Fernando Lopes Graça was a major figure of music in Portugal in the 20th century. Composer, pianist, musicologist, and conductor, he was born in Tomar on 17th December 1906.
Seduced by music from an early age, at the age of 14, he started working as a pianist at the Cinema-Theatre of Tomar, where he started arranging and composing music.
In 1923 he entered the Advanced Course of the Lisbon Conservatory, and successfully completed the competitive examinations for Solfeggio and Piano Teacher with the highest grade. In 1928, he started attending the course of Historical and Philosophical Sciences, at the School of Arts and Humanities of the University of Lisbon, which he abruptly abandoned in 1931, revolted by the political repression in force. In 1937, he continued his studies in Paris, where he finished the Musicology course, having also studied Composition and Orchestration with Koechlin.
As a political activist since his youth, having been arrested by the political police on several occasions, he was a leader of the Democratic Unity Movement (Movimento de Unidade Democrática) and a militant of the Portuguese Communist Party since 1948.
Creator of a significant musical work, he founded and directed the Choir of the Academia de Amadores de Música for four decades, where he carried out a remarkable work of recreation of traditional Portuguese music themes, in close collaboration with the ethnologist Michel Giacometti.
Besides musical composition, he proved to be an excellent musicologist, having authored numerous essays and critiques in the fields of music, theatre, and ballet, many of them published in the “Gazeta Musical e de todas as Artes” magazine, of which he was also founder and main editor. Lover of letters, he also devoted himself to literature, through the writing of prose, as well as the translation of great literary works.
Decorated as Grand Officer of the Military Order of Sant’Iago da Espada (1981) and with the Grand Cross of the Order of Prince Henry the Navigator (1987), he died on 27th November 1994 in Cascais. His musical collection can be found at the Museum of Portuguese Music.