PARTICIPANTS

QUINTETO PAVÃO & VICTÓRIA

Rafael Coelho Machado was born in Madeira in 1814. He emigrated to Brazil in 1835, earning a reputation in Rio de Janeiro as a performer, teacher of a number of istruments, a composer of modinhas and sacred music, the author of the Dicionário Musical, first published in Brazil in 1842, and the Breve Tratado de Harmonia of 1849. He was a publisher, and produced several musical methods, some of his own authorship. He was organist of the Church of Candelária and teacher at the Imperial Institute for the Blind. He composed many songs together with the poet Domingos Gonçalves de Magalhães. A number of compilations of his modinhas were published between 1859 and 1876. He was awarded the title of Knight of the Order of the Rose.

Vítor Sardinha was born in Funchal in 1961. He began his musical studies with his uncle, the guitarist Lídio Dias. He attended the Classical Guitar Course at the Music Conservatory of Madeira, in the class of António Pires. In 1984 he founded the PEML-Music School and the Madeiran Traditional Instruments Band in 1987, under the auspices of the Regional Secretariat for Education.

He has recoded four CDs of original compositions for guitar, rajão and viola de arame: Terras de Vera Cruz, Gestual Sonoro, Águas Mansas and Asas de Gavião. He has taken part as performer and arranger in the projects Alma, Xarabanda and Encontros da Eira. As a researcher and musicologist, he has undertaken research on the popular music and culture of Madeira, and has already published Rostos e Traços das Bandas Filarmónicas Madeirenses e Noites da Madeira. He directed the Observatory of Musical Education through the Coordinating Office of Artistic Education and was a member of the team for the regionalization of the musical education curriculum. He has researched the repertoire recorded by musicians from Madeira (1926-1974) in the archives of the RDP in Lisbon, with the support of the DRAC. He was prominent in the Xarabanda Musical Association and the Encontros da Eira Cultural Association. He is also the co-author of A Madeira na História (Âncora Editora, May 2008) and A Madeira e a Música (Funchal 500 Anos, October 2008).

As a performer, he has worked within the context of various musical cultures, notably his most recent project, RAJAME. He has given concerts in a number of cities, including Funchal, Ponta Delgada, Angra do Heroísmo, Lisbon, Oporto and London. He is professor of viola de arame and rajão at the Conservatory – Professional School of Arts in Madeira.

László Szepesi was born in 1969 in Hungary, he began his musical studies at the age of seven. In 1981 he won the second prize in the Antal Friss National Competition for Young Cellists. Between 1984 and 1988 he studies at the Zoltán Kodály Secondary Music School in Debrecen. In 1992 he finished his studies at the Franz Liszt Higher School of Music, in the class of Ádám Károly.

He has been a member of the Ensemble Honvéd, the Camerata Transylvanica and of the Budapest Chamber Opera. He has played with several orchestras in Hungary, Switzerland, France, Spain, Belgium, Italy, Macau and Portugal.

For 17 years he played with the Classical Orchestra of Madeira, being co-principal of the cello section for the last 12. He was a founding member of the Madeira Camerata. He has performed as a soloist under the direction of conductors such as Emílio de César, Roberto Pérez, Eurico Martins, Miguel Graça Moura and Francesco La Vecchia.

Since 1998 he has worked with groups in the field of world music, such as Melian and RAJAME, with whom he has recorded a number of CDs. He has taken part in the recording of CDs and DVDs of other groups (including the Classical Orchestra of Madeira and a Madeira Mandolin Orchestra) and has also recorded programmes for RTP-M and RTP International. He is currently teaching at the Conservatory – Professional School of Arts of Madeira.

Giancarlo Mongelli was born in Italy, where he was educated musically. He attended the higher piano course at the Pesaro Conservatoire, studying recorder, organ and harpsichord, and attended courses with prestigious pianists. He took part in a number of piano competitions in Italy and abroad, including some specifically for chamber music and contemporary music, being frequently awarded the highest places. He has taken part in various masterclasses with the harpsichordists Marcos Magalhães and Siebe Henstra, and has attended the early music courses at the Higher School of Music and Stage Arts in Oporto under the direction of the harpsichordist Ana Mafalda Castro and the recorder player Pedro Sousa Silva, amongst others.

He has performed in recitals on both piano and harpsichord, with orchestras and chamber groups in Italian theatres and musical associations. He has collaborated with the German orchestra Camerata Stuttgart as harpsichordist (basso continuo) in the performance of Italian baroque opera. In 2006 he appeared as harpsichordist in the Festa da Música at the Centro Cultural de Belém in Lisboa. As well as performing with a number of baroque music ensembles, he has also worked with mediaeval music groups, with which he has performed in a number of festivals and historical celebrations. He has been professor of piano and harpsichord at the Conservatory – Professional School of Arts of Madeira since 1998.

Eva Rodrigues began her musical studies at the age of six, later attending the Music Conservatory in Oporto. She attended the Higher National Orchestra Academy in Lisbon, with whose orchestra she gave various concerts, as well as with the Metropolitan Orchestra of Lisbon and the Beiras Philharmonic Orchestra. She attended the early music course at the Higher Music School of Oporto and is currently a member of the Classical Orchestra of Madeira and a teacher at the Music Conservatory of Madeira.

Carla Isabel Moniz began her musical studies at the Conservatory – Professional School of Arts of Madeira, in the singing class of Victor Costa. She studied jazz, also at the Conservatory, in partnership with the Hot Club of Portugal. She took part in several music festivals in Portugal and began studying at the Higher School of Music in Lisbon in 2005. She took classes with Elsa Saque and Sílvia Mateus and finished her degree in singing. She has taken part in a number of operas in Lisbon, São Miguel and Almada, including La Finta Giardinera (Ramiro) and Die Zauberflöte (Knabe) by Mozart, and Dido and Aeneas by Purcell (Dido). She has given a number of concerts of early music, working with Stephen Bull, performing works such as Acis and Galatea by Handel.

In 2009 she took part in the musical The Sound of Music, with the MADS, at the Municipal Theatre, in the role of Maria. She also took the role of Princess Maria Amélia in the opera Orquídea Branca by the composer Jorge Salgueiro, and also took part in O Salto, by the same composer. She has given recitals in Funchal, Lisbon and Ponta Delgada, some transmitted by the RDP and RTP.

She is currently professor of vocal technique at the School of Arts of Madeira.