Voice and Orchestra
Final concert of the composition workshop with James MacMillan
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Date
- 20:00 / Cancelled 20:00 / Sold out Thursday, 20:00
Location
Grand Auditorium Calouste Gulbenkian FoundationPricing
- Free admission
Ticket collection, subject to room capacity (max. 2 per person):
In-person – 2 hours before
Online – 2 days before (Cartão Gulbenkian Mais), from 12:00 and 1 day before (Cartão Gulbenkian), from 10:00.
- Conductor
- Cecília Rodrigues Soprano
- Soprano
- André Henriques Baritone
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Gulbenkian Orchestra
In 1962, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation decided to establish a permanent orchestral ensemble. Originally with only twelve musicians (strings and continuo) it was named “Orquestra de Câmara Gulbenkian”. This collective was successively enlarged and today the “Orquestra Gulbenkian” (the name it has adopted since 1971) has a permanent body of sixty instrumentalists, a number that can be expanded depending on the repertoire.
This structure allows the Gulbenkian Orchestra to interpret works from the Baroque and Classical periods, a significant part of 19th century orchestral literature and much of the music of the 20th century, including works belonging to the current repertoire of the traditional symphonic orchestras. In each season, the orchestra performs on a regular series of concerts at the Gulbenkian Grand Auditorium in Lisbon, where it has had the opportunity of working together with some of leading names of the world of music (conductors and soloists). It has also performed on numerous locations all over Portugal, in an effort to decentralize music and culture.
The orchestra has been constantly expanding its activities in the international level, performing in Europe, Asia Africa, and the Americas. In the recording field, Orquestra Gulbenkian is associated to labels as Philips, Deutsche Grammophon, Hyperion, Teldec, Erato, Adès, Nimbus, Lyrinx, Naïve and Pentatone, among others, and this activity was recognized with several international prizes.
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James MacMillan
Conductor
Sir James MacMillan is one of today’s most successful composers and performs internationally as a conductor. His musical language is flooded with influences from his Scottish heritage, Catholic faith, social conscience and close connection with Celtic folk music, and is distinctive for its rhythmic excitement and powerful emotional communication.
MacMillan first became internationally recognized after the extraordinary success of The Confession of Isobel Gowdie at the BBC Proms in 1990. His prolific output has since been performed and broadcast around the world. His major works include percussion concerto Veni, Veni, Emmanuel, which has received close to 500 performances, a cello concerto for Mstislav Rostropovich and five symphonies. Recent major works include his Percussion Concerto No.2 for Colin Currie, Violin Concerto No.2 for Nicola Benedetti and his Symphony No.5, written for The Sixteen, which was premiered at the Edinburgh International Festival in 2019 as part of a major feature to celebrate his 60th birthday year. Several new works for chorus and orchestra have been premiered in recent seasons including his Christmas Oratorio premiered by the London Philharmonic in 2021 and Timotheus, Bacchus and Cecilia, a celebration of the power of music, premiered by the Cincinnati Symphony and the Hallé Orchestra in 2023/24. Most recently, a new Concerto for Orchestra was co-commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Auckland Philharmonia and Singapore Symphony.
MacMillan enjoys a successful career as conductor of his own music alongside a range of contemporary and standard repertoire, and is praised for the composer’s insight he brings to each score. He has conducted orchestras such as the Rotterdam Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Danish Radio Symphony, Gothenburg Symphony, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Hungarian National Philharmonic St Louis Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, BBC Symphony, BBC Scottish Symphony, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and NHK Symphony Orchestra. He was Principal Guest Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic until 2013 and Composer/Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic until 2009.
MacMillan founded music festival The Cumnock Tryst in October 2014, which takes place annually in his native Ayrshire. In 2024, the Festival celebrated its tenth anniversary and launched an International Summer-School for Composers, directed by MacMillan and open to young composers worldwide. The Cumnock Tryst won the Sky Arts Award for Classical Music in 2024, and the Series and Events Award at the 2025 Royal Philharmonic Society Awards.
MacMillan has conducted many of his own works on disc for Chandos, BIS and BMG. A notable highlight is a series on Challenge Records, including MacMillan’s violin concerto A Deep but Dazzling Darkness and percussion concerto Veni, Veni, Emmanuel with Colin Currie and the Netherlands Radio Kamer Filharmonie. His release on Harmonia Mundi, conducting Britten Sinfonia in works including his Oboe Concerto, won the 2016 BBC Music Magazine Award. In 2017, The Sixteen’s recording of MacMillan’s Stabat Mater was nominated for a Gramophone Award and won the Diapason d'Or Choral Award.
MacMillan was awarded a CBE in 2004 and a Knighthood in 2015. He was appointed a Fellow of the Ivors Academy in 2024 and was awarded the 2025 King's Medal for Music.
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Andrea Conangla
Soprano
Andrea Conangla, soprano, curator, composer-improviser, and stage director, is recognized for her exceptional vocal agility, distinctive stage presence, and refined musical sensibility. Her artistic calendar reflects a coherent and unmistakably personal vision that spans historically informed performance, virtuosic contemporary opera, and collaborative music theatre projects.
She has appeared with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, Stuttgart State Opera, Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, Sond’Arte Electric Ensemble, and the Aleph Guitar Quartet, performing on major stages across Europe. Direct exchanges with composers such as Helmut Lachenmann, Martin Schüttler, Jennifer Walshe, Bernhard Lang, Miguel Azguime, and Sara Glojnarić have profoundly shaped her artistic outlook and encouraged her to bring her own concerns to the stage. Her debut solo album Autopsychografia, with new songs set to texts by Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa, was released in April 2024. From 2020 to 2023, she lectured on vocal improvisation at the Trossingen State University of Music.
James MacMillan
Rúben Dias
Luís Oliveira
António Narciso
Rose Roberts
David Teixeira da Silva
Ana Roque Antunes
James MacMillan
Over a period of seven months, six emerging young composers took part in a composition workshop for voice and orchestra led by James MacMillan. In this final concert, they will have the opportunity to hear their works premiered by the Gulbenkian Orchestra and three professional singers, under the direction of the distinguished British composer and conductor.
The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation reserves the right to collect and keep records of images, sounds and voice for the diffusion and preservation of the memory of its cultural and artistic activity. For further information, please contact us through the Information Request form.