The Portuguese Philharmonic Orchestra (OFP) premieres on October 1, in Lisbon, “Europeando: Quadros para um Continente”, work by Sara Ross, for texts by Tiago Schwäbl, under the direction of conductor Osvaldo Ferreira, was announced today.
© Philharmonic Orchestra of Berlin
28/09/2026
by
Lusa
Philharmonic
“ ANDuropeando: Frames for a Continent” results from an order of the OFP and “two distinct creative moments: the first, ‘Europe — metamorphoses of love’ (2023), on the text of Alexander Honored, revisits the myth of Zeus and [of] Europe to interrogate the relations between memory, violence and power; the second, written from texts of James Schwäbl, takes us on a journey for a succession of songs and images in permanent transformation”, according to the presentation of the work.
“Europeanizing” makes up “a false diptych, in ‘trompe-l’oeil’, and puts these worlds in motion — between myth and song, memory and daily life, singular and collective voice —, and with them the concomitance of an ancient Europe, present and uninvented”.
Sara Ross was born in the Azores in 1989, settled in Lisbon, and her work as a composer includes opera, orchestral music, choir, chamber music, electronics, for voice, as well as music for theatre and dance, with works presented both in Portugal and in rooms of countries such as Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, the USA, Mexico and Cuba.
Ross studied composition with Luís Tinoco, Carlos Caires and António Pinho Vargas, at the Lisbon School of Music, and acoustic music with Sebastian Castagna at Teesside University in the UK.
In 2021, it premiered the opera "IN(opeRA)VEL", with libretto by Tiago Schwäbl and staging of Joana Providence, presented at the FIO – Informal Opera Festival. In 2024 she was a Young Composer in Residence, at Casa da Música, in Porto.
Among his plays stand out the dance “Something Ritmo”, premiered by the National Dance Company, as well as “Margarida”, winner of Marathon Opera XXI (Operafest Lisboa) and distinguished with the Carlos Pontes de Leça Award.
He collaborated regularly with the Ensemble Juvenil de Setúbal – artistic project for social inclusion – from 2014, year of its foundation, to 2021.
At the premiere of “Europeanando: Quadros para um Continente”, at Teatro S. Luiz, in Lisbon, on the world day of music, October 1, the OFP will be directed by conductor Osvaldo Ferreira, and at the concert participates soprano Patrícia Modesto and baritone André Henriques.