José Eduardo Rocha

Composer, musician, visual artist, author, stage director, and teacher, born in Lisbon in 1961.
He studied Visual Arts at the Faculty of Fine Arts of Lisbon, Musical Composition at the Lisbon Superior School of Music, Musicology at the New University of Lisbon, and Theatre at the University of Alcalá, Madrid, where he obtained a postgraduate degree in 2008. In 2018, he was awarded the Title of Specialist in Musical Composition – Performing Arts by the Polytechnic Institute of Leiria.

In 1990, he founded the Ensemble JER – Os Plásticos de Lisboa, a group formed to perform a repertoire for toy instruments, instrumental music, and musical theatre, with which he performed around 200 shows in Portugal, Spain, and Germany.

As a composer, he is the author of opera, musical theatre, instrumental music, chamber music, choral music, and music for theatre and film (about 40 films). His notable creations include: A Saga da Formiga (Theatre in the Decade Award, 1992), Volkswagner (Teatro Maria Matos, 1996, Expo Hannover, 2000), Futebol (Monumental Festival, 1995, Centro Cultural de Belém, 1997), Sinfonia Náutica (Expo Lisboa, 1998), Missa do Homem Armado (Lisbon Cathedral, 1999), Suite para Harpa (Tobis, 2002), the opera Os Fugitivos (Teatro da Trindade/RTP, 2004), Piccola Sinfonia Pimba (Festival do Estoril, 2004), Cozido à Portuguesa (Teatro Nacional D. Maria II, 2006), Zeck (Teatro da Trindade, 2007), the musical A Conquista do Oeste (for the 200th Anniversary of the Lines of Torres Vedras, 2010), the chamber opera Cabaret Vicente (São Luiz Teatro Municipal, 2014), Quarteto com Piano (Darcos Season, 2014), Balada para Violone e Piano (Trio JER, 2017), the mini-opera Os Malefícios do Tabaco (Grémio Caldense, 2021), Sinfonia n.º SIC, for wind band (Bienal de Coruche, 2024), and the choral pieces Ética (Aula Magna, 2021) and O vos omnes (Santuário de Óbidos, 2024).

He has participated in numerous exhibitions, various music, theatre, and film festivals, in national and international biennials, at Expo’98 and Expo Hannover 2000. Since 1998, he has been a professor at the School of Arts and Design of Caldas da Rainha (ESAD.CR), in the courses of Visual Arts, Design, Sound and Image, Cultural Animation, and Theatre.