Pedro Caldeira Cabral is an exceptional figure in today’s music world.
An outstanding performer in a vast instrumental repertoire which spans the Mediaeval, Renaissance, Baroque, and Classic periods of Portuguese Music, but also includes Portuguese traditional music influences, the XX century Repertoire of great Portuguese guitarists of all Styles and social backgrounds and his own compositions. He is both composer, director and musician, playing professionally since the age of sixteen on several string and wind instruments of different epochs. His main instrument is the Portuguese guitar (Citara Lusitanica) in which he has achieved a phenomenal level of mastery, expressiveness and virtuosity. He has played a key role in his generation in matters of broadening its repertoire and developing its playing styles and playing techniques towards greater versatility and perfection. |
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Pedro Caldeira Cabral was born in December 1950 in Lisbon in a family with a strong classical musical culture.
For more than forty years he has devoted himself to the rediscovery of neglected musical treasures, both as a guitarist and musical director. He has done extensive research on early Iberian music and historical instrument making.
Beyond the happy few who already felt a deep veneration for the Portuguese guitar and its solo repertoire, he has significantly contributed to the creation of an internationally wide audience for an instrument and a musical style so refined and powerful that it takes the listener inexorably to the very core of music: the silent dance of feelings...
For more than forty years he has devoted himself to the rediscovery of neglected musical treasures, both as a guitarist and musical director. He has done extensive research on early Iberian music and historical instrument making.
Beyond the happy few who already felt a deep veneration for the Portuguese guitar and its solo repertoire, he has significantly contributed to the creation of an internationally wide audience for an instrument and a musical style so refined and powerful that it takes the listener inexorably to the very core of music: the silent dance of feelings...
One of the most gifted musicians of his generation, his career as a concert performer, teacher, researcher and creator of new projects, both musical and cultural, make him one of the principal agents of the current revaluation of Portuguese music of all epochs.
In long collaboration with many other excellent Portuguese musicians, he has founded, developed and directed - three of the best known Portuguese ensembles specializing in early music - La Batalha, Concerto Atlantico and Lusitania Musici, having the privilege of looking back on more than 20 years of regular activity. These Ensembles rediscovered and helped awaken a marvellous world of beauty to life, which since then has reached out to thousands of music-lovers in Portugal and has established them as one of the leading exponents of many neglected musical landscapes of south-west Europe. As a composer , Pedro has developed a very individual style founded on the solo guitar tradition, incorporating original techniques and elements gathered from his study of the traditional instruments, or inspired by the sounds and forms within the Mediterranean musical heritage. As a performer he has expanded significantly the solo repertoire of the Portuguese guitar with transcriptions of works by J.S.Bach, S.L.Weiss, Scarlatti, Sor, Seixas and others, as well as giving first performances of pieces by himself and other contemporary composers. The central role he has played in the organization of numerous music festivals, publications about Portuguese guitar music, its musical instruments, the dynamization of musical instrument exhibitions, the creation of a centre of studies of early music in Lisbon, his intense worldwide concert activity, the dozens of outstanding recording projects and international awards, and the fervent enthusiasm of his listeners, all this is proof that instrumental guitar music does not have to be of interest to only an elitist minority, and that it can appeal to an increasingly large and young audience. |
He has appeared regularly in television programmes for important networks such as: RTP (Portugal), WDR, ZDF and NDR (Germany), BBC and Granada TV (UK), ORTF (France), VPRO (Holland), TV Globo and TV Cultura de São Paulo (Brazil). His music has been recorded on numerous records and CDs for some of the major European record labels,and for his work he has been honoured with several national and international music awards. He has composed original music for theatre, cinema, TV series and ballet and since 1969 and as a soloist on the Portuguese guitar he has performed side by side with many of the most acknowledged musicians of his time. Since the beginning of his career, he has toured intensively playing in international music festivals in Europe, the USA, China, Africa and Brazil, mostly touring with his solo repertoire, in his duo, trio, or quartet formation, and performing in some of the most celebrated concert halls worldwide. Contact: Pedro Caldeira Cabral PedroCCabral@gmail.com Mobile: 00351919718335 Office: 00351217942266 |