À conversa com … #3 João Ricardo

The 3rd episode of À conversa com… focuses on the work of João Ricardo, awarded in the 6th Mauricio Kagel Composition Competition.
À conversa com… presents a series of written interviews that highlight national or international awards given to CESEM researchers.

Question (Q): The piece “WHAT DOES THE WALL SAY”, for piano four hands, was distinguished at the 6th Mauricio Kagel Composition Competition – an international recognition that joins others already achieved, such as the Terras de Santiago International Music Competition, as well as national awards such as the Young Creators Scholarship 2023, the Carlos de Ponta Leça Prize or the New Music Competition 2021. What does this award mean to you?

Answer (A): It is always a huge privilege when any of our work wins an award. In my opinion, these recognitions are often somewhat ambiguous, considering the subjectivity inherent in any competition. Even so, it is a moment that makes me very proud, and that inspires me with redoubled ambition and motivation.

Q: Tell us about your creative process, focusing on the composition of the award-winning piece. What are your main inspirations, what stages do you usually go through and what are the most frequent challenges?

A: In the program notes I treated this composition as “graffiti”, not only because of its protest nature, since it deals with various cases of racial violence in Portugal, but also because of the various quotes from John Coltrane, Rage Against the Machine, among others. The title even started as what does the BILLBOARD say, from the verse in “Freedom”, but the concept of graffiti became so ingrained in me that at some point it became what does the WALL say. I was, and still am, very inspired by one sculpture in particular, Blood Mirror, in which Jordan Eagles paints a glass wall with blood from rejected donations to homosexual, bisexual, and transgender men. Currently, artistically and academically, I have been investigating processes of how to use and apply materials with this socio-political urgency, and how to musically replicate this kind of punch in the gut. To this end, in WHAT DOES THE WALL SAY, I extensively used letters (names of people, cities, phrases, poems, etc.) and numbers (ages, dates, statistics, etc.) as musical parameters. All of this includes various matrices and diagrams for pitches, cells, rhythms, structures, or even quotes, motifs imitating sirens, and sudden attacks imitating gunshots.

Q: How do you characterize the relationship between your research and your other activities, such as composition and teaching? How do these practices influence or complement each other?

A: Ultimately, it is always a symbiotic relationship, in the sense that one side exerts a constant influence on the other, which is extremely gratifying. I am currently taking a break from teaching, as I am in the first year of my PhD in Music and Musicology (Composition) at the University of Évora, under the supervision of Pedro Amaral and funded by the FCT.

Q: Tell us about your relationship with CESEM, including your participation as a research fellow in the PASEV project developed at the University of Évora.

A: Since my master’s degree at NOVA-FCSH, I have been associated with CESEM, with the Research Group on Contemporary Music, trying to participate as much as possible in all the activities that this affiliation implies. Later, I was a research fellow on the project PASEV: Patrimonialization of Évora’s Soundscape (1540-1910) from 2020 to 2022. Among the various publications, conferences, initiatives, etc, carried out by PASEV and in which I had the great pleasure of being involved, I would highlight the collaboration with the Museu Nacional Frei Manuel do Cenáculo on an interactive game in which I was able to contribute with some compositions. These results are available in the chapter “Pequenos Compositores no Museu: Criações Musicais para o Jogo PASEV no Museu Nacional Frei Manuel do Cenáculo” in the book Paisagens Sonoras em Expansão: Novas Sonoridades / Novas Escutas, but also the critical edition Requiem Mass based on the version from Évora Cathedral, Portugal, a project headed by CESEM researcher Rodrigo Teodoro de Paula, in which I transcribed the manuscripts, revised and edited the scores of the 19th-century arrangement of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Requiem Mass, for reduced instrumentation, and which will soon be published by Wessmans Musikförlag.

Q: Is there any future project that you can share with us?

A: As far as 2025 is concerned, two operatic projects will return: TORRE DA MEMÓRIA in Matosinhos, by Quarteto Contratempus, and O QUE SECONDE NO SILÊNCIO in Porto, by Réptil Artes Performativas. As for new works, PRETEND THE WORLD IS FUNNY AND FOREVER, for mixed ensemble, will premiere in June in Bled, Slovenia, and SHARK WANK, for violin, cello, piano and electronics, will premiere in October at Lisboa Incomum.

NOTE: “WHAT DOES THE WALL SAY” (studio recording) is available here.

We will be following João Ricardo’s journey closely. In the meantime, there will be other À conversa com…