Coro Casa da Música

BIOGRAphy

Founded in 2009, Coro Casa da Música regularly performs at Casa da Música and on tour. It consists of a core group of 18 singers, which expands to a medium or symphonic grouping depending on the concert programmes being given. It had Paul Hillier as its principal conductor until 2019 and has also been led by other prestigious conductors in the field of choral music, such as Simon Carrington, Nicolas Fink, Antonio Florio, Robin Gritton, Sofi Jeannin, Andrew Parrott, Marco Mencoboni, Kaspars Putniņš, Nacho Rodríguez, Gregory Rose, Nils Schweckendiek, Léo Warynski, and James Wood. Its participation in choral-symphonic programmes has resulted in its collaboration with conductors such as Martin André, Stefan Blunier, Douglas Boyd, Baldur Brönnimann, Olari Elts, Leopold Hager, Michail Jurowski, Michael Sanderling, Christoph König, Peter Rundel, Vassily Sinaisky, and Takuo Yuasa. Particularly noteworthy have been ancient music concert programmes with specialists such as Laurence Cummings, Paul McCreesh, and Hervé Niquet.

Coro Casa da Música’s seasonal programming shows an eclectic repertoire ranging from the beginnings of medieval polyphony to contemporary music. Over the years, it has premiered works by Michael Gordon, Gregory Rose, Manuel Hidalgo, Carlos Caires, and even a rediscovered score by Lopes-Graça. More recently, it and Remix Ensemble together gave the world premiere of Francesco Filidei’s Requiem. It has also premiered Portuguese works by key contemporary composers such as Birtwistle, Manoury, Dillon, Haas and Rihm, and has interpreted other key figures of the 20th and 21st centuries such as Lachenmann, Schoenberg, Stockhausen, Gubaidulina and Cage.

Portuguese music has been one of the choir’s focuses, with programmes dedicated to the golden age of Renaissance polyphony, Lopes-Graça, or choral-symphonic works such as Bomtempo’s Requiem à memória de Camões and António Teixeira’s Te Deum. Its first album, dedicated to Fernando Lopes-Graça, will soon be released by Naxos.

Collaborations with Casa da Música’s instrumental ensembles have allowed the choir to perform works such as Monteverdi’s Vespers, Charpentier’s Te Deum, Bach’s h-Moll-Messe, Christmas Oratorio and Magnificat, Haydn’s Die Jahreszeiten and Die Schöpfung, Handel’s Messiah, Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder, Beethoven’s Choral Symphony and Missa Solemnis, Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem, Verdi’s Requiem, and many others.

Coro Casa da Música regularly tours and has performed at the Festival de Música Antigua de Úbeda y Baeza (FeMAUB) and the Auditório Nacional de Madrid, the Festival van Vlaanderen (Festival of Flanders)-Antwerpen., the London Handel Festival, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, the Tenso Days Festival/Vingt lieux sur la mer in Marseille, the Ourense Christmas Concerts, and various Portuguese venues.

Musicians

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