Estêvão Chissano was born in 1994 in Malehice, in the province of Gaza. It was there that he grew up, within a religious congregation founded by his aunt, before moving to Maputo to complete secondary school and apply for university. He was accepted at the Eduardo Mondlane University, where he pursued a degree in Geology, driven by the boom in Mozambique’s mineral extraction industry.

It was during this time, immersed in a world of stones and rocks, that he began participating in choral festivals. Before long, he and three friends founded a vocal quartet inspired by the Brazilian group Quarteto Gileade, marking the beginning of his journey into composition.

Music soon became his passion. By 2014, he was already part of Xiquitsi, a project established by oboist Eldevina Materula, inspired by Venezuela’s El Sistema, which promotes social inclusion and professional training through collective music education.

Xiquitsi ignited something in Estêvão. By 2015, he had begun studying Composition, and just a year later, his first choral and string orchestra pieces premiered during the Classical Music Season in Maputo.

From that point on, he never stopped. A self-taught composer (he has yet to complete his formal studies in composition), his works have been performed in Brazil, Germany, the UK, Portugal, Norway, South Africa, Cape Verde, and Japan. Along the way, he has collaborated with musicians such as Mingas, Stewart Sukuma, Wazimbo, Deltino Guerreiro, and Banda Kakana, among others.

Then one day, he discovered the Gulbenkian Foundation.

In 2020, a mobility grant for the PROCULTURA artistic residencies took him to the Lisbon School of Music, where he studied Composition. This was his first trip outside Mozambique, and it left a lasting impression – not just because of the environment and his deep dive into the world of classical music, or even the access to the instruments he was writing for, but above all, because of what he found in the Grand Auditorium: the Gulbenkian Orchestra.

“It was extraordinary to witness a concert by a full, professional orchestra. In Mozambique, we don’t even have a classical orchestra – I had never experienced live orchestral music before, except through YouTube. Imagine a child arriving at the famous Disneyland…”

In 2022, he was awarded another PROCULTURA mobility grant, this time for a residency at NEOJIBA (Núcleos Estaduais de Orquestras Juvenis e Infantis da Bahia) in Brazil – one of the projects that had inspired the creation of Xiquitsi. His goal was to absorb the experience and share what he had learned in Mozambique, helping to further develop their musical initiatives.

Now, in 2024, he returns to the Lisbon School of Music – this time with a Gulbenkian scholarship. Step by step, he hopes the future will allow him to complete a full degree in Composition…