One of 20th century Portugal's most prominent composers, Fernando Lopes-Graça drew on Portuguese musical folklore in many works. He was sometimes known as the Portuguese Bartók, but his music had its own distinctive flavor. Lopes-Graça was born in Tomar, Portugal, on December 17, 1906. He began piano studies with a local teacher and then, in 1924, entered Portugal's National Conservatory in Lisbon, studying with Vianna da Motta, among others. After completing his composition degree in 1931, Lopes-Graça, a member of the Communist Party, was arrested and sent from Lisbon to the city of Alpiarça in southern Portugal. This began a long series of episodes in which Lopes-Graça endured persecution from the Portuguese government, which only intensified with the rise of the authoritarian Estado Novo regime in 1933. The following year, he was awarded a scholarship to study in Paris but was prevented from traveling there to take up his studies. In 1937, he finally succeeded in going there and studied with Charles Koechlin. Back in Portugal, Lopes-Graça's reputation steadily increased despite government disfavor. In addition to Bartók, he was influenced by musicologist and composer Francisco de Lacerda and studied Portuguese folk and popular music. Lopes-Graça won four composition prizes from the Circulo de Cultura Musical (for his Piano Concerto No. 1, Historico Trágico-Maritimo, Sinfonia, and Piano Sonata No. 3) and began to find frequent performance opportunities for his music. In 1969, cellist Mstislav Rostropovich performed Lopes-Graça's Concerto da Camera for cello and orchestra. After the fall of the Estado Novo in 1974, he became a member of the Commission for the Reform of Music Education created by Portugal's new democratic government. In 1979, Lopes-Graça composed the substantial Requiem pelas vítimas do fascismo em Portugal ("Requiem for the Victims of Fascism in Portugal"). In later life, he completed a Dicionário de Música begun by one of his teachers, Tomás Borba, and he edited collections of Portuguese regional music. Lopes-Graça died at his home in Parede, Portugal, on November 27, 1994. Among other recordings, those in the Naxos label's series on Portuguese music have broadened interest in his work, and by the early 2020s, more than 50 of his compositions had been recorded. ~ James Manheim, Rovi