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Alexandre Bateiras started to play the Portuguese Guitar at the age of 15 by influence of his maternal grandfather. After his grandfather died he continues his Guitar studies on his own on a self-taught manner.
His main musical references are Carlos Paredes, Artur Paredes and Jorge Tuna together with the Coimbra interpretative technique.
Besides the works of Carlos Paredes, Artur Paredes and Jorge Tuna he studied and plays the works of the main composers within the Coimbra technique since the beginning of the century to most recent times.
He has participated in several concerts as a soloist with the collaboration of João Gomes and José Tito Mackay(1936-2006) or playing as well, the instrumental support of Coimbra singers such as Luiz Goes, António Sutil Roque e Augusto Camacho.
In 1997, after an invitation from Luisa Amaro, he started to work the last compositions of Carlos Paredes which he presented in public in the Lisbon World Exhibition (Expo-98) and in the celebrations of the 75th anniversary of Carlos Paredes (16-02-2000).
1997 was also the year of his first studio recordings on which he recorded two of the first compositions of his own.
Another important moment on Alexandre's career was his concert “Playing Coimbra from the past to the future” presented at Expo-98 and in the "Lisbon Concerts Season - 1999" at the Belém Tower in which he played pieces from the main composers of the Coimbra technique, starting in the early 20th century and ending with the most recent times, playing as well pieces composed by himself.
On May 23rd 2002 he played on the 13th “Cantigas do Maio” (Worldwide Music Festival) which took place in Seixal.
Also worthy of reference are his performances on the 1st Portalegre Portuguese Guitar Festival as well as the various Guitar concerts, which took place in different locations countrywide, in rooms. Some of them were: the Rivoli Theatre and Coliseu in the city of Porto; “Voz do Operário”, the Auditorium of Pancas-Palha Palace, the Aula Magna, the S. Luiz Theatre, the Jerónimos Monastery, the Tivoli Cine-Theatre and the Auditorium of S. João de Brito School in Lisboa; the Cultural Forum of Seixal; the Gil Vicente Theatre and the FNAC Auditorium in Cascais, the Cultural House of Alvito and the Grand Room of Setubal Town Hall.
In the past few years Alexandre Bateiras has been focussed on producing and disseminating his own compositions, aiming at the development of a new repertoire for the Portuguese Guitar. With this purpose he created his project “Canções da Lua Nova” - (Songs of the New Moon - A Soundtrack) for which recordings took place in the U.S.A. The record is now released on the netlabel Merzbau and can be accessed @ http://www.merzbau-label.org/merz0027_pt.htm
For his performances Alexandre Bateiras makes use of Portuguese Guitars built by Gilberto Grácio.
João Gomes was born in Rio de Moinhos – Satão, Viseu district.
At the age of 15 he initiated his studies on Classical Guitar in Lisbon with the professor José Duarte Costa. Portuguese musicians like Lopes e Silva, Manuel Morais and Fernando Alvim were his colleagues at the time.
Later on, he attended a course with the spanish guitar player Emilio Pujol at the National Conservatoire of Lisbon. For almost 4 years he taught Classical Guitar in the school of his former teacher professor José Duarte Costa.
In 1965 he integrated the instrumental support of one stage performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera “Otello” at the National Opera House (Theatre S. Carlos) in Lisbon.
In the late 60’s he started to make his way within the music of Coimbra’s tradition. He joined a group which included João Bagão and Aires de Aguilar playing the Portuguese Guitar and António Toscano in Classical Guitar. This group, jointly with the poet Leonel Neves , was the support to a new phase of the work developed by the singer Luiz Goes. In this context several recordings were made, and João Gomes made the music for various ballads to be interpreted by Luis Goes, having collaborated as well with musicians such as Carlos Paredes and Fernando Alvim.
He accompanied Luiz Goes in several performances in many parts of the world, which contributed a great deal to divulge the music of Coimbra’s tradition.
João Gomes has been playing with Alexandre Bateiras since 1997. Together they have made several concerts all over Portugal and in the U.S.A.(NYC)
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