“Spectres,” a concert by pianist João Casimiro de Almeida
Pianist João Casimiro de Almeida presents the concert “Espectros,” part of the national tour for his first solo album.
The program brings together works by contemporary Portuguese composers—Cândido Lima, Solange Azevedo, Inés Badalo, Hugo Vasco Reis, and Bernardo Lima—in dialogue with Luigi Nono’s emblematic work, creating a sonic journey that explores resonances, silences, and new timbral possibilities of the piano.
Throughout the concert, the audience is invited to immerse themselves in an immersive listening experience, where different aesthetics of contemporary music meet and interact, revealing the piano as a space for experimentation and sonic discovery.
The session will feature musicologist Sara Maia, who will comment on the repertoire and contextualize the works presented, offering the audience new perspectives for listening and reflection on contemporary musical creation.
João Casimiro de Almeida | A versatile and enthusiastic musician, he brings all his artistic experiences to his performances, as demonstrated by the breadth of his repertoire. Trained in Paris in the class of Michel Dalberto and Claire-Marie Le Guay, and in Porto in the class of Madalena Soveral, he is a regular guest at the most important national venues and festivals, performing as a soloist, in ensembles, or with orchestras, and is also gaining an emerging international presence. He is a founding member of the ensemble ars ad hoc, a chamber music group dedicated to modern and contemporary music, with an emphasis on Portuguese music. Throughout his artistic career, he has collaborated with some of the most prominent composers in today’s music scene, including Beat Furrer, Clara Iannotta, Helmut Lachenmann, Jörg Widmann, Oscar Bianchi, and Simon-Steen Andersen, and has premiered numerous contemporary works on the national stage. He is also a guest of orchestras such as the Cascais and Oeiras Chamber Orchestra, the Beiras Orchestra, the Espinho Classical Orchestra, the Porto Symphony Orchestra, and the Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain; he has collaborated with conductors Bruno Mantovani, Joana Carneiro, Nikolai Lalov, Pedro Neves, Peter Rundel, and Tito Ceccherini, among others. His discography includes Alepo e outros silêncios (2022, Artway Records), Espectros (2023, Nepermusic), Le Grand Tango (2024, Percos Music), Os sons em volta (2025, Artway Records), and ars ad hoc (2025, Nepermusic). Notable among his upcoming projects are the ECHO Rising Stars tour with soprano Camila Mandillo, which will visit major European venues such as the Philharmonie de Paris, Bozar in Brussels, and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, among others; as well as a series of five solo recitals across the country featuring music from his album alongside works by Claude Debussy and Luigi Nono. He holds a Master’s degree in Piano Performance from the Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse, where he was a fellow of the Fondation Meyer and the Fondation Les Amis d’Alain Marinaro. He is a professor at the University of Minho and the Espinho Professional School.
Registration and further information: mmp@cm-cascais.pt or 214 815 904 (call to the national landline network)
Organized : Cascais City Council
