Nuno Lobo - Composer

BIOGRAPHY

Nuno Lobo is a Portuguese composer, currently based in Amsterdam. During the year of 2020, he was the Young Composer in Residence at Casa da Música (Porto) and composition guest teacher at the Fontys School of Fine and Performing Arts (Tilburg) . He is a composer especially interested in instrumental/vocal music and in interdisciplinary artistic formats. Nuno Lobo usually finds inspiration in surrealistic narratives that essentially influence his compositional process, but also the sound result. In his works, it is common to find connections with different elements such as literature, cinema, physics or health disorders.

Photo by Afonso Sereno

His music studies started at age of 3, at the Instituto Orff do Porto. In 2006, he started studying bassoon at the Academia de Música de Costa Cabral, where he had the first contact with composition, with the composer Daniel Moreira.

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music Composition from Escola Superior de Música, Artes e Espetáculo (ESMAE) in Porto and a Master’s degree in Composition from Conservatorium van Amsterdam. Also in Amsterdam, he completed a specialisation on application of karnatic concepts in western music, with Rafael Reina.

He received orientation from composers like Daniel Moreira, Carlos Azevedo, Eugénio Amorim, Dimitris Andrikopoulos, Wim Henderickx and Willem Jeths. Simultanously, he participated in workshops or conferences with Helmut Lachenmann, Luca Francesconi, Rebecca Saunders, Unsuk Chin, Vic Hoyland, Theo Loevendi, George Benjamin and Harrison Birtwistle. 

His music has been played in different places around Europe, in venues as Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ, OrgelPark (Amesterdam), AMUZ (Antwerp), KORZO (Den Haag), Casa da Música (Porto), Castelo Sforzesco (Milan), Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (Lisbon) and Muziekgebouw Frits Philips (Eindhoven).

He collaborated with several music festivals: International Conference of Saxophones EuroSax'17 Porto, Encontros Nova Música em Vila do Conde, SaxOPorto and Composer’s Festival - Amsterdam. He received commissions from institutions as RTP / Antena 2 (Portuguese public anthem), Banda Marcial da Foz do Douro, Nieuw Ensemble, Marketheater ensemble De Gloed and Maat Saxophone Quartet. 

In 2017, he was selected for the composition workshop The Times Academy (2017), a co-creation project with the HERMES ensemble, in Antwerp. In 2018, his piece “Three Deadly Causes” received the third prize of the competition "SIMM - New Music for harpsichord”, in Milan, Italy. Still in 2018, Lobo was selected for the program “Talent Operas”, part of the Opera Forward Festival ’19, where he composed and premiered his opera “Alma Grande”, at the Dutch National Opera & Ballet.

Nuno is also interested in composition for cinema. In 2017, he composed the soundtrack for the the short-movie “Reminiscência” directed by Amélia Urbano, Beatriz Mota e Lúcia Pinto, winner of the 1st prize of Sophia Student Prize - Portuguese Academy of Cinema in the experimental category.

Parallel to composition, he studied conducting with Lucas Vis, Eugénio Amorim, Bárbara Francke and Artur Pinho Maria. From 2016 to 2017, he was assistant conductor of Martial Band of Foz do Douro. At the moment, he is the conductor of the chamber choir Endora, in Heemskerk and of the Arnold Schönberg Kamerkoor, in Leiden (Netherlands)

As a bassoonist, he was member of FEUP Classical Orchestra (2014-2017), conducted by José Eduardo Gomes. He collaborates regularly with the Martial Band of Foz do Douro and with the Instant Ensemble - Ensemble of Real Time Composition, in Porto. He is also an artist at MEMO - Memorabele Momenten, in Amsterdam.