Síntese – Grupo de Música Contemporânea (Síntese – GMC) is one of the leading Portuguese contemporary chamber music groups, aimed at the creation of new music. Since its beginning it has commissioned and premiered more than seventy works by Portuguese composers from different generations and aesthetic views.
It has been organizing the festival “Síntese” since its first edition in 2006. In the nineteen editions that took place since then, the festival has invited relevant names from both the Portuguese and the international contemporary music scene and has promoted activities both pedagogical and of promotion of contemporary music in the social milieu where the group has its roots. Works by composers Pedro Amaral, João Pedro Oliveira, Eduardo Patriarca, Carlos Marecos, Vasco Mendonça, Christopher Bochmann, Amílcar Vasques Dias, Hugo Vasco Reis, Paulo Vaz de Carvalho, Anne Victorino de Almeida, Fernando C. Lapa, António Chagas Rosa, Sara Carvalho, Sérgio Azevedo, Nuno Côrte-Real, Cândido Lima, Ângela da Ponte, Solange Azevedo, César Viana, Ângela Lopes, Tiago Derriça, Ana Seara, Rúben Borges and Inés Badalo, among others, have been commissioned and premiered.
Síntese has also premiered works by composers from other countries, like “Itinerario” by Spanish composer Jesús Torres and “Clown” by Brazilian composer Luíz Gonçalves. Some of these works have been recorded in the group’s two CDs: “2010”, with works by C. Bochmann, A. Vasques Dias, J. Carlos Sousa and E. Patriarca (2010), and “Poiesis”, with works by A. Chagas Rosa, C. Bochmann, A. Pinho Vargas and F. Lapa (2019).
The group is also taking this music to be known abroad, having played in Spain, France, Czech Republic, Italy, Brazil, Cuba, Greece, Ireland and China.
Síntese performing in Beijing, China.
Síntese – GMC has also been very active in promoting contemporary music among new publics, helping to bring it out from the traditional closed circuit, and in pedagogical activities. Síntese has close relationships with several Portuguese municipalities, music schools and universities like the ESART Polytechnic University in Castelo Branco. The work of Síntese has been recognized by the Portuguese Government and the group is funded by the Portuguese Ministry of Culture for the years 2023 to 2030.
