Bio

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Carlos Caires began his musical studies at the age of 13 at the Instituto Gregoriano de Lisboa, then he studied composition at the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa (ESML), where he was mentored by Constança Capdeville and Christopher Bochmann (composition), and António de Sousa Dias (electroacoustic music). Later, he earned a Maîtrise (1999), a Diplôme d’Études Approfondies (Master’s, 2000), and a PhD (2006, funded by an FCT scholarship) from the University of Paris 8, under the supervision of Horacio Vaggione.
Caires began his teaching career at the Conservatório Regional de Setúbal and the Conservatório Nacional de Música (1988-1991) before joining the faculty of ESML in 1992. Alongside composition, he pursued studies in choral and orchestral conducting, attending several summer courses in Portugal and abroad. He co-directed the Coro da Juventude Musical Portuguesa with conductor Paulo Lourenço and later co-founded and co-conducted Coro Ricercare until 1998.
His music has been performed at festivals in Portugal as well as in various European countries, the United States, and China. He has received several composition awards, including the Joly Braga Santos Prize (1995) for Al Niente, the Cláudio Carneyro Prize (1996) for Wordpainting, and the ACARTE Prize (1998, shared with João Madureira) for Retábulo-Melodrama.
His work also includes soundtracks and sound design for several independent animated films. Over the past two decades, he has been actively involved in the development of specialized software for electroacoustic music and computer-assisted composition. One of his most significant projects is IRIN, a sound micromontage software he began developing during his doctoral research at the CICM (Centre de Recherche Informatique et Création Musicale at the University of Paris 8) and continues to refine today. More recently, his work has expanded into interactive audiovisual installations, where he explores the integration of motion sensors and real-time sound processing.

As an educator, he played a key role in the development of courses and projects in computer music and computer-assisted composition in Portugal.

As a visiting professor, he taught, led seminars or workshops at various national and international institutions, such as the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, the Marcel A. Desautels Faculty of Music (Canada), the University of California Santa Barbara (USA), the University of Iowa (USA), the Conservatoire National Supérieur musique et danse de Lyon (France), among others.

Carlos Caires lives in Lisbon and teaches at the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa.

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