Mafalda Nejmeddine

Mafalda Nejmeddine is a harpsichordist with a doctorate in Music and Musicology, specialising in performance, from the University of Évora, and is a specialist in Portuguese early music, particularly Portuguese keyboard sonata. She obtained a Diploma in the Complementary Piano Course (Academy of Music S. Pio X, Vila do Conde), a Degree in Music – Harpsichord (Lisbon School of Music), the 1st Prize for Harpsichord (Conservatory of Paris-CNR) and a Master’s degree in Child Studies – Music Education (University of Minho). She developed a series of projects which involved the investigation, performance and dissemination of the 18^th century Portuguese keyboard repertoire. She edited the score of “Miserere de Villa de Conde” by António da Silva Leite, presented the modern premiere of this work and published about the organs of the Monastery of Santa Clara de Vila do Conde. Published articles on keyboard music by Portuguese composers from the 18th and 19th centuries, including João José Baldi, Francisco Xavier Baptista and Pedro António Avondano. She performed several recitals and lecture-concerts with unpublished works from the Portuguese keyboard repertoire of this period. She recorded two CDs on historical keyboard instruments, the world premiere recording of the collection “Sei sonate per cembalo” by Alberto José Gomes da Silva (José Calisto harpsichord from 1780, National Music Museum, Vermillion, USA, 2018) and “Portuguese Sonatas from the 18th and 19th centuries” (Muzio Clementi & Co. fortepiano from around 1810, Queluz National Palace, 2023), whose score she had edited. She was a scientific consultant and participated in the documentaries “Reencontro” and “Portuguese Sounds from the Past” by Fouad Nejmeddine made based on his two CDs. She is the author of the documentary series “Lusitanian Masters and Sounds”, about six Portuguese composers from the 18th and 19th centuries, and of the project “Avondano XXI”, both financed by the Directorate-General for the Arts (Portugal). She is currently preparing a critical edition of Pedro António Avondano’s keyboard sonatas and is developing the research project “Portuguese Music Identity: Patterns of the Keyboard Repertoire (1750-1834)”, funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (Portugal).