SOFIA BORGES
20.09. • 18:00 – 23:00 • Westflügel • Concerts
Sofia Borges is a percussionist, composer and improviser who has gained prominence through a wide range of international projects. As a solo performer, and in collaboration with diverse international artists in the fields of contemporary music, improvised music, free jazz and global music, she has performed in a variety of international festivals, including the Jazzfest Berlin (Germany), CTM Festival Berlin, Klangwerkstatt (Berlin), Hamburger Klangwerktage, Jazz no Parque (Portugal), WOMAD — World of Music, Arts and Dance (Spain, Australia, the UK and New Zealand), Percpan — Panorama Percussivo Mundial (Brazil), Women Voices (Taiwan), Cork Choral Festival (Ireland) and many others in Switzerland, Estonia, Netherlands, France, Poland, Macau and U.S.A. For her compositions and performances, she brings together traditional and custom-made instruments and electronics configurations. Borges has been playing percussion since she was a teenager, receiving her early training on drums, percussion, jazz, chamber and orchestral music at the Escola de Música dos Conservatório Nacional (Portugal) and the Hot Club of Portugal. Subsequently, she broadened her studies to include composition, computer music and multimedia at the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa (Portugal) and the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg (Germany). She has studied with composers Luís Tinoco, João Madureira, Sergio Azevedo, Georg Hajdu and Peter Michael Hamel, among others, and has participated in composition workshops with James Wood, Leo Samama, Marco Stroppa, Edith Canat de Chizy and Michael van der Aa. As an improviser, Borges is active in the Berlin scene and has toured throughout Europe for solo performances and collaborations with the most prominent musicians in the field, receiving critical praise for her performances. She performs using a distinguished sound palette that constantly evolves but includes a selection of percussion instruments complemented by a wide variety of everyday objects, tools, hardware, music boxes and toys, with which she engulfs the audience in the most diverse and unexpected sonic landscapes.
Photo © Frank Schindelbeck
