You may have passed João Ricardo on the streets of Alenquer. Young, tall, with curly dark hair, a regular at local cultural events. But few will know that João Ricardo is a composer and that he has been making a name for himself in the field he fell in love with.
This passion for music began at a basketball holiday camp. João Ricardo says that the musical process began the moment he saw his mentor playing the guitar. "The following year, when I came back, I already had my own guitar and was playing Green Day for the kids. Then I learnt to play better and ended up always being involved in music and bands, even here in the Alenquer area and also in Lisbon," he tells us.
João Ricardo in an interview with Rádio Voz de Alenquer and the newspaper Nova Verdade. The musician began composing in groups with his bands, until he decided to write for himself with just a guitar and a tape recorder in his bedroom. Later, he decided to turn music into a more professional path, graduating in Musical Sciences after being rejected from the Escola Superior de Música in Lisbon.
João Ricardo learnt to read sheet music and began to compose more often with his guitar. That was until he met Luís Soldado. "After my parents, he was probably the most important person in my artistic career and in my career as a composer." Luís Soldado became João Ricardo's private teacher and mentor, but he was also the one who introduced him to the world of composition for orchestras and operas.
Betting on the language
João Ricardo considers himself "a very versatile composer and inspired by almost every genre", but explains that his works are from the contemporary era. "It's contemporary music, which is being made now, which has more or less influences from the past, from 500 years ago or 100 years ago, but I think that everything I listen to regularly is made by living people." From the moment he started collaborating with orchestras, string quartets and composing operas, his range of compositions expanded.
"I compose for people who ask me to. I've been more interested in opera, because it's what's come up the most and what I have the most connection to and also the most experience with."
In most of the plays he composes, João Ricardo has the freedom to choose the themes he tackles, usually based on Portuguese literature. "As a rule, I always speak to the writers of the books I like and ask them directly if they want to write a text for my project or if I can use previously written texts.
They're usually very receptive." The composer's preference and requirement is to always compose in Portuguese. This is a detail that, according to João Ricardo, applies to the majority of Portuguese composers: "This trend hasn't happened for a long time, except in Italy or Germany, I think. But in Portugal, the works that are being made today, and perhaps in the last 50 or 60 years, are in Portuguese," explains the composer.
Another reason for using the mother tongue is its complex semantics and lack of melody, which makes interpretation and the process
more challenging. "There are nuances that are much more specific to the Portuguese language, to Portuguese intonation, than, for example, to German or Italian, which are much more musical and given to ornamentation. But then there's always an adaptation that needs to be made."
New opera premieres in Esposende
Regarding opera composers in Portugal, João Ricardo explains that, "since I talk to those who are inside the bubble, there are still more than we expect". However, the opportunities are few, "they are occasional, but not regular". To fill the time with few projects, the young composer teaches music and instrument lessons, sells and publishes scores, compositions and academic works. He admits it's a difficult and unstable path, which is why he can't set himself very high goals or objectives. "I don't think I have any goals. I think I have the most clichéd one, which is to be able to just do this, do nothing else. To be paid full-time with a salary that allows me to eat, drink and do nothing else."
At the moment, João Ricardo is composing an opera for a quartet from Porto, the Quarteto Contratempo, as part of an academic project funded by the National Centre for Culture.
by the National Culture Centre, to collect opera manuscripts in Évora and is also making contemporary arrangements for guitar and baritone.
At the end of the conversation, João Ricardo left an invitation to anyone who happens to be in Minho at the beginning of this month, when he will be premiering his new opera on 4 August at the Municipal Auditorium in Esposende.