2025 Portugal
May 30, 2025 – Jun 7, 2025
Lisbon, Porto
Festival info
Start: May 30, 2025
End: Jun 7, 2025
Locations: Lisbon, Porto
Hosting member(s)
The ISCM World New Music Days, which has been occurring annually since 1923, has never previously occurred in Portugal. Considering Portugal’s current prosperous and evolving contemporary music landscape, Miso Music Portugal, the Portuguese Section of the International Society for Contemporary Music since 1999, is excited to be hosting the ISCM World New Music Days in the Spring of 2025. For almost 40 years, Miso Music Portugal and dozens of other Portuguese music and art institutions and organizations have contributed to this present exceptional moment for classical and contemporary music in Portugal, which some have already declared as the “Second Renaissance of Portuguese Music”.
For OFFICIAL SUBMISSIONS, the ISCM Sections and Members must use the ISCM WNMD 2025 Form, which will be available on the ISCM website from 15 February 2024 until 25 April 2024 at 11:59 P.M. CET, after logging into the ISCM intranet (Members Area). Please note that Miso Music Portugal can only consider submissions from Sections and Members in good standing (an annual report for the year 2022 must be completed and the annual membership fee for 2023 must be paid). An Official Submission cannot include a work by any composer who had music performed at the ISCM World New Music Days 2024 in the Faroe Islands.
In the case of ISCM Sections and Full Associate Members, each Official Submission must include six works across at least four different Categories in the Call for Works. It is possible to submit only one work per composer.
Considering that the festival’s organizer provides a unique instrument and device for electroacoustic music performance and diffusion, which is the Miso Music Portugal’s Loudspeaker Orchestra, we strongly invite and encourage all the ISCM Sections and Members to submit at least one work in the 13th Category – Electroacoustic Music (with or without video).
For these Official Submissions to be valid, each submitted work must be eligible, the durations specified for each piece must be accurate, and the submitted works must be correctly aligned with the relevant category. Assuming the submission is eligible, and the ISCM Section or Full Associate Member is in good standing, at least one submitted work will be presented during the ISCM World New Music Days 2025 in Portugal.
In the case of ISCM Affiliated Associate Members, an Official Submission can only include up to three pieces, and the selection of at least one of the works is not guaranteed.
Independent composers or their authorized representatives can make INDIVIDUAL SUBMISSIONS for the ISCM World New Music Days 2025 in Portugal. It is possible to submit only one work per composer.
The works should be submitted via the ISCM WNMD 2025 Individual Submission Form, prepared by Miso Music Portugal, which will be available on the organizer’s website from 15 February 2024 until 25 April 2024 at 11:59 P.M. CET.
An entry fee of €55.00 applies to Individual Submissions, payable via PayPal using the link available on the ISCM website from 15 February. A PDF of the PayPal receipt must be included in the submission.
Individual submissions are not guaranteed a performance. The international jury will consider and evaluate all submitted works. The ones selected by the jury will be included in the ISCM WNMD 2025 programme and performed during the festival.
Miso Music Portugal has constructed the Call for Works for the ISCM World New Music Days 2025, considering a selection of the established and most renowned and talented Portuguese musicians, groups, ensembles, and orchestras. Each Call Category includes their names. In this manner, we guarantee the highest performance quality of all the works selected by an international jury of contemporary music experts.
In the selection process, the jury will give preference to pieces that are up to 10 minutes long, apart from the Youth Choir Category (no. 11), where the duration can be no more than five minutes. Preference will also be given to works created after 2015 and works created after 2020 will receive the highest priority. Moreover, the jury will particularly favour compositions that resonate with or contribute to the ISCM WNMD 2025 theme, “Thirst for Change”. Please follow the link for more information about the festival’s theme: LINK.
The submissions can include already premiered, performed, and yet-to-be-premiered works; the submitted pieces can be published or unpublished.
By submitting works in response to the ISCM WNMD 2025 Call for Works, composers agree that if their work is selected for performance/ presentation, then they grant automatic permission for recording, broadcasting, and streaming the ISCM performance/ presentation of their work without additional financial liability to the ISCM or the ISCM WNMD 2025 organisers.
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ORCHESTRA (with or without electronics **)
a) Concert 1 · Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra (max: 2.2.2.2 – 2.2.0.0 – 2 perc – 7.6.5.4.2) *
b) Concert 2 · Porto Symphony Orchestra Casa da Música (max: 4.4.4.3 – 4.4.3.1 – timp + 3 perc – hp – 14.12.10.8.6) *
c) Concert 3 · Gulbenkian Orchestra (max: 3.3.3.3 – 4.3.3.1 – timp + 2 perc – hp – 10.8.6.5.4) *
* Flute – can double Piccolo and Alto Flute · Clarinet – can double Bb Bass Clarinet · Oboe – can double English Horn.
** The works submitted in this category can include live or “tape” electronics for an up-to-four-channel loudspeaker system. For more details, please see the note below.
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LARGE ENSEMBLE – 10-15 musicians (with or without electronics **)
a) Remix Ensemble Casa da Música (max: 1.1.1.1 – 1.1.1.0 – 2 perc – pf – 2.1.1.1) *
b) Ensemble MPMP (max: 1.1.1.1 – 1.1.1.0 – 2 perc – pf – 2.1.1.1) *
* Flute – can double Piccolo and Alto Flute · Clarinet – can double Bb Bass Clarinet · Oboe – can double English Horn.
** The works submitted in this category can include live or “tape” electronics for an up-to-four-channel loudspeaker system. For more details, please see the note below.
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MEDIUM ENSEMBLE – 8-13 musicians (with or without electronics **)
· Concrète [Lab] Ensemble (fl, ob, cl, sax, hn, tbn, perc, pf, egtr, vn, va, vc, db) *
* Flute – can double Piccolo and Alto Flute · Clarinet – can double Bb Bass Clarinet · Oboe – can double English Horn · Saxophone – can double Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and Baritone Saxophones.
** The works submitted in this category can include live or “tape” electronics for an up-to-four-channel loudspeaker system. For more details, please see the note below.
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SMALL ENSEMBLE – 5-8 musicians (with or without electronics **)
· Sond’Ar-te Electric Ensemble (sop, fl, cl, perc, pf, vn, va, vc) *
* Flute – can double Piccolo and Alto Flute · Clarinet – can double Bb Bass Clarinet.
** The works submitted in this category can include live or “tape” electronics for an up-to-four-channel loudspeaker system. For more details, please see the note below.
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STRING ENSEMBLE – 10-13 musicians (with or without electronics *)
· Camerata Alma Mater (max: 4.3.3.2.1)
* The works submitted in this category can include live or “tape” electronics for an up-to-four-channel loudspeaker system. For more details, please see the note below.
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STRING QUARTET (with or without electronics *)
· Matosinhos String Quartet (2 vn, va, vc)
* The works submitted in this category can include live or “tape” electronics for an up-to-four-channel loudspeaker system. For more details, please see the note below.
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TRIO (with or without electronics *)
· Sond’Ar-te Trio (pf, vn, vc)
* The works submitted in this category can include live or “tape” electronics for an up-to-four-channel loudspeaker system. For more details, please see the note below.
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DUOS (with or without electronics **)
a) Komorebi Duo – Camila Mandillo and João Casimiro Almeida (sop, pf)
b) Nuno Pinto and Elsa Silva (cl *, pf)
* Clarinet – can double Bb Bass Clarinet.
** The works submitted in this category can include live or “tape” electronics for an up-to-four-channel loudspeaker system. For more details, please see the note below.
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PERCUSSION ENSEMBLE – 4-6 keyboard percussion instruments * (with or without electronics **)
· Percussion Ensemble of the OCP (soloists of the Portuguese Chamber Orchestra)
* Available instrumental set: 3 five-octave marimbas (C2 to C7) · 1 five-and-half octave marimba (C2 to F7) · 3 three-octave vibraphones (F3 to F6) · 1 four-octave vibraphone (C3 to C6) · 1 four-octave xylophone (C4 – C8).
** The works submitted in this category can include live or “tape” electronics for an up-to-four-channel loudspeaker system. For more details, please see the note below.
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SOLO WORKS (with or without electronics **)
a) Camila Mandillo (sop)
b) Nuno Pinto (cl *)
c) Henrique Portovedo (sax *)
d) Elsa Silva (pf)
e) Filipe Quaresma (vc)
* Clarinet – can double Bb Bass Clarinet · Saxophone – can double Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and Baritone Saxophones.
** The works submitted in this category can include live or “tape” electronics for an up-to-four-channel loudspeaker system. For more details, please see the note below.
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YOUTH CHOIR *
· Youth Choir of the Lisbon University
– Four voices (SATB) with a divisi option for each voice (approximately 40 singers).
– A cappella or with piano accompaniment.
– Possible small percussion instruments and/ or body used as percussion.
– Duration: no more than 5 minutes.
* This category does not provide the possibility of electronics.
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SOLO PORTUGUESE GUITAR (with or without electronics *)
· Miguel Amaral (Portuguese Guitar)
This category aims to encourage the creation of new works for this unique and virtuoso Portuguese instrument. Miguel Amaral provides a Brief Portuguese Guitar Writing Manual, and interested composers are welcome to contact the soloist via the e-mail: [email protected].
* The works submitted in this category can include live or “tape” electronics for an up-to-four-channel loudspeaker system. For more details, please see the note below.
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ELECTROACOUSTIC MUSIC (with or without video)
· Miso Music Portugal’s Loudspeaker Orchestra (40-loudspeaker system)
Electroacoustic Works (up to 16 channels)
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SMALL-SIZE AUDIO/ VISUAL INSTALLATIONS *
In collaboration with the MAAT – Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology in Lisbon.
* Image file formats: png, jpg · Video file formats: mp4 (normal quality), mov (Apple ProRes 422; high quality) · Sound file formats: m4a, mp3, mp4, flac, wav, aiff. Please provide a stereo version for multi-channel works (up to 6 channels).
NOTE for works with electronics
- The electronics of the submitted compositions for instruments and “tape”/ live electronics can use an up-to-four-channel loudspeaker system.
- The following DAWs are recommended: Digital Performer, Reaper, Ableton Live, and Max/ MSP or Supercollider for interactive applications.
- All above-mentioned software and any additional software or plug-ins must run on Mac OS (plug-ins should be freeware and/ or be supplied by the composer).