The prestigious literary magazine Jornal de Letras describes Andreia Pinto Correia’s compositions as “a major contribution to the dissemination of Portugal’s culture and language, perhaps a contribution larger than could ever be imagined.” Her music — described by the Boston Globe as “compellingly meditative” and by the New York Times as an “aural fabric” — is characterized by close attention to harmonic detail and timbral color. Following a family tradition of scholars and writers, her work often reflects the influence of literary sources from the Iberian Peninsula and beyond.
Honors include an Arts and Letters Award in Music from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, and the DSCH Shostakovich Award for her “contribution to the excellence of Portuguese classical music” from the Ministry of Culture of Portugal. She has received commissions from the New York Philharmonic and Los Angeles Philharmonic (with maestro Gustavo Dudamel), European Union Presidency, Tanglewood Music Center/ Boston Symphony Orchestra, Washington Performing Arts (Kennedy Center), São Paulo Symphony Orchestra (OSESP), Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, League of American Orchestras and the Toulmin Foundation, Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition at the University of Chicago, Chamber Music America, National Symphony and National Dance Company of Portugal, and Culturgest/National Bank of Portugal, among others.
Recent highlights include Os pássaros da noite (The Birds of Night), a NY Philharmonic commission premiered in March 2022 by maestro Gustavo Dudamel. Her new string quartet, Aere senza stelle, for Brooklyn Rider also premiered in 2022-23 as part of their new project The Four Elements, a commission by the Vail Dance Festival, Damian Woetzel, artistic director. Upcoming premieres include a new work (LA Phil commission with the generous support of the Esa-Pekka Salonen Commissions Fund) for maestro Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic to be premiered in May 2-5, 2024, at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Her work Reverdecer, Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra, co-commissioned by the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo (OSESP) and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Lisbon, Portugal), and written for virtuoso Jay Campell, will have its European and South American premieres during the 2023-24 Season.
Pinto Correia’s works have been performed by the New York Philharmonic with maestro Dudamel, Minnesota Symphony Orchestra, Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Orchestra, Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa, Columbus Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the JACK, and Borromeo String Quartets. She has also been the recipient of a League of American Orchestras/ New Music USA Music Alive Composer Residency, a Rockefeller Foundation Center Fellowship, a Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship, the Alpert Award in the Arts/Ucross Residency Prize, a Bogliasco Foundation Fellowship, and the Toru Takemitsu Composition Award by the Japan Society.
She was the curator of the Fertile Crescent Festival for Contemporary Music at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and composer in residence with contemporary music ensemble OrchestrUtópica (Lisbon). She has collaborated with an array of artists and scholars including historian Prof. Ann McGrath (Australia), marine biologist Dr. Claudio Campagna (Argentina), filmmakers Daniel Blaufuks and Salomé Lamas (Portugal), writers Mia Couto (Mozambique), Ondjaki (Angola), Betty Shamieh (Palestine/USA), Prof. João David Pinto Correia (her father, Portugal), and choreographers Omayra Amaya (Spain/USA) and Victor Pontes (Portugal).
Ms. Pinto Correia received the Honorary Title of Fellow of the Australian National University (ANU), Canberra, where she was a guest of the ARC Laureate Program for the Deep Human Past and the Indigenous Linguistics Alliance (Fall 2018). Additional recent highlights include the world premieres of Night Migrations, a piano trio commissioned by Chamber Music America for the Horszowski Trio, and a string quartet for the JACK Quartet (String Quartet No.1, Unvanquished Space), commissioned by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. Her concerto for orchestra, Timaeus, commissioned by the Boston Symphony’s Tanglewood Music Center in memory of Elliott Carter, was premiered at the opening concert of the Festival’s 75th anniversary.
Born in Portugal, Andreia Pinto Correia began her musical studies in her native Lisbon at the Academia de Amadores de Música and at the Escola de Jazz Luíz Villas-Boas. She received her Masters and Doctoral of Music degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music in Composition as a student of Bob Brookmeyer and Michael Gandolfi, having received additional mentorship from composers John Harbison and the late Steven Stucky. Recently she was Visiting Associate Professor of Composition at the Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University, and is currently faculty and co-curator of the Gamper Music New Music Series at the Bowdoin International Festival. She currently resides in Brooklyn, New York.