Gonçalo Gato

Born in 1979 in Lisbon, Portugal, where he initially studied composition, Gonçalo moved to London in 2011 to start a doctorate on the subject of Algorithm and Decision in Musical Composition, under Prof. Julian Anderson’s supervision at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Recently, he was selected to take part in London Symphony Orchestra’s Panufnik Scheme, being given the opportunity to write and publicly rehearse a new orchestral work.

Recent pieces include Vacuum Instability (2013) for ensemble, premiered by BBC Symphony Orchestra musicians at the BBC Maida Vale studios, A Walk in the Countryside (2016), a piece for solo flute developed through collaboration with Ensemble Recherche’s flutist Martin Fahlenbock, Canti Firmi (2014), based on a Gesualdo madrigal and premiered by the Guildhall New Music Ensemble and Comendador u m’eu quitei (2015), a song based on an Iberian medieval poem by Rui Pais de Ribela premiered by the Ensemble mpmp at the Gulbenkian Foundation (Lisbon, Portugal).

Orchestral works include the award-winning Vectorial-modular (2011) and A Vida é Nossa (2013, for symphonic wind band), premiered by the Banda Sinfónica Portuguesa at the Casa da Música (Porto, Portugal).