“When we speak about Andreia Pinto-Correia, it is not enough to say that she is a composer (…) Four years ago when we last interviewed her, one of her works was about to be premiered at New York’s [SONiC] Festival of Contemporary Music, at the mythical Carnegie Hall. One year ago, the Rockefeller Foundation invited her for one of its exclusive residencies. A couple of months ago she was one of the artists to be awarded a Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship. One month ago, she returned to New York from Umbria, Italy, where she had spent six weeks working on her compositions at the castle of the Civitella Ranieri Foundation in the company of, among others, Mia Couto. And just a few days ago the Tanglewood Music Center [Festival of Contemporary Music] inaugurated its 75th year anniversary celebration with Timaeus, a commission written in memory of Elliott Carter by this Lisbon-born composer. At Tanglewood, her name appears next to those of Oliver Knussen, John Harbison, and George Benjamin, composers that also received commissions for the occasion. This is one of the signs of a career in ascension, the big leagues. We encountered the composer in [the town of] Parede, at the end of an April morning. She was busy composing, and thus secluded from the world. To immerse herself in her own sounds is her preferred mode of creation.”

Luciana Leiderfarb (Text) and Tiago Miranda (Photos)

The Guggenheim Fellowships were established in 1925 by former United States Senator and Mrs. Simon Guggenheim, in memory of seventeen-year-old John Simon Guggenheim, the elder of their two sons, who died April 26, 1922.  Guggenheim Fellowships are intended for men and women who have already demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts. Fellows are appointed on the basis of impressive achievement in the past and exceptional promise for future accomplishment