Alfonso Benetti

Biography

Alfonso Benetti is a researcher, pianist, and performer whose work has been particularly influential in the fields of artistic research, musical performance, and musicology in Portugal. He holds a PhD from the University of Aveiro and has been a member of INET-md since 2008. He is currently an Assistant Researcher at the University of Aveiro, where he develops pioneering work at the intersection of artistic creation, theoretical reflection, and experimental practices in music.

His research focuses on performance studies, the history and practices of the piano, musical experimentation, and technological interfaces, with particular emphasis on the critical re-creation of historical repertoires and on the recognition of contexts and agents often marginalized in music history, such as women composers. He is the principal investigator of the project Ebony & Ivory: History of the Piano in Portugal, an unprecedented initiative that contributes to the decentralization of European music historiography and to a social and cultural reading of the piano in Portugal.

In the scientific domain, he has published regularly with leading international publishers and journals, including Routledge, Contemporary Music Review, and Music Performance Research, addressing topics such as autoethnography, musical expressivity, models of artistic research, experimental music, artistic (re)creation, and technological approaches. He was one of the founders and an associate editor of ÍMPAR – Online Journal for Artistic Research, a key platform in the consolidation of artistic research in Portugal. He was also among the founders and coordinators of the recent INET-md thematic line Digital and Technological Performativity. In parallel with his research activities, he has taught regularly at the University of Aveiro and at the Escola Superior de Artes Aplicadas (Castelo Branco).

As an artist, he pursues a transdisciplinary practice that brings together music, technology, visual arts, and performance. As a pianist, he has performed not only in Portugal but also in countries such as Germany, Norway, Austria, Brazil, and Poland. He was one of the principal investigators of the FCT-funded project Xperimus and the principal investigator of the project TransVariations (EEA Grants), the latter internationally distinguished and focused on the contemporary (re)creation of Beethoven’s 32 Variations in C minor. His artistic activity includes concerts, original creations, discographic recordings, and collaborations with cultural and museological institutions, establishing him as a significant figure in the dialogue between history, science, and contemporary artistic creation.