Profile

Born in Lisbon (1957). Licenciate in History (U. Lisbon, 1980) and PhD in Musicology (U. Texas-Austin, 1990). He served, namely, as Professor of Musical Sciences at the New University of Lisbon, Head of the Culture Programme of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and Secretary of State for Culture in the Portuguese government. As a musicologist and cultural historian he has studied several areas of Portuguese and Iberian-American Music History, as well as the History of Portuguese Fado and of Brazilian Popular Music. In these fields he is the author of a vast bibliography and lectured intensely in academic and cultural institutions in Portugal, Europe, Brazil and the USA. Amongst other distinctions he received the Order of Prince Henry, the Gold Medal of the City of Lisbon, the University of Coimbra Prize, the Gold Medal of the Society of Portuguese Authors and the Merit Certificate of the Order of Musicians of Brazil. He is a Merit Member of the Portuguese Academy of History, Full Member of the Navy Academy and Corresponding Member of the Lisbon Academy of Sciences and of the National Academy of Fine Arts, as well as a member of the PEN Clubs of Portugal and Brazil and of the European Cultural Parliament.