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Life
Composer, teacher and musicographer Virgílio Melo began his music studies at the National Conservatory of Lisbon, having studied violin and composition with Constança Capdeville and Santiago Kastner. Having obtained a scholarship by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, he studied composition with Emmanuel Nunes in Paris and Cologne. He has a Diploma in Composition (with unanimity) by the École Normale in Paris, the First Prize in Aesthetics by the Conservatoire Supérireur de Musique de Paris and the Second Prize in Electronic Music by the Conservatoire Royal de Musique de Liège. He attended the Sound Technician Course at the Institut des Arts de Diffusion in Louvain-la-Neuve.
His pieces have been played in Portugal, France, Germany, Belgium and Hungary. He took part in the Lisbon Contemporary Music Encounters, the Música em Novembro Festival, the Ars Musica Festival in Brussels and the Música Viva Festival. He has had commissions by Porto 2001, the University of Aveiro, the Viana do Castelo Professional School and the Artave, mostly for educational music pieces.
Some of Melo’s scores have been edited in Oficina Musical, Ediciones Cecilia Colien Honneger and the Oporto Academic Journalism Group. Atelier de Composição Editions currently represent him. Some of his pieces are also available in CD.
His articles have been published in newspapers and specialist magazines, such as Público, Colóquio/Artes magazine, Arte Musical, as well as in the Contemporary Portuguese Composers series. He also wrote programme notes for the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the São Carlos National Theatre.
Virgílio de Melo often participates in commented concert sessions produced by the Músicos e Músicas Association (of which he is the vice-president), especially in the North of Portugal.
He has studied conducting with Luca Pfaff and Jean-Claude Harteman and has since directed several ensembles.
He is a teacher at the University of Aveiro and the Vila Real Music Conservatory.