Lander Patrick has suffered from chronic asthma since moving from Brazil to Portugal in 1989, the year he was born. He played volleyball to ward off the disease, but eventually graduated in dance. Lander has worked around the world with people he admires, such as Luís Guerra, Tomaz Simatovic, Marlene Monteiro Freitas, Alejandro Ahmed, Margarida Bettencourt, and Jonas Lopes, among others. After winning two awards in choreography – 1st prize at the Koreografskih Minijatura Festival (Serbia) for Noodles Never Break When Boiled and 2nd prize at the No Ballet International Choreography Competition (Germany) for Cascas d’OvO (Eggshells) – he found the motivation to work in the field of choreographic creation rather than at a call centre. Cascas d’OvO (2012) and ADORABILIS (2017) were selected for Aerowaves Priority Company and his work has been presented in Europe, Asia and Latin America. He created works for Carte Blanche (NOR) and TanzMainz (GR) in which his passion for music starts to determine the dramaturgic construction of dance. He lives in Montemor-o-Novo and believes that vegetarianism will contribute to the prolonged existence of the planet.
Gonçalo Marques – A freelance musician, he is especially comfortable playing in smaller contemporary jazz formations, despite also having a lot of experience in the Big Band context. He is currently pedagogical director and teacher at the Escola do Hot Clube de Portugal (a school he attended as a student) and at the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa. He has also been very involved in teaching Jazz to younger people, not only at HCP, but also in other institutions (CCB, Gulbenkian). He is one of the founders of the Robalo label and association, which organizes concerts and workshops, in addition to having an annual festival in partnership with Antena 2. He has worked in the Theater (he was recently involved in the play Ensaio de Orquestra, an adaptation of the Fellini film of the same name brought to the stage by Tonan Quito) and in Contemporary Dance (in the play as Bacantes with choreography by Marlene Monteiro Freitas, with around 150 shows performed all over the world). His discography includes the CD Da Vida e da Morte dos Animais released in 2010 at TOAP, Cabeça de Nuvem Só Tem Coração and Canção do Homem Simples, released by Robalo and Linhas recorded for Porta-Jazz. He also recorded with drummer João Lopes Pereira the albums Puzzle, Tundra and Totem for Robalo. His most recent albums are: Se não aconteceu by Marmota (duo that he co-leads with guitarist André Matos ), and Birds and Cages (with its quartet with Jacob Sacks on piano, Masa Kamaguchi on double bass and Jeff Williams on drums). He will soon release Wabisabi (with the quartet that he co-leads with double bassist Demian Cabaud and which includes John O'Gallagher on saxophone and Jeff Williams on drums), and he is currently preparing new CDs with various groups. He has a degree in Physics from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon and in Jazz Performance from the Berklee College of Music in Boston. More info: https://goncalosmarques.bandcamp.com/; http://robalomusic.com/
José Soares – Saxophonist and composer from Portugal currently living between Amsterdam and Lisbon. After finishing his bachelor degree in Jazz Performance at the University of Porto he moved to Amsterdam where he attended the Conservatorium of Amsterdam as a master student. Soares is a recurring presence in both the Dutch and Portuguese jazz scene having played in the most prestigious festivals of Europe with a wide array of young and creative bands. Besides being a sideman to a large variety of projects, Soares co-leads the trio Perselí (together with Fuensanta Mendéz and Alistair Payne) with the debut album under the Los Angeles based label Minaret Records, and the trio VASUS with pianist Harmen Fraanje and dummer Sun Mi Hong. Soares is also a collaborator with OJM (Orquestra de Jazz de Matosinhos).
