Pedro Caldeira Cabral

Pedro Caldeira Cabral (1950 in Lisbon, Portugal) 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 Iberian music, but also includes Portuguese traditional folk music, the 20th century repertoire of great Portuguese guitarists 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 achieved a phenomenal level of mastery, expressiveness and virtuosity. He has played the key role in his generation in matters of broadening its repertoire and developing its playing styles and playing techniques towards greater versatility and perfection.

As a child, he studied the Portuguese and classical guitars and the recorder. Later he studied music theory, counterpoint and harmony with Professor Artur Santos of the National Music Conservatory of Lisbon. In 1970 he began studying the lute,the viols and other early music string and wind instruments.

He founded and directed the early music groups 'La Batalla' and 'Concerto Atlântico', specialized in the performance of Medieval and Renaissance music on period instruments. 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 of the art and popular forms within the Mediterranean musical heritage. As a performer he has expanded the solo repertoire of the Portuguese guitar with transcriptions of works by J.S.Bach, S.L.Weiss, D.Scarlatti, Seixas, S.de Murcia, R.de Visée and many others, as well as given first performances of original pieces by other contemporary composers.

He has researched in the field of traditional music (musical organology) and collaborated with Dr. Ernesto Veiga de Oliveira on the second and third editions of the book “Portuguese Traditional Musical Instruments”, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, 1982 and 2000. In the same area he made the complete inventory and organological classification of Michel Giacometti’s collection in the Music Museum of Cascais. He composed original music for the theater, cinema, TV series and ballet and since 1969, toured intensively as a Portuguese guitar player in international music festivals in Europe, Asia and the U.S.

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