fields of the Marnel River).

In the year 2000 Amílcar Morais was distinguished as personality of the year by the Associação dos Naturais e Amigos de Águeda (Association of Natives and Friends of Águeda, (ANATA).

Amilcar Morais was instrumental to the foundation of the Conservatory of Águeda in the designing of the pedagogical and administrative structure of the institution.

In 2002 he notated and organized the Cancioneiro (songbook) de Águeda, a collection of four hundred and seventeen poetic-musical specimens of popular origin, found throughout the municipality, a work that the author offered to the municipal council, which the author considered the most able to manage this important heritage.

In 2009, under the aegis of the Department of Culture, Papiro Editora launched the Florilégio Coral in the national market. The book includes a set of harmonized pieces for mixed voices choral formations (SATB). He is also responsible for the notation of O Que se Canta em Sever do Vouga (What is Being Sung in Sever do Vouga), an edition of the Municipal Council of Sever do Vouga

As a guest conductor at the 6th meeting of the Coimbra district community bands, promoted by the Federation of Community Bands of the District of Coimbra (FFDC), held on June 10, 2003, at Praça da Canção in Coimbra, Amilcar Morais conducted 35 bands totalling 1800 odd performers, interpreting his composition "Lira-2003", expressly scored for this event.

On May 31 1993, in recognition of the long years of work, commitment and dedication to community bands, Amilcar Morais was awarded the Medal of Instruction and Art, the highest award of the Portuguese Federation of Culture and Recreation Collectivities.

In 1917 Amilcar Morais composed Fátima, a solemn march for the Centennial of the Apparitions, commissioned by the Santuário de Fátima, a copy of which is in the Fátima Museum.

His experience in the cultural dynamics of the Orquestra Filarmónica 12 de Abril has naturally created affective ties, moving him in 2009 to donate his Musical Archive to this institution. This is a collection including about two thousand scores and books for band. He also donated the trophies and medals he has collected throughout his professional life. This collection is gathered in a room called Animateca Amílcar Morais at the headquarters of Orquestra Filarmónica 12 de Abril in Travassô, where it can be visited, especially on its most festive days.

Antero Orlando Pereira Ávila was born in Pico Island on 24th June 1973. His first contacts with musical notes were made with his uncle, Custódio Garcia, even before he learned how to read or to write. At the age of 7, he took private piano lessons with Josefina Canto e Castro. At the age of 14, he was the artistic director of the Filarmónica União Artista de S. Roque do Pico.
He went to the National Conservatory of Lisbon, where he was a student of Jorge Peixinho and Álvaro Salazar. Then he went to Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa and completed his Degree in Composition. He studied with Carlos Caires, Sérgio Azevedo, Cristopher Bochmann, Eurico Carrapatoso, António de Sousa Dias, among others.

As a student, he had the opportunity to listen to his works being played in Lisbon and Oporto.

He returned to Terceira where he teaches Musical Analysis, Composition, and Acoustics at the Regional Conservatory of Angra do Heroísmo.

He has been a member of several ensembles as a tuba and electric bass player.

Now, he works both as a teacher, and as composer, maestro and instrument player. In this sequence, he has written several works for Choir and Orchestra, Chamber Music and Symphonic Band.

Carl Nielsen - Denmark's great symphonist and national composer - was born in Nørre-Lyndelse on June 9, 1865. His father was a painter Niels Jørgensen, who besides the painting work was also a player on the area. However, even in his book 'My Fun Childhood' Carl Nielsen tells us that it was the mother who taught him the first tunes on the violin.By the age of 10, Carl had actually been taught violin and trumpet lessons, and he began to come out with his father to play. His first appearance was on a triangle in H. C. Lumbye's 'Dagmar Polka'. It was at the same time that Carl Nielsen wrote his first small tunes.At the age of 14, Carl Nielsen was accepted as a military musician at the 16th Battalion in Odense. He should primarily be horn blower - that is, by the commanding officer's side, and pass his orders through horn signals. In addition, he was to blow the reveille and retreat at the main guard at Flakhaven. It is also worth remembering that 60 years earlier, another 14-year-old boy had been hired as trumpeter at the military music in Odense - Hans Christian Lumbye. However, Carl was also to play alto trombone in the music band. He even says that he was immensely proud to wear uniform, saber and glossy buttons. On the whole, he found himself a good musician. He advanced to the corporal, was afforded the opportunity to buy a piano, and he was given time to get more music lessons. The colleagues in the military music encouraged him to write brass quartets, and an acquaintance with the older inn pianist Outzen became very important for his musical development.In 1883 the musician and composer Olfert Jespersen was in Odense, and he and Carl Nielsen met in the cellar at Outzen. Here they played some of Carl Nielsen's compositions, and Olfert Jespersen encouraged him to apply to Copenhagen and come to the music conservatory. Carl Nielsen thus left the army in late 1883, and from 1 January 1884 he was a student at the Royal Conservatory of Music. This whole part of Carl Nielsen's life is very beautifully described in Erik Clausen's 1994 film - 'My Fynske Childhood'.Although Carl Nielsen did not write actual military marches - he did, however, arrange one of his father's marches, 'Højby Skyttemarch', for military music - he had great respect and warm feelings for that part of our cultural heritage. Carl Nielsen was also in the forefront when it came to protesting the plans for the closure of military music in 1909, and the subsequent reduction of the music corps.After completing his education at the Music Conservatory in 1886, Carl Nielsen continued his studies in Germany, France and Italy. From 1889 to 1905 Carl Nielsen was violinist in the Royal Chapel. From 1908 until 1914 he was the conductor of the Chapel, and from 1915 to 1927 he was choir conductor in the Music Society. From 1915 to 1931 Carl Nielsen was associated with the music conservatory - the last years as director.Carl Nielsen composed 2 operas - 'Saul and David' and 'Masquerade' - of which the last one still stands on the Royal Theater's repertoire at regular intervals. The 6 symphonies are world renowned and are recorded by many large orchestras and conductors. The New Yorker Philharmonic and Leonard Bernstein. He wrote a lot of stage music, orchestral music, piano works and choral works. Especially his tunes for Danish songs have become national celebs.Carl Nielsen died on October 3, 1931.

Marcher:

DUKE MARCHE (1897)

MARCH OF THE MOTHER (1921)

ORIENTAL FESTMARCH (1919)

Portuguese composer and conducter born in 1969. Tonal and atonal contemporary music. Over 270 works: 6 symphonies, 11 operas, music for symphony orchestra, concert band, chamber, for children, theater, ballet and cinema. Was composer in The Portuguese Navy Band (2000-2010) and Portuguese Symphonic Band (2017/8) and currently he’s member of the O Bando Theater artistic direction, composer in residence at Foco Musical (music for children) and artistic director of Setúbal Voz Choir. Associated conductor at Lisbon Philarmonic.

awarded compositions:

– HELL, music for theater: “Play Of The Year” in 2017 by TIME OUT Lisbon; production O Bando Theater, co-production Teatro Nacional Dona Maria II.

– TURTLE PROJECT, symphonic fable: YAMA PUBLIC CHOICE AWARD 2015. Young Audiences Music Awards is an initiative of Jeunesses Musicales International and honors creativity and innovation in musical productions for young audiences from all over the world. production: Foco Musical, co-production Portuguese Navy and O Bando Theater.

– STONE RAFT, music for theater: “Play Of The Year” in 2013 by TIME OUT Lisbon; nominated for Portuguese Golden Globe, category of “Best Play 2013”. production O Bando Theater, co-production Teatro São Luiz.

– QUIXOTE, opera buffa, “Best Show 2010” of the SPA/RTP awards (Portuguese Society of Authors and National Television Network); nominated for “Best Show 2010” by Portuguese Golden Globe SIC (Portuguese Independent Television Network) and CARAS (magazine). production O Bando Theater, co-production Teatro da Trindade.

– SAGA, extravagant opera: “Best Show 2008” by Portuguese Association of Theatre Critics; nominated for “Best Show 2008” by Portuguese Golden Globe SIC (Portuguese Independent Television Network) and CARAS (magazine). production O Bando Theater and Portuguese Navy

Nelson Jesus (1986) has started his studies in local wind bands and later, studied saxophone in several institutions such as Caldas da Rainha and Oporto Conservatories, Oporto and Lisbon College of Music with Mário Marques, Hugo Gaito, Henk van Twillert, Fernando Ramos, Francisco Ferreira and José Massarrão .

He has studied analysis and composition with Fernando C. Lapa and João-Heitor Rigaud at the Oporto Conservatory and had private classes with the composer Fernando Altube from Argentina. He is a composition student at Lisbon Music College studying with Sérgio Azevedo, Luís Tinoco e Carlos Marecos.

He was the winner of the 1st Prize in Composition for Symphonic Band Ibermúsicas Oaxaca-2014, the 2nd Prize in IV National Composition Competition Banda Sinfónica Portuguesa, 1st Prize in the 4th Edition of the Composition Competition for Wind Orchestra Inatel-Banda Sinfónica do Exército (Army band), and winner of the Education Category at the I WASBE Composition Contest (2017).

In 2018 he has won the SPA/Antena 2 Composition Prize (Author's Society and Classical Radio) and a composition scholarship by Gulbenkian Foundation that allowed him to study with Adam Gorb (UK), Oliver Waespi (Switzerland), Tomi Raisanen and Jukka Tiensuu (Finland). He also had seminars with composers Edward Green, Luigi Abate, Kaija Saariaho.

Recently, he was a Semifinalist at the prestigious Alexander Zemlinsky Composition Prize (USA).

He was the resident composer of Cascais and Oeiras Chamber Orchestra in 2017/2018 season and resident at the Sherborne Summer School of Music in England (2019).

Currently he is a sax player in National Guard Symphonic Band, a member of Tejo Quartet, conductor of Alenquer community