José Carlos Almeida de Sousa was born in Viseu, Portugal, in 1972. He studied at the Conservatory of Viseu and at the University of Aveiro where he completed a Master’s Degree and later a Masters in Composition and Electronic Music. He was responsible for theorganization of the International Classical Guitar Competition and Festival of Sernancelhe, alongside with Paula Sobral. He holds the current post of the Artistic Director of the Spring International Music Festival of Viseu, which he organizes since 2008. In 1995 he won the first prize of the 1st composition competition of the Viseu conservatory where he studied, with the children’s piano work, “Almofada”. In the Competition of Electroacoustic Composition “Música Viva 2000”, he was awarded with an Honourable Mention. In April of 2001 he was awarded with his work “Viagem” in the aforementioned competition, integrated in Porto 2001 European Capital of Culture. His latest works come from the commissioning of several national and international institutions, and his music has been played in several national and international music festivals in Europe and America. He is currently teaching composition at the Music Conservatory of Viseu, and also holds the position of Director of the Conservatory since 2004.

Souks is an electroacoustic piece completed in September 2018 and resulting from a commission from the DME Festival (Days of Electroacoustic Music), within the frame of the project “The Soundscape we live in”, an European Project organized in collaboration with GMVL, Tempo Reale, Amici della musica de Cagliari, AFEA and Ionian University. This is a work created from sounds that were recorded by different people in 4 different countries: Portugal, Greece, France and Italy. Souks’ starting point is based on the memories of a trip I made to Morocco and the fantastic world of sounds, smells and colours of the Marrakesh markets. Although no sound has been recorded in Morocco, this is intended to be a sound journey to the world of markets from Marrakech, to the Souks.