On 24 April 2026, at 2 pm, the PhD examinations in Music of Master Ana Filipa Ferreira will take place, during which she will defend her dissertation entitled “Sounds of Macao: Exploring a transcultural performative approach to Áureo Castro’s piano works”, under the supervision of Jorge Salgado Correia.
PhD Committee
- Prof. Dr Amadeu Mortágua Velho da Maia Soares (CESAM, UA)
- Prof. Dr Luís Filipe Barbosa Loureiro Pipa, (Centro de Estudos Humanísticos, UMinho)
- Prof. Dr Jorge Salgado Correia, supervisor (INET-md, UA)
- Prof. Dr Maria Luísa Vila-Cova Tender Barahona Corrêa (CESEM, Instituto Politécnico de Castelo Branco)
- Prof. Dr Rui Luís Nogueira Penha (CESEM, IPP)
- Prof. Dr Clarissa Gomes Foletto (INET-md, UA)
Sounds of Macao: Exploring a transcultural performative approach to Áureo Castro’s piano works
The main objective of this artistic research was to recreate the piano compositions of Áureo Castro, building bridges between Chinese and Western musical languages and creating a scenic-musical event that evoked the mystical atmosphere of Macao. Áureo Castro, a composer whose piano repertoire remains little known in Portugal, showed a deep admiration for Chinese music and the customs of Macao. The problem addressed stems from the observation that conventional performative approaches tend to overlook the sonic and gestural elements that express the syntax of Sino-Western musical languages. To address this gap, I proposed a performative recreation of Castro’s piano works, exploring their intercultural dimensions and relating them to my lived experiences in Macao. The research method was based on the exploration of aesthetic and musical concepts from traditional and folk Chinese music, the sonorities and performative gestures of Chinese instruments, and the cultural and symbolic elements of Macao. The artistic outcomes culminated in the creation of a transcultural scenic-musical event, featuring the performative recreation of Castro’s piano works alongside moments of improvisation. This exploration of different cultural performative practices can enrich perspectives and contribute to the development of cross-cultural artistic research in music performance, where exchanges and hybridisation continuously shape cultural identities and have the potential to inspire future artistic works.
Keywords
Áureo Castro; Chinese musical concepts; Transcultural performative approach; Piano performance; Artistic research