The Festival Música Viva 2026 establishes itself as a stage for aesthetic and ethical resistance in a world marked by deep crises: the consolidation of hegemonic powers, the worsening of inequalities, the normalisation of tyranny, massacre, and the progressive erosion of humanity and nature. In the face of this state of the world, the festival embraces insurgency as a vital necessity—a conscious gesture against inertia, silencing, and indifference.
In this 32nd edition, Insurgency is both poetic and political. Musical creation emerges as an act of confrontation, deviation, and refusal, asserting art as a sensitive weapon against structural violence, dehumanisation, and the logic of fear. The works presented do not seek comfort but rather friction: they question, expose wounds, open fissures, and summon new forms of listening, thinking, and presence.
The programme crosses languages, generations, and geographies, bringing together artists who challenge dominant models, explore the limits of sound, body, word, and technology, and affirm contemporaneity as a space of urgency, plurality, and risk—encounters that propose and construct a path of intense listening and critical reflection on our time.
At the Festival Música Viva 2026, to insurg is also to resist the uniformization of taste, to create against the violence of repetition, and to affirm art as a place of freedom, radical imagination, and responsibility. In a world in collapse, music becomes an act of insubordination and active hope.
Programme
28 April | INSURGÊNCIA, Sond’Ar-te Electric Ensemble – buy ticket
Conductor: Guillaume Bourgogne
Tuesday, 8 p.m.
Sala Luis Miguel Cintra
A reading of Jasmine Rain by and featuring Shahd Wadi, a Palestinian poet, amongst other possibilities.
José Carlos Sousa: Mafish Mushkila (2026) – World Premiere (commissioned by SAEE)
Pedro Berardinelli: new work (2026) / World Premiere (jointly commissioned by the Viseu International Spring Music Festival and Miso Music Portugal)
Carlos Lopes: in Pulses (2026) / World Premiere (commissioned by Miso Music Portugal)
Olivier Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time (1941)
Sílvia Cancela – flute, Nuno Pinto – clarinet, Vítor Vieira – violin, Filipe Quaresma – cello, João Casimiro Almeida – piano, João Dias – percussion
29 April | PEIXINHO POLÍTICO, Ensemble MPMP – buy ticket
Wednesday, 6pm
Sala Bernardo Sassetti
Reading of a poem by and performed by Gisela Casimiro.
Jorge Peixinho: CDE (1970)
Jorge Peixinho: Elegy to Amílcar Cabral (1973)
Jorge Peixinho: The Dawn of Socialism (Madrigale Capriccioso) (1975–76)
Rui Borges Maia – flute, Miguel Costa – clarinet, Armando Martins – horn, Philippe Marques – piano, Francisco Cipriano – percussion, Daniel Bolito – violin, Ângela Carneiro – cello
29 April | O POVO UNIDO JAMAIS SERÁ VENCIDO, José Pedro Ribeiro (piano recital) – buy ticket
Wednesday, 8 p.m.
Sala Luis Miguel Cintra
Reading of Letter to My Children on Goya’s Executions, by Jorge de Sena, performed by Rosinda Costa.
Fernando Lopes-Graça: Prelude, Song and Dance (1928)
Frederik Rzewski: The People United Will Never Be Defeated! (1975)
30 April | EXIGENTES OS MORTOS, INSURGENTES OS VIVOS, Duo Nada Contra – buy ticket
Mrika Sefa (piano) _ Francisco Cipriano (percussion)
Thursday, 6pm
Sala Bernardo Sassetti
Reading of a poem by and performed by Mrika Sefa, and of a poem by Audre Lorde performed by Marta Domingues.
João Quinteiro: Pairs – à propos de l’interiorité (2024)
Valerio Sannicandro: Esercizi di morte (2024)
Marta Domingues: Sowing snow in cone pots (2024)
Anda Kryeziu: new work (2026) / EA (commissioned by Miso Music Portugal)
30 April | DESFASAMENTOS: STEVE REICH E SOLANGE AZEVEDO, Portuguese Chamber Orchestra Percussion Group (OCP) and guests – buy ticket
Conductor: Pedro Carneiro
Thursday, 8 p.m.
Sala Luis Miguel Cintra
Reading of Com Sol e Sal, eu Escrevo by Sidónio Muralha, performed by João Morales
Solange Azevedo: No Mesmo Espaço (2026) / EA (commissioned by Miso Music Portugal)
Steve Reich: Drumming (1971)
Rui Borges Maia – flute; Maria Grilo – soprano; Markéta Chumová – mezzo-soprano; Pedro Carneiro – conductor and percussion; João Carlos Pacheco – assistant conductor and percussion; Agostinho Sequeira, Marco Aleixo, João Braga Simões, Rafael Picamilho, Bárbara Ribeiro, Paulo Amendoeira, Madalena Rato – percussion
2 May | CANTO DA LIBERDADE, Miso String Quartet – buy ticket
Saturday, 6pm
Sala Bernardo Sassetti
Reading of a text by Gonçalo M. Tavares, performed by Joana Santos.
Diogo Alvim: Tłumaczenie (2015)
Doïna Rotaru: Vivarta (2009)
Steve Reich: Different Trains (1988)
2 May | TRANSFORMAÇÃO – Sinfonietta de Braga presents Rita Castro Blanco – buy ticket
Conductor: Rita Castro Blanco
Saturday, 8 p.m.
Sala Luis Miguel Cintra
Reading of Os Lusíadas, Canto IV, stanzas 94–104 by Luiz Vaz de Camões, read by Miguel Azguime.
Alban Berg – 3 pieces for string orchestra from the Lyric Suite (1925–26 / arr. Theo Verbey, 1993)
György Ligeti: Ramifications (1969)
Toru Takemitsu: Requiem for string orchestra (1957)
Bruno Gabirro: Rebel (Chaos) (2008)
Carlos Brito Dias: “was birgst du so bang dein Gesicht?” (2022)
3 May | O LUGAR DA MEMÓRIA, Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra – buy ticket
Conductor: Pedro Neves
Sunday, 5.30pm
Sala Luis Miguel Cintra
Miguel Azguime: Against Silence / Triple Concerto for clarinet, cello, piano and orchestra
Ludwig van Beethoven: Triple Concerto for violin, cello, piano and orchestra
Nuno Pinto – clarinet, Vítor Vieira – violin, Filipe Quaresma – cello, Elsa Silva – piano
