Carlos Brito Dias (1991) is currently developing his PhD in the Arts, at the University Antwerp and the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp, under the guidance of Pascal Gielen and Wim Henderickx , with as subject ‘Integrating Portuguese traditional sounds in new Compositions’. At the same time, he is attending the Master in Orchestral Conducting at the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp with Ivo Venkov. After completing his Master of Arts (2014) and Postgraduate in Composition (2015) at the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp as a student of W. Henderickx, L. Van Hove, J. Tamminga and I. Venkov, Brito Dias conducted the research ‘The Influence of Traditional Culture in New Art Music Creation’ (2016). In 2015, he received a scholarship from the Stichting Royal Conservatoire Antwerp.
Brito Dias is a graduate in Composition from the Escola Superior de Música, Artes e Espetáculo (ESMAE, Porto), and he attended seminars and masterclasses of Composition (P. Dusapin, K.Saariaho, W. Mitterer, E. Nunes, I. Fedele, C. Iannotta, M. André, among others), Musical Pedagogy (J. Prendas, J. Wuytack, P. van Hauwe), Orchestral Conducting (J. Sébastien Béreau, Douglas Boustock) and Choir Conducting (G. Morgan, L. Vila and O. Reeves). He also took part in the 343eNSEMBLE electronic music project, with ESMAE students and teachers.
Carlos Brito Dias began his studies at the Conservatório de Música Calouste Gulbenkian, in Braga (Portugal), with Fernanda Salema (Piano), André Ruiz (Composition) and F. Ribeiro (Trumpet). In the last few years, he worked with several conductors such as D. Spouras, K. Deseure, P. Rundel, and with different ensembles and orchestras including Sinfonieta de Braga, Remix Ensemble, Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto/Casa da Música, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra “deFilharmonie”, Logos Foundation, deCompagnie, Champdaction, Symphony Orchestra of Ruse, ensemble recherche and HERMESensemble.
His works have been performed not only in several Portuguese concert halls (such as Auditório Adelina Caravana, Museu Nogueira da Silva, Casa da Música, Teatro Helena Sá e Costa, Teatro S. Luís), but also in Belgium (Blauwe Zaal, Koningin Elisabethzaal, AMUZ), Germany (Ensemble Huis), Bulgaria (Rousse Philharmonic Hall), Spain (Fundación Juan March), Italy and the Netherlands. Carlos Brito Dias has also written music for short movies, theatre, robots-orchestra and for projects with dancers and visual artists. He has conducted different ensembles and orchestras (such as Sinfonieta de Braga and deCompagnie) and several projects of the student orchestra of the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp. Since September 2018, Carlos Brito Dias is Composer in Residence of Antwerpen Camerata.
(c) Peter Vandelavoire