Eugénio Rodrigues

(1961) born in Lousã, Portugal, began playing traditional music on the accordion, as a youngster, and during his teens played drums in a local rock group. Upon arrival in the United States he founded and directed a Portuguese traditional music ensemble, “Os Romeiros,” that performed throughout the New England area, while working as an auto mechanic. He went on to pursue a career in music composition and received his training at Western Connecticut State University (1989), Yale Summer School of Music (1990), Duke University (1993) and the Royal Conservatory of Music at the Hague, in The Netherlands (1994). He has studied with composers Louis Andriessen, Martin Bresnick, Scott Lindroth, Richard Moryl and Howard Rovics.

He was awarded a First Prize in the 1994 Washington International Competition for Composers for his string quartet Mata Hari and an Honorable Mention in the Roger Wagner 1993 Contemporary Choral Composition Competition for his choral work Matutinal. His work Dança was selected for the ISCM World Music Days 1995 in Essen, Germany.

Among the organizations which have performed and commissioned his music are the American Dance Festival, the Arditti Quartet, the Ciompi String Quartet, The Chicago Ensemble, The Dale Warland Singers, the Ives Chamber Orchestra, The Minneapolis Vocal Consort, The New Jersey Percussion Ensemble, the Schola Cantorum of Oxford, England, the Ricercare Choir and the Lacerda Quartet.

He has received the generous support of the Jerome Foundation, Meet the Composer, Phillip Morris Companies, American Composers Forum, National Endowment for the Arts, The Pew Charitable Trusts, The Helen W. Buckner Trust and the Luso-Americana Foundation.

His works have been performed in Europe and throughout the United States including performances at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington DC and at Lincoln Center in New York City. His work, Oda al mar y otras odas, was commissioned by and premiered at Expo ’98 (Word’s Fair 1998 in Lisbon, Portugal). In the spring of ’99 the Portuguese National Ballet premiered his dance work Tormenta e harmonia, written in colaboration with Isreali choreographer Hillel Kogan. The Music Festival of Cistermúsica 2002, in Alcobaça, Portugal, commissioned and premiered his work Fontis amorum for soprano and string orchestra, based on the theme of Inês de Castro. The oboist Andrew Swinnerton commissioned and premiered Escape velocity, during a Gulbenkian Foundation Chamber Music Series concert.

In the summer of 2021, Eugénio founded TEAMUS, a performing arts association, in Lousã, Portugal.

The Nova Era Vocal Ensemble, under the direction of João Barros, premiered in October of 2021 his work estava mãe, a stabat mater, for a cappella choir, based on paintings by Paula Rego, using texts by various contemporary Portuguese poets. In April of 2022, Nova Era premiered the works clube mediterrâneo, with texts by João Pedro Mésseder, for Vlada, about the war in Ukraine, and mas o toque, with texts by Spencer Michael Free, about the current coronavirus pandemic.

Recent works include Telúrico, for baritone and chamber orchestra, Bascia mille, for alto voices, percussion, harp and strings, El viño, for voice and sax quartet, Olhos d’ouro, for alto voices and orchestra, and Fado, for solo instrument (tenor sax, bass clarinet or cello), harp and string orchestra.

On and off, he has been working on an opera, Finisterrae, with libretto by the portuguese author Abel Neves.

His works have been recorded by the labels Etcetera and Hyperion Records.