Fernando Lopes-Graça

Chronology

• 1906: December 17: birth in Tomar.
• 1924: becomes a student at the Conservatório Nacional de Lisboa.
• 1927: becomes a student of Vianna da Motta's Classe de Virtuosidade.
• 1931: obtains the Composition Degree. In the same year he is arrested and expelled to Alpiarça.
• 1934: wins a scholarship to study in France, which he is later denied for political reasons.
• 1937: goes to Paris, where he studies with composition and orchestration with Charles Koechlin.
• 1938: The "Maison de la Culture de Paris" commissions «La fiévre du temps». Harmonisation of traditional Portuguese songs.
• 1940: Wins the composition prize from Círculo de Cultura Musical with his 1st Concert for Piano and Orchestra.
• 1942: wins a prize from Círculo de Cultura Musical for «História Trágico-Marítima».
• 1944: wins, for the 3rd time, the Composition Prize from Círculo de Cultura Musical for «Sinfonia».
• 1945: integrates the Movement of Democratic Unity's District Commission.
• 1949: integrates the jury of the International Béla Bartók Festival in Budapest.
• 1952: wins another composition prize from Círculo de Cultura Musical for his 3rd Piano Sonata, dedicated to the Franco-Swiss pianist Hélène Boschi, who premieres the sonata in Paris in 1954.
• 1961: publishes, with Michel Giacometti, the 1st volume of the Antologia de Música Regional Portuguesa. Starts work on «In Memoriam Béla Bartók», which he will complete in 1975.
• 1969: Mstislav Rostropovich performs his Concerto da Camera.
• 1973: Editora Cosmos starts the publication of «Obras Literárias».
• 1974: becomes president of the Comissão para a Reforma do Ensino Musical, created by the Provisional Government of the April Revolution.
• 1979: composes the «Requiem pelas vítimas do fascismo em Portugal» for large orchestra, soloists, and choir.
• 1981: receives invitation from the Hungarian government for the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of Béla Bartók's birth.
• 1993: publication of his complete piano sonatas and sonatinas. Tribute for his 87th birthday.
• 1994: dies, at home, in the evening of November 27.