António Pinho Vargas

António Pinho Vargas (born Vila Nova de Gaia, August 15, 1951) is a Portuguese composer and pianist specialized in the performance and writing of Jazz and contemporary music. He has also written books, essays and articles on the subject of music. Having obtained a degree in history at the University of Porto, he later proceeded to study music at the Rotterdam Conservatory (from 1987 until 1990) where he graduated in Musical Composition. He has been teaching Music Composition at the Escola Superior de Música in Lisbon since 1991. Early in his career he became a leading name in Portuguese Jazz, where one could already often hear the influence of contemporary music. He recorded seven albums in his Jazz style, the first being Outros Lugares (1983). He also wrote seven soundtracks for Portuguese films and two theatrical plays. Since his return from the Netherlands he has mainly been a classical composer, having written three operas, several orchestral and ensemble pieces, and also works recorded by the Arditti Quartet, the Galliard Ensemble, the Royal Scottish Academy Brass and the Northern Sinfonia, among others. The most recent CD with his works Requiem (2012) and Judas (2002) was released in October 2014 at Naxos.