Helena Marinho

Portugal (residence)
research interests: performance research
affiliation: University of Aveiro
en

Pianist and associated professor at the University of Aveiro, Helena Marinho combines a performing career with academic and artistic research. Her publications include CDs, book chapters and articles, and she has led three multiannual artistic research projects financed by the Portuguese Government and European funds.

research

research expositions (collaborated)

  • Marinho & Branco - New music for old instruments (2020) author(s): Helena Marinho, Joaquim Branco published in: Norwegian Academy of Music
    This project addressed the digital expansion of fortepiano features using techniques of sound design and programming, studying how these interact with the performing and improvising processes and questioning a sonic image of the fortepiano's affordances that is limited by the perception of the standard devices available on modern pianos: the sustaining and the *una corda* pedals. We took our point of departure from two research questions: 1) Since sound-altering devices are not normally available in modern copies of fortepianos, how can we conceive and apply experimental alternatives? 2) How do the ensuing alterations modify instrumental perception and can they contribute to the creation of alternative performing solutions, namely in association with improvisatory practices and sound synthesis? The research has exposed the aesthetic limitations of merely considering historical re-construction. In doing so, it has highlighted a set of performing techniques, creative procedures and digital applications that can contribute to a deconstruction of the standard perception of the sound of historical keyboard instruments and to the creation of experimental paths for performing and improvising on the fortepiano through the mediation of electronic interfaces and digital sound objects.
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