Born in Caldas da Rainha in Portugal in 1960; Joao Rafael works as a composer and performer of electronic music. From 1979 to 1985 he studied composition with Christopher Bochmann and piano at the National Conservatory in Lisbon, and in parallel electronic engineering at the University of Lisbon. From 1985 to 1988 he continued his composition studies on a scholarship from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation with Emmanuel Nunes in Paris, and from 1988 to 1992 at the Institut für Neue Musik of the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg, where he also studied electronic music with Mesias Maiguashca; scholarships from the DAAD and the Heinrich-Strobel-Stiftung were added to these. For “Transition” for solo clarinet he received first prize at the international composition competition Camillo Togni in Brescia in 1990, and in 1992 first prize at the Forum Junger Komponisten for “Occasus”. Since 1991 Radio France and the Portuguese broadcaster RDP have broadcast several portraits. As sound director he took part in the Cybele recording of Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s “Requiem für einen jungen Dichter”.
Joao Rafael
Composer
