Carlos Caires

Carlos Caires is a composer with a PhD in Esthétique, Sciences et Technologies des arts – spécialité musique from the University of Paris VIII and a diploma in composition from the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa, where he currently teaches. Carlos Caires is a researcher at CESEM, having previously worked at CITAR – Universidade Católica Portuguesa/Porto and CICM (Centre de recherche Informatique et Création Musicale at the University of Paris8).

He used to teach at the Setúbal Regional Conservatoire and at the Music School of the National Conservatoire (between 1988 and 1991), and from 1992 he joined the Lisbon School of Music.

Alongside his composition studies, Carlos Caires attended various summer courses in choral and orchestral conducting in Portugal and abroad. He directed the JMP choir with conductor Paulo Lourenço, and later founded (also with Paulo Lourenço) the Ricercare Choir, which he directed until 1998, when he left for Paris.

His music has been performed at various festivals in Europe and Asia.

In 1995 he was awarded the Joly Braga Santos Prize for his work Al Niente, in 1996 the Claudio Carneyro Prize for his work Wordpainting, and in 1998 the ACARTE Prize (ex-equo with João Madureira) for his work Retábulo-Melodrama.

Carlos Caires develops the sound micromontage software IRIN, a project he began during his doctorate at the CICM (Centre de recherche Informatique et Création Musicale at the University of Paris8) and continued at CITAR.