Ana Quintans originally graduated in sculpture but turned her attention to music and singing, studying in Lisbon and at the Flanders Opera Studio in Ghent. Devoting most of her work to Baroque music, she has established a particularly close relationship with William Christie and Les Arts Florissants but also with Marc Minkowski, Vincent Dumestre, Michel Corboz, Ivor Bolton, Marcos Magalhães, Leonardo García Alarcón and Alan Curtis. She has received great critical acclaim throughout Europe and recorded for labels such as Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Virgin Classics and Naxos.

Voces Caelestes is a vocal ensemble which brings together some of the finest Portuguese singers. Their first project, in 1997, was Rameau’s Platée, conducted by Harry Christophers. Since then, they have sung an extensive repertoire including Bach’s Christmas Oratorio under Peter Schreier, Scarlatti’s Dixit Dominus under Laurence Cummings, Grieg’s Peer Gynt under Michael Zilm and Destouches’s Le Carnaval et la Folie under Marcos Magalhães. They have performed with instrumental ensembles such as the Salzburg Camerata Academica, Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra, Portuguese Chamber Orchestra and Os Músicos do Tejo. They have also presented numerous a cappella programmes under their artistic director Sérgio Fontão.

Directed by Marcos Magalhães and Marta Araújo, Músicos do Tejo, Os was founded with the aim of consolidating the performance of early music on period instruments in Portugal, while highlighting Portuguese Baroque repertoire. Músicos do Tejo, Os gave their debut performance in Setúbal in December 2005, and are now established as one of the most respected of Portugal’s early music ensembles.

The group has appeared in a wide variety of programmes, including a Handel programme in Brest, Baroque vocal music in Goa, India, and Sementes do Fado (Seeds of Fado), an exploration of the baroque origins of Fado, Portugal’s early 19th-century music genre, which they performed in Paris, Brest, Oeiras, Lisbon and Sastamala in Finland.

In February 2008, the group produced the opera La Spinalba by Francisco António de Almeida in the Belém Cultural Centre (CCB). Staged by Luca Aprea, the performance was such a success that it was repeated in January 2009, also in the CCB, and in the Are More festival (Vigo), Teatro Viriato (Viseu), Teatro Micaelense (Azores), Auditório do Ramo Grande (Azores) and in the International Music Festival of Póvoa de Varzim.

Músicos do Tejo, Os were subsequently invited by the CCB to collaborate on other opera-related events. This resulted in the first performances in Portugal ofthe opera Lo Frate Nnamurato by G.B. Pergolesi (2010), the opera-ballet Le Carnaval et la Folie by A.C. Destouches (2011), and Almeida’s Il Trionfo d’Amore (2013), all of which were extremely well received. In 2010, they collaborated with Teatro Praga in A Midsummer’s Night Dream at the Centro Cultural de Belém, with repeat performances in 2011 at the festival Facyl in Salamanca and the festival Le Standard Idéal at Bobigny MC93/Paris. In 2013, the ensemble made its debut appearance in the Gulbenkian Foundation’s main auditorium with Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. In 2014 Músicos do Tejo, Os presented another Portuguese opera, Il Mondo della Luna by P.A. Avondano, in the Cistermúsica Alcobaça Festival.

Músicos do Tejo, Os have released three CDs: Sementes do Fado (with soprano Ana Quintans and guitarist Ricardo Rocha); As Árias de Luísa Todi (with soprano Joana Seara) featuring the repertoire sung by La Todi, a famous Portuguese prima donna from the 18th century; and La Spinalba for Naxos.

Born in Lisbon, Marcos Magalhães began harpsichord lessons at the age of eleven. After obtaining a diploma from the Escola superior de Música in Lisbon he was admitted to the Paris Conservatoire, where he studied with Kenneth Gilbert, Christophe Rousset and Kenneth Weiss, graduating in 1999.

In 1997 he performed with the European Union Baroque Orchestra in Rameau’s opera Platée. He has given many concerts in Lisbon and other European cities as a soloist, in chamber groups, and in opera productions, and often collaborates with the Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa, as harpsichordist and conductor. He has also conducted the Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa and the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra.

His research into Portuguese Baroque repertoire and Neapolitan operas found in Portuguese libraries led him to found Os Músicos do Tejo, an ensemble devoted to the performance of this material. He has a PhD in musicology and has recently co-authored, with Marta Araújo, a radio broadcast for Portuguese radio station Antena 2.

Trained by R. Levitt and R. Jacobs at the prestigious Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, where Carlos Mena is currently Professor of Historic Singing. His repertoire ranges from the Middle Ages to contemporary music. He has sung at venues such as Musikverein in Vienna, Barbican Centre in London, Felsenreitschule and Grosses Festspielhaus in Salzburg, Philarmonie in Berlin, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Chatelet in Paris, Teatro Real in Madrid, Liceu in Barcelona, Opera City Hall in Tokyo, Osaka Symphony Hall, Schönberg Hall in Los Angeles, Alice Tully Hall at the MET in New York, Kennedy Centre in Washington, Sydney Opera House, Concert Hall in Melbourne, Bellas Artes in Mexico City, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, among others.

His more than 50 recitals recorded for Harmonia Mundi, Mirare, Deutsche Grammophon, Sony Music and Glossa have received numerous national and international awards.

He has been a resident artist of the Palais de Beaux Arts, CNDM and Granada City Orchestra. He is a member of the Princess of Asturias Foundation Arts Award. He is artistic director of the Galicia Symphony Orchestra.

As director, he conducts the symphonies of Bilbao, Asturias, Galicia, Navarra, Portugal, OCRTVE, Granada City, Córdoba, Barroca Catalana and La Cetra Barockorchester.

musiespana.com

The soprano Joana Seara enjoys a busy career as an opera performer, a concert and recital soloist, and a recording artist. Her versatility has led her to sing the most varied rôles, from Monteverdi to Verdi operas, and her renditions of Baroque and Classical repertoire have been critically acclaimed, such as her Susanna at the São Carlos National Theatre in Lisbon and Despina and Gretel for Opera Holland Park in London. Other highlights include Damigella at English National Opera and Margery (Lampe’s The Dragon of Wantley) at the Potsdam Festival with the Akademie für Alte Musik in Berlin. She has sung under the musical direction of Ton Koopman, Lawrence Foster, Julia Jones, Simone Young, Christopher König, Nicholas Kraemer, Gary Cooper, Laurence Cummings, Donato Renzetti, Martin André, Enrico Onofri, Augustin Dumay, Benjamin Bayl, Marcos Magalhães, Massimo Mazzeo and Miguel Jalôto, among others. She performs regularly with Músicos do Tejo and has recorded De Almeida’s La Spinalba and Il Trionfo d’Amore, both for Naxos.

Very little is known about the life of the Portuguese composer Francisco António de Almeida (c. 1702–c. 1755). His birth date can only be guessed, and he is believed to have died in the Lisbon earthquake of 1755. He nonetheless occupied a central position in the Portuguese musical world of the first half of the eighteenth century, and many examples of his skill survive, including several motets, a monumental Te Deum, the oratorio La Giuditta (1726), and several secular works, including Il trionfo d’Amore (scherzo pastorale, 1729), L’Ippolito (serenata, 1752) and La Spinalba, ovvero Il vecchio matto (dramma comico, 1739).