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Born in Vila Real, in 1950, Fernando C. Lapa obtained his degree in Composition from the Oporto Music Conservatory, where he studied with Cândido Lima. He also attended some courses in Musical Pedagogy, Early Music, Choir Conducting, Analysis and Composition.
He has been awarded in composition competitions, having a canon of more than 100 works in almost every musical genre: choirs, chamber ensembles, solo instruments, symphony orchestras, electroacoustic music, etc. Fernando C. Lapa has also composed many soundtracks for cinema and theatre, as well as children’s works, arrangements of traditional music and a great number of other arrangements, transcriptions, orchestrations and adaptations.
Some of his works have been repeatedly played, not only in Portugal but also internationally (in Spain, France, Germany, Belgium, Poland, Hungary, Finland, Egypt, Mexico and USA). RDP radio and RTP television have recorded and broadcasted many concerts which featured some of his works. Lapa is also represented in several CD’s and some of his music is published in Portugal and in Germany.
He is a teacher of Analysis and Composition Techniques in the Oporto Music Conservatory, since 1984, and of Composition, in ESMAE — Superior School of Music and Performing Arts. He has also oriented several seminars, he was member of the jury in many competitions and he was artistic director in various recordings. His collaborations with magazines, newspapers and radio stations are also another part of his activity, which includes also writing liner notes for CD’s or for concert programs. Fernando C. Lapa was editor of the Music section of the arts magazine Ideias Fixas, and he is a permanent reviewer for Público newspaper, where he wrote more than 200 musical texts.
Fernando C. Lapa has conducted several choirs and other ensembles, namely the Oporto Cathedral Church Choir, the Artave Orchestra and the Academic Choir of the University of Minho. He has worked with the latter since its foundation, in 1989, until September 2004, and he has conducted more than 300 concerts — not only “a cappella” but also with piano, organ, brass quintet and orchestra.