Biography

Mafalda Carvalho is a Portuguese flutist who currently holds the position of First Flute at Orquestra Clássica do Centro, teaches at Academia de Música de Costa Cabral and is a doctoral candidate at Programa Doutoral em Música da Universidade de Aveiro. Her orchestral experience includes being Piccolist at Jalisco Philharmonic Orchestra, in Mexico, between 2017 and 2019; Principal Flute with Portugal’s Orquestra Clássica da Madeira from 2016 to 2017, Second Flute with Fundação Orquestra Estúdio (Guimarães 2012 - European Capital of Culture), and several collaborations as an extra with orchestras such as Orquestra Gulbenkian, Orquesta Sinfonica de Galicia and Orquestra Filarmonia das Beiras. She was also a member of youth orchestras such as Estágio Gulbenkian para Orquestra, Orquesta Joven de la Sinfonica de Galicia, Orquestra de Jovens dos Conservatórios Oficiais de Música and Orquestra de Jovens de Portugal - Momentum Perpetuum. Ms. Carvalho is also an experienced contemporary music performer, having participated at the I Remix Ensemble Summer Academy and being a part of Oporto Contemporary Ensemble. Ms. Carvalho has played as soloist with Orquestra Portuguesa de Guitarras e Bandolins, Orquestra Filarmonia das Beiras, Orquestra Gulbenkian, Cologne Chamber Orchestra, Orquestra Clássica da Madeira, Orquestra Sinfonieta da ESMAE and Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa. She has been awarded several prizes in Portugal and Spain, including the 1st at Concurso Internacional José Massarrão in 20191st Prize at Prémio Jovens Músicos in 2016, 2nd Prize at Prémio de Interpretação Frederico de Freitas in 2016, 1st Prize at the International Winds Competition “Terras de La Salette” in 2013, Honorable Mention at Prémio Helena Sá e Costa in 2011, 1st Prize at Paços Premium Competition in 2010, 3rd Prize at Prémio Jovens Músicos in 2010, 1st Prize at Prémio Albertino Lucas in 2010 and Prize at Prémio Honorífico David Russel in 2008. Ms. Carvalho began her musical studies at the school of her hometown’s Wind Band (União Filarmónica do Troviscal), at the age of 6. Afterwards, she studied at Conservatório de Música de Aveiro with Ana Maria Ribeiro. At ESMAE - Oporto she obtained a Bachelor degree and a Masters degree in Perfomance, studying under Ana Raquel Lima. She has also obtained a Masters degree in Music Education at Aveiro University, where she studied with Jorge Salgado Correia. Ms. Carvalho was flute teacher at some schools, as Conservatório de Música de Seia – Collegium Musicum, at Academia Artística do Município de Tábua, Escola de Música de Perosinho, Escola de Música da União Filarmónica do Troviscal anda Escola de Música da Banda Musical São Tiago de Silvalde, and also substitute flute teacher at Academia de Música de Paços de Brandão, ESPROARTE and  Conservatório de Música e Artes do Dão. Ms. Carvalho is regularly invited to give flute and piccolo masterclasses.

This artistic research project stems from a personal restlessness and a desire. I question my training in a personal quest that confronts the traditional conception of the interpreter as a mere executant of what is written in the score with an approach of an emancipated interpreter. It is intended to have the capacity to involve new audiences, to stimulate and intensify the aesthetic experience. Through experimentation and creation, the intention is to achieve a final performance complemented by a document that clarifies it, in which it is made evident how these narratives developed in my imaginary, but giving space and stimulus to the members of the audience to make their own constructions of meaning and eventually their mythopoetic reconfigurations. The exploration or re-reading of these past narratives are a starting point to engage in dialogue with the present and the future. Based on the exploration of the symbolic charge associated with each score and resorting to an expansion of the musical gesture, I intend to mobilize sound and non-sound dimensions, to involve the body movement and to intervene scenically, also with multi-media, aiming at the creation of a matrix to model performances, which can eventually be a reference for other performers. The application of this matrix will focus on a selection of musical compositions that explicitly - either by title or by the explanatory notes left by the composers themselves - refer to mythological narratives.

Much of what is essential in this project is ineffable. Thus, this summary becomes a little more complete if the reader accesses the video recording (it cannot, helas, be live) of the following excerpt of a performance that is a preliminary result of this research: https://youtu.be/M4HjWiyChHU