António Pinho Vargas was born in Vila Nova de Gaia in 1951. A composer, musician and essayist, he is a graduate in History from the University of Porto, after which he obtained his degree in Piano at the Porto Conservatory (1987) and Master's in composition from the Rotterdam Conservatory (1990). In 1991 he became professor of composition at Lisbon Superior School of Music, and in 2006 Researcher at the Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra, where he obtained his PhD in Sociology of Culture (2010) with the dissertation "Music and Power'.

 

Pinho Vargas was awarded the Order of Infante D. Henrique by the President of the Portuguese Republic in 1995, won the University of Coimbra Award in honour of his artistic career in 2012, received the Medal of Honour from the Portuguese Society of Authors (SPA) in 2015, and won the SPA prize for his work, Magnificat for Choir and Orchestra, in 2014.

 

Pinho Vargas has composed 4 operas, 5 oratorios, 14 pieces for orchestra, 8 works for ensemble, 26 works of chamber music, and 11 works for soloists. Recent works include Requiem (2012), Magnificat (2013), De Protundis (2014), Violin Concerto (2015), Viola Concerto (2016), Memorial (2018), Sinfonia (subjectiva) (2019) and Oscuro (2022). His works have been performed by the Orquestra Gulbenkian, the Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa, Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música, Sinfónica Portuguesa, Coro Gulbenkian, the Arditti Quartet, the Artis Quartet of Vienna, The Smith Quartet, Ronald Brautigam, Gloria Chen, Margaret Leng-Tan, Tânia Achot, Miguel Henriques, Tamila Kharambura, Madalena Soveral, and Ana Mafalda Castro among other soloists.

 

With a vast discography, the following recordings stand out: Outros Lugares (Vertigo 1983) Cores e Aromas (EMI 1985) As folhas novas mudam de cor (EMI 1987) Os Jogos do Mundo (EMI 1989) Selos e Borboletas (EM| 1991) A Luz e a Escuridão (EMI 1996), Requiem & Judas (Naxos 2014), ópera Os Dias Levantados (EMI Classics 2004 reed. Naxos 2015), Verses and Nocturnes (Naxos 2015), Monodia (EMI Classics 1995 reed. Warner 1994), Magnificat-De Profundis (Warner 2017) e Concerto para violino (MPMP 2017.

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