Filipe Faria
Managing Artistic Director

Filipe Faria was born in Lisbon in 1976. Father, musician, composer, photographer, author, programmer, director, producer and researcher, he graduated in Musical Sciences from the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Universidade Nova de Lisboa in 1998. In 2000 he completed a Postgraduate Degree in Musicology at Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa; in 2002 the Master’s Specialisation in Documentary Sciences at Universidade de Évora; and in 2004 a Postgraduate Degree of the Master’s in Art, Heritage and Theory of Restoration at the University of Lisbon / Faculty of Letters / Institute of Art History. He founded and co-ordinated the degree and postgraduate Musicology programme – UAL in 1999–2001, and founded and coordinated the Bachelor’s programme in Music Education – ISCE in 2008–2009.

In 2000, he founded the production company and label Arte das Musas, of which he is manager and artistic & production director, developing original projects and national and international partnerships in the areas of music, dance, sound art, documentary film, ethnography, visual arts, photography, publishing and programming.

He created and founded, in 2003, the Festival Terras sem Sombra of Sacred Music of Baixo Alentejo, serving as artistic & production director between 2003 and 2010; and, in 2012, the Fora do Lugar – International Early Music Festival in Idanha-a-Nova (UNESCO City of Music), of which he is artistic & production director.

He was a full member of the Gulbenkian Choir between 1998 and 2013, touring in Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, China, the United States, Malta, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, England, Japan and Israel, among others; and worked as a freelance musician with national early-music ensembles during the same period.

In 1999 he founded the early and contemporary music consort Sete Lágrimas, which he co-directs, with a discography of 17 titles — Lachrimæ #1 (2007), Kleine Musik (2008), Diaspora.pt: Diáspora, vol.1 (2008), Silêncio (2009), Pedra Irregular (2010), Vento (2010), Terra: Diáspora, vol.2 (2011), En tus brazos una noche (2012), Península: Diáspora, vol.3 (2013), Cantiga (2014), Um dia normal (2015), Missa Mínima (composed by himself and Sérgio Peixoto, 2016), Twentie Yeares in Seaven Teares (2021), Loa – André Dias de Escobar (c.1348–1450/51) and his Laudas and spiritual songs (…) (1435) — a dialogue with the Laudario di Cortona (13th c.) and Laudario di Firenze (14th c.) (2023), Folia Nova (New Early Music composed by himself and Sérgio Peixoto from 15th- and 16th-century Portuguese poetry, 2023) — nominated for the Vodafone PLAY 2024 Awards (Best Classical / Erudite Album) —, BACH (new particles from J. S. Bach, 2024) — nominated for the Vodafone PLAY 2025 Awards (Best Classical / Erudite Album) —, and The Elvas Project, Vol. 1, the first volume of the hexalogy dedicated to the complete Cancioneiro de Elvas (16th c.). He has performed at festivals and cultural centres across Europe and Asia: Portugal, Bulgaria, Italy, Malta, Spain, China, Sweden, France, Belgium, Norway, Luxembourg, Germany, the Czech Republic and Croatia.

In 2012 he founded the early music ensemble Noa Noa, with a discography of 4 titles — Língua, vol. 1 (2014), Língua, vol. 2 (2015), De la mar (2016), Palavricas d’amor (2017) — and a performance history at festivals and cultural centres in Portugal, France, Belgium and Japan. In 2026 the ensemble will release the third volume of the Língua project — Língua, Vol. 3.

In 2015 he published his first book, the graphic poem Um dia normal.

In 2016 and 2017 he created the multidisciplinary projects Todas as noutes passadas (with Pedro Castro and Carla Albuquerque) and Como dormirão meus olhos? (with Pedro Castro), both commissioned by Centro Cultural de Belém / Fábrica das Artes, in partnership with Zonzo Compagnie (Belgium) and funded by the European Union’s Creative Europe programme.

In 2018 he released the CD with original music (co-written with Pedro Castro) for Todas as noutes passadas and collaborated with Mara Maravilha in creating and performing the soundtrack for the project Isto não é uma nuvem, presented during Dias da Música at CCB.

In 2018/2019 he developed the project Paisagem Sonora #1–#6: Biofonias, Geofonias e Antropofonias in Proença-a-Nova, Vila Velha de Ródão, Oleiros, Penamacor, Castelo Branco and Idanha-a-Nova — premiered in these cities in dialogue with photographers Valter Vinagre and Pedro Martins. In 2020 he was invited by Projeto Cinco to develop a soundscape project in the municipalities of Águeda, Idanha-a-Nova, Lousã, Óbidos and S. Pedro do Sul, which resulted in Cinco sopros para uma paisagem. This public sound-installation project premiered simultaneously in those cities and was adapted into a tribute performance for anthropologist Benjamin Pereira (1928–2019), premiered at Centro Cultural Raiano.

In 2020 he created the project Museu dos Sons Perdidos – photographic essays and soundscapes of his own making –, published in book form and exhibited at Centro Cultural Raiano: Antes dela dormir (vol.1, 2022), Aqui estão as palavras todas (vol.2, 2022), As cantigas são tantas que a mim até se mudam (vol.3, 2023) and A minha vida foi essa toda (vol.4, 2024).

In 2018 he launched the Etno Series, through which he developed the projects Do ramo de uma árvore (2018) — A palheta de 8 furos. Reinterpretation of José dos Reis’ reed (Monsanto, 1911–1996), in partnership with Pedro Castro, master artisans Mário Estanislau and Vítor Félix, and the Institute of Ethnomusicology (INET-md, FCSH/UNL) — and Na matéria do diálogo (2023) — reinterpretation of Manuel Moreira’s Viola Beiroa (Salvador, 1891–1970), Penha Garcia — a dialogue with Belchior Dias’s hand viola (Lisbon, 1581), in partnership with viola-maker Orlando Trindade and INET-md. Both projects developed into books and a documentary by him.

In 2020 he released the solo CD Inselberg Partita, n.2 for Homem e Terra Solo.

In 2022 he published the photography book Risco Branco Risco, a North–South journey through Portugal via the iconic N2 road, and produced a documentary of the same name.

In 2023 he published the photographic essay Flow, inspired by the song Flow my tears by John Dowland (c.1563–1626).

In 2023 he created the project Guardados – photographic, literary and audiovisual essays – published as books: Guardados 001 (2023), Guardados 002 (2024) and Guardados 003 — O Vazio (2025), inaugurated as an exhibition at Centro Cultural Raiano.

In 2021 his film Olha para mim, que pode não ser verdade amanhã was selected for the official programme of the Festival du Cinéma et des Cultures Européenes de Strasbourg (France), organised by MESA – Maison de l’Europe Strasbourg-Alsace; and in 2024 for the official programme of Salva a Terra – Ecofestival.

In 2020/2021, in partnership with dancer, choreographer and director Winnie Dias (Brazil), he realised the project of 14 video-dances, music, performance and photography Se chovesse um oceano (If it rained an ocean), filmed in Germany (Berlin, Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Wuppertal), Switzerland (Zürich) and Portugal (Idanha-a-Velha), with dancers Futaba Ishizaki (Japan), Naomi Brito (Brazil), Rafaela Bosi (Brazil), Rafaelle Queiroz (Brazil), Fuyumi Hamashima (Japan), Isabella Heylmann (Australia), Hayley Page (Australia) and Borja Bermudez (Spain). The project was included in the official selection of international festivals: MiMo (Italy, 2022) – Winner: Best Music Video; Super9 (Portugal, 2022) – Winner: Best Mobile Experimental; IMARP (Brazil, 2022); Flatlands Dance Film Festival (Nevada, USA, 2023) – Quarter-finalist; Lift-Off Film Festival (London, 2023); Athens International Art Film Festival (Greece, 2023) – Winner + Honorable Mention (top 3); InShadow – Lisbon Screendance Festival (Portugal, 2022) – Video Installation + Shortlist for Rising National Artist ETIC Award; FIVC – International Screendance Festival (Chile, 2022) – Semi-finalist + Finalist; Salva a Terra – Ecofestival (Portugal, 2024) – Video Installation. In 2021 the project was exhibited at Centro Cultural Raiano and premiered live with dancer Winnie Dias.

In 2024, within the L3 – Lisboa Leipzig Luanda project (inspired by Bach), he created two screendances BACH [1] and BACH [2] with Angolan dancer and choreographer Fábio Krayze. These screendances were part of official selections at international festivals: Athens International Art Film Festival (Greece, 2025) — Honorable Mention; Berlin Indie Film Festival (Germany, 2025); Braga International Video Dance Festival (Portugal, 2025) — Semifinalist; Experimental Forum Los Angeles (USA, 2025); Screendance Festival Stockholm (Sweden, 2025); Tokyo Lift-Off Film Festival (Japan, 2025); IDFNOLA International Dance Festival New Orleans FILM (USA, 2025).

In 2025 he premieres the visual and sound installation Fragmenta, with music by Sete Lágrimas, a proposal of new sonic and visual particles derived from the fragments of the seven Cantigas d’Amor by King D. Dinis (1261–1325) — on the 700th anniversary of his death — preserved, with music, in the so-called Pergaminho Sharrer, “a fragmentary folio from a lost songbook, written around 1300” (Manuel Pedro Ferreira), found in 1990 by Harvey Leo Sharrer in the National Archive of Torre do Tombo, in Lisbon, where it is still kept.

As a photographer, he is represented in the collection of Centro Cultural Raiano with: Antes dela dormir (vol.1, 2022), Aqui estão as palavras todas (vol.2, 2022), As cantigas são tantas que a mim até se mudam (vol.3, 2023), A minha vida foi essa toda (vol.4, 2024), Guardados 001 (2023), Guardados 002 (2024), Guardados 003 — O Vazio (2025), Se chovesse um oceano (2021/22), Um dia normal (2023) and Fragmenta (2025). He was also represented in group exhibitions Close-up and Forgotten Places, with works Light II, Hand and Untitled at Galeria Milepiani (Rome, Italy, 2023).

He completed the General Course of the National Conservatory in 1992, the Complementary Violin Course at the National Conservatory of Lisbon / FMAC in 1997, the Photography Course at Ar.Co – Centre for Art and Visual Communication – with photographer Roger Meintjes in 1995, the Painting Course at the Sociedade Nacional de Belas Artes between 2001 and 2005 with painters Paiva Raposo and Mário Rita, and, by invitation, the Atelier Livre de Pintura da SNBA with painter Jaime Silva in 2005.

In 2014 he was invited to join the Application Commission for Idanha-a-Nova’s accession to the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in the field of Music, approved in 2015. Since 2015 he has represented Idanha-a-Nova as a stakeholder at UNESCO international meetings in Sweden (Östersund), Japan (Hammamatsu), Italy (Fabriano), Poland (Katowice), Pesaro (Italy), at WOMEX 2017 (Katowice, Poland), in Erasmus+ projects — Network of Cultural Spaces (2023/24) — Estonia, Latvia, Italy, Portugal, Macedonia, Croatia and Georgia — and Digit ICH (2024/25) — Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Italy, Portugal, Macedonia, Croatia and Georgia — and at the European Congress of Local Governments / Institute for Eastern Studies / Economic Forum (Poland, Kraków), among other speaking engagements.

The Arte das Musas projects and Fora do Lugar Festival, in Idanha-a-Nova, have been supported, since 2003, by the Portuguese Ministry of Culture / Directorate-General for the Arts, and, since 2020, are full members of REMA – Réseau Européen de Musique Ancienne / Early Music European Network.