José Valente, Porto, Portugal. Violist and Composer.
Viola graduation from Kaertner Landes Konservatorium (Austria) with the highest grade, and Jazz at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York, with honours. Played with Paquito D’Rivera, Don Byron and Hank Roberts. Performed at Carnegie Hall, Dizzy’s Club at Lincoln Center, Banff Centre, 16ª Cerveira’s Art’s Biennale, Serralves Fundation.
José Valente - awarded artist with "The Hannah S. and Samuel A. Cohn Memorial Foundation Endowed Fellowship".
Born in Porto, Portugal.
He studied classical viola in Austria and Jazz at the internationally aclaimed New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music.
Among others, he studied with: Ana Bela Chaves, Prof. Brian Finlayson, Prof. Mathias Buchholz, Jane Ira Bloom, Reggie Workman, Aaron Goldberg, and Jim Black.
While living in New York he had the opportunity to work with, among others, Grammy award winner Paquito d'Rivera, Joshua Redman, Dave Douglas, Tony Malaby, Hank Roberts, Matt Pennman, Don Byron.
He played live at the RTLs televised broadcast of the ski jumping world championship in Planiza, Slovenia; at the Olympia Park and the Prinzregententheater in Munich; and at the ZDF television show Wetten das with broadcast in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
He also performed in many clubs and halls, including the world famous Carnegie Hall (featured soloist), Dizzy's Club at Lincoln Center, Sweet Rhythm, Union Square Park (Solo concert), and live radio broadcast at WGBO.
In May 2009, he received a scholarship to participate in the BANFF WORKSHOP FOR JAZZ AND CREATIVE MUSIC, hosted by Dave Douglas, and performed at the Banff Summer Festival.
In July 2009 he received an honorary mention for his piece "Sem Abrigo" in the composition competition PRÉMIO DE COMPOSIÇÃO LOPES-GRAÇA 2009.
He participated in the festival "Serralves em Festa 2010" as winner of the artistic competition with two projects: "A Conversa" and "Vamos Tocar".
He is the creator of the concept EXPERIENCES OF TODAY with who he played at: Paredes de Coura Music Festival; 16ª Art Biennal of Cerveira; XIII and XIV Cultural Week of the University of Coimbra.
In January 2011, he released together with Associação Arte à Parte (www.arteaparte.pt), the album "José Valente and EXPERIENCES OF TODAY".
His composition "Amarelo Schwartz" is part of the exposition "MONO" organized by the Círculo de Artes Plásticas de Coimbra (CAPC).
He premiered at the University of Coimbra, his composition "Invisible Cities", based on the book with the same name by Italo Calvino, in the conference "The Multiple Cities of Italo Calvino", together with Dtr. Rita Marnoto and Arquitecht Nuno Grande.
In April 2011, he started to participated in the "Improvisações/Colaborações" workshops, organized by Serralves Foundation. He performed with Jason Kao Hwang, Zeena Parkins and William Winnant.
He performed and created the soundtrack for MARIONET's direction of the Theater play of "Calculus" by Carl Djerassi.
He was invited to do an artisitic residency at the Djerassi Residency Artists Program in San Francisco, USA in 2012, where he compoosed "Invasão | Invasion", in the meantime premeried in Portugal as well. He was the first portuguese to visit this program. He also performed in New York with Daniel Levin, Jason Kao Hwang and Steven Lugerner.
He collaborates often with brasilien visual artist Chico Santos. His music was soundtrack in films like "Invasão, Cariri" by Chico Santos, or "Nocturna" by Francisco Carvalho.
He is a member of the performative research group GRUPO READYMADE, directed by Joana Pupo.
His song "Uma Canção ainda sem título" was composed for the Coimbra guitarrist Fernando Marques, with lyrics by Nuno Carmarneiro. It will be premiered in Fernando's next album, to be released in 2014.
He's a founding member of "Incompleto" with actor Cláudio Da Silva and bassist Sérgio Tavares.
He is the composer and musical protagonist of "Garranos" a film by Miguel Filgueiras to be released in 2014. He is also responsible for the soundtrack of the short film "SAGRADO" by Ruptura Silenciosa, a project lead by Arquitecht Nuno Grande about the Igreja do Sagrado Coração de Jesus (Sacred Hart of Jesus Church) from Architects Nuno Portas and Teotónio Pereira.
He's doing a doctorate degree at the University of Coimbra in Contemporary Art, under the guidance of painter António Olaio.