Ronan Gil de Morais, Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Goiás (IFG), Brazil
He is a percussionist, researcher and professor at the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Goiás (IFG). He holds a PhD from the University of Basel (Universität Basel, Switzerland) and the Fachhochscule für Musik FHNW in the Musicology program (Kooperationsprojekt Musikwissen). His work was supervised by Prof. Dr. Matthias Schmidt, Prof. Dr. Georges Starobinski and Prof. Christian Dierstein, and he received the citation insigni cum laude. He holds a master's degree in Composition et Interprétation Musicale from the University of Strasbourg (2011), where he presented a dissertation on the repertoire for percussion and mixed electroacoustic music under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Alessandro Arbo and Prof. Emmanuel Séjourné. He studied specialization in percussion keyboards at the Conservatoire de Strasbourg (France) under the guidance of Prof. Séjourné (with a Très bien honorable mention). He holds a Bachelor's degree in Percussion from the Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho (UNESP-2009), where he played with the Piap Group for four years and won the Excellence in Research Award for his final course work ("Brazilian repertoire for solo vibraphone"). He taught (Chargé de cours/Percussioniste accompagnateur) at the Conservatoire de Strasbourg and taught percussion at the Ecole de Musique de Souffelweyersheim. With the Piap Group he has performed throughout Brazil, in the USA and Canada (during the 2010 North American Tour) and has participated in concerts with the Katia and Marielle Labèque Duo. He has been a member of the most diverse chamber ensembles: AxisModula, Accroche Note, Ensemble Vertebrae, Texture Ensemble da Milano, Babel Trio, DUALpha, DuAnphibios with concerts in France, Italy, Luxembourg and Spain. He has premiered works and worked with Michelle Agnes Magalhães, Charles David Wajnberg, Flo Menezes, Daphné Hejebri, Stefano Gervasoni, Thomas Meadowcroft, Anna Sowa, David Hernandez Ramos, Fernando Iazzetta,Bertrand Gourdy, Zacarias Maia, Gitbi Kwon, Jacopo Costa, Patricia Goberna, Marisa Rezende, José Manoel Gatica, Nicolas Tzortis, Franck Christoph Yeznikian, Vito Zuraj, André Bandeira, among many others. Works by Michelle Agnes Magalhães, Charles David Wajnberg, Daphné Hejebri, Ivan Chiarelli and Roberto Victorio have been dedicated to him. He has recorded CDs with Ensemble Accroche Note, Grupo Piap, Grupo Percussionista de Câmara (GPC) and Euterpe, as well as the CD and DVD of the II Biennial of Contemporary Music in Mato Grosso. He has composed works for percussion ensemble and percussion with electronics (real and deferred time).
Luís Bittencourt, University of Aveiro, Portugal
Luís Bittencourt is percussionist, artist-researcher, science communicator, composer and producer. An active performer in a range of various styles (from Western art music, folk south American music, free improvisation to contemporary experimental music), Luís Bittencourt is considered "a master of sound experimentation" (Vision Magazine) and has performed solo in Europe, Oceania, north and south America. His performances, described as "a torrent of originality" (Casa da Música), include first auditions of his own compositions, and by composers Tan Dun, Gabriel Prokofiev, Steve Reich, Vinko Globokar and contemporary Portuguese composers. Bittencourt has also been featured in many contemporary art/music festivals and venues like IKLECTIK (UK), Sound Res (IT), The Cockpit (UK),Ciclo Do Audible (ES), Theatro Treze de Maio (BR), Guildhall School of Music and Drama (UK), Queensland Conservatoire Theatre Griffiths University (AU), Lisboa Soa, Casa da Música, Sonoscopia, Convento de São Francisco, Theatro Circo, Serralves em Festa!, GNRation, Arquipélago Centro de Artes Contemporâneas, Solilóquios, Museu de Lisboa, among other. He has performed and collaborated with Lee Ranaldo and Leah Singer (Sonic Youth), Jeffrey Ziegler (solo/Kronos Quartet), Phill Niblock, Kuniko Kato, Helga Davis, Katherine Liberovskaya, David Sheppard, Paola Prestini, Found Sound Nation, Gabriel Prokofiev, David Cossin (Bang on a Can), Jon Rose, Rafael Toral, Miquel Bernat, Mina Tindle, Emily Hall, among other. As composer and music producer he obtained 1st prize in the contest Legends of China - Confucius Arts Institute Award 2016 and has already collaborated with artists and institutions, such as Cecile Elton, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Lange Studios, Instagram® and Cannes Lions. As an artist-researcher, Bittencourt is the author of pioneer investigations, namely "Percussion and instrumentality: exploring the performance of unusual instruments and sound sources", a doctoral artistic research funded by CAPES; "The use of water as a percussive sound source: analysis of Tan Dun's Water Music", a master study on the sonic affordances of water; and "Liquid Memories for solo waterphone and live loops: creation, performance and transtextuality", an artistic research on the sonic potential of the waterphone, an almost unexplored contemporary musical instrument. His groundbreaking investigations have established new insights on experimentation in percussion music and on the instrumentality of "found instruments", and have been published and presented at many institutions worldwide, such as the Conservatoire Supérieur de Musique et Dance de Lyon (FR), Leeds College of Music (UK), Conservatório de Valencia (ES), Guildhall School of Music and Drama (UK), Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (BR), International Summer Course for New Music Darmstadt (DE), Bath Spa University (UK), Queensland Conservatoire/Griffiths University (AU). Bittencourt holds a PhD and a Master in Music Performance (University of Aveiro, Portugal) and a Bachelor Degree in Percussion Performance (Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Brazil). He is a member of the Society of Artistic Research (SAR) and Percussive Arts Society (PAS), and contributes regularly as peer reviewer for Per Musi, SHIMA, ORFEU, the Society for Artistic Research (SAR) and other. www.luisbittencourt.com
