Curriculum Vitae
Guillermo de Llera Blanes
Identification
Personal identification
- Full name
- Guillermo de Llera Blanes
Citation names
- Blanes, Guillermo
- de Llera Blanes, Guillermo
- Blanes, G. de L.
Author identifiers
- Ciência ID
- 9B17-ADF4-00F6
- ORCID iD
- 0000-0003-2276-9526
Languages
| Language | Speaking | Reading | Writing | Listening | Peer-review |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | Advanced (C1) | Advanced (C1) | Advanced (C1) | Advanced (C1) | |
| Spanish; Castilian | Upper intermediate (B2) | Advanced (C1) | Intermediate (B1) | Upper intermediate (B2) | |
| Portuguese | Advanced (C1) | Advanced (C1) | Advanced (C1) | Advanced (C1) |
Education
| Degree | Classification | |
|---|---|---|
|
2020/09/10 - 2025/09/25
Concluded
|
On Playability Theory and Remixing: Exploring Controllerism through the creation of
the MidiMbira in Mozambique (Doctorate)
Major in Ethnomusicology
Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas (FCSH), Portugal
"On Playability Theory and Remixing: Exploring Controllerism through the creation of
the MidiMbira in Mozambique" (THESIS/DISSERTATION)
|
A+ / With Honours / Com Distinção |
|
2014/09/01 - 2018/05/01
Concluded
|
Ciências Musicais - Área da Especialização em Etnomusicologia (Master's Degree)
Major in Ethnomusicology
Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas (FCSH), Portugal
"Controllers as musical instruments, controllerism as musical practice - practices
of a new 21st century musical culture" (THESIS/DISSERTATION)
|
19.3/20 |
|
2014/04/06 - 2014/07/05
Concluded
|
Music Cognition (Specialist Title)
Major in General Music Studies
Berklee College Of Music, United States
|
GPA 4.0 |
|
2014/01/07 - 2014/05/06
Concluded
|
World Music Composition Styles (Specialist Title)
Major in General Music Studies
Berklee College Of Music, United States
|
GPA 4.0 |
|
2013/04/10 - 2013/09/28
Concluded
|
Mixing and Mastering with Pro Tools (Specialist Title)
Berklee College Of Music, United States
|
GPA 4.0 |
Affiliation
Others
| Category Host institution |
Employer | |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 - Current | Music Acoustics and Sound Studies Department | Instituto de Etnomusicologia Centro de Estudos em Música e Dança, Portugal |
| 2017/12/01 - Current | Assistant lecturer for the "World Music Composition Styles" class | Berklee College Of Music, United States |
| 2017/09/01 - Current | Investigador | Universidade Nova de Lisboa Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Portugal |
| 2017 - Current | Researcher | Instituto de Etnomusicologia Centro de Estudos em Música e Dança, Portugal |
Projects
Grant
| Designation | Funders | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026/09/03 - 2026/12/23 | MidiMbira: Especialización en Investigación- Creación de Instrumentos Musicales Digitales
en el CIRMMT
Invited Scientist Fellow
Ibermúsicas, Portugal
|
Ibermúsicas
Ongoing
|
| 2026/03/24 - 2026/04/08 | Curso de Percussão Moçambicana e Cubana.
Technical development
Fundação GDA, Portugal
|
Fundação GDA
Concluded
|
| 2025/05/09 - 2025/06/06 | Curso de Formação Intermediária em Repertório de Mbira no géneros de Maputo e Tete
Technical development
Fundação GDA, Portugal
|
Fundação GDA
Concluded
|
| 2025/05/08 - 2025/06/06 | Residência Artística Nkomati River
Ibermúsicas, Portugal
|
Ibermúsicas
Concluded
|
| 2020/01 - 2023/12 | PhD Scholarship
77915DFA
|
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia |
| 2022/02/01 - 2022/12/31 | FUNDO CULTURAL DA AUDIOGEST
Supervisor
Audiogest, Portugal
|
Audiogest
Concluded
|
| 2022/10/28 - 2022/11/13 | Curso de Formação de Mbira
Technical development
Fundação GDA, Portugal
|
Fundação GDA
Concluded
|
| 2018/06/01 - 2019/06/30 | Timbila, Makwayela and Marrabenta: one century of musical representation of Mozambique | Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia |
Contract
| Designation | Funders | |
|---|---|---|
| 2021/08/01 - Current | Instituto de Etnomusicologia - Centro de Estudos em Música e Dança
UIDB/00472/2020
Universidade de Lisboa Faculdade de Motricidade Humana, Portugal
Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa, Portugal Instituto Politécnico do Porto, Portugal Instituto de Etnomusicologia Centro de Estudos em Música e Dança, Portugal Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal |
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Ongoing
|
| 2025/01/01 - 2029/12/31 | Ethnomusicology Institute - Center for Studies in Music and Dance
UID/00472/2025
Universidade de Lisboa Faculdade de Motricidade Humana, Portugal
Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa, Portugal Instituto Politécnico do Porto, Portugal Instituto de Etnomusicologia Centro de Estudos em Música e Dança, Portugal Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal |
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Ongoing
|
| 2018/06/01 - 2019/06/30 | Timbila, Makwayela and Marrabenta: one century of musical representation of Mozambique
Integration into Research Grant Fellow
Universidade Nova de Lisboa Instituto de Etnomusicologia Centro de Estudos em Música
e Dança, Portugal
|
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Concluded
|
Outputs
Publications
| Book chapter |
|
| Conference paper |
|
| Edited book |
|
| Journal article |
|
| Thesis / Dissertation |
|
| Website |
|
| Working paper |
|
Artistic / Performance
| Artistic exhibition |
|
| Audio recording |
|
| Short fiction |
|
| Video recording |
|
Other
| Other output |
|
Activities
Oral presentation
| Presentation title | Event name Host (Event location) |
|
|---|---|---|
| 2026/07/11 | KISMIF - Ghosts in the Machine I- The Philosophical Hammer and the Artcademic Act of DIY Playability | KISMIF 2026 - DIY Cultures, Global Uncertainty and Critical Imagination
Universidade do Porto (Porto, Portugal)
|
| 2026/07/11 | KISMIF 4: de Llera Blanes and Claussen | KISMIF 2026 - DIY Cultures, Global Uncertainty and Critical Imagination
Universidade do Porto (Porto, Portugal)
|
| 2026/06/26 | The DIY MidiMbira: Bridging Traditional Playability and MIDI Technology for Pedagogy, Innovation, and Performative Practice | New Interfaces for Musical Expression 2026
New Interfaces for Musical Expression 2026 (NIME) (London, United Kingdom)
|
| 2026/06/18 | From Soundscape Remix to Graphic Ecology/ Multimodal Environmental Ethnography in the Anthropocene | VII Combart Arte Ativismo e Cidadania
Universidade do Porto (Porto, Portugal)
|
| 2025/11/14 | Africa-futurist Butterflies: AI-generated Visuals, VJing, and Algorithmic Hybridity in Mozambique’s Underground Dance Culture | I INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE: Algorithmic Audiovisualities: Music and Media in the Age
of AI
CESEM (Lisbon, Portugal)
|
| 2025/06/17 | Visualizing Ethnomusicological Narratives: A Graphic Novel Approach to Fieldwork and Autoethnography in Mozambique | VII Internation Conference COMbART. Art, activism and citizenship
NOVA FCSH (Lisbon, Portugal)
|
| 2025/01/13 | Innovation Within Tradition in Mozambique: From the MidiMbira to the Tunable Kankubwe: PAR research as a source for creative accidents | ICTMD 2025: 48TH ICTMD WORLD CONFERENCE
Te Herenga Waka, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand (Wellington, New Zealand)
|
| 2023/11/18 | Independência Musical na "Chamada" Transição Digital - Desafios | Fo´rum do inet-md, Aveiro
INET-MD, NOVA - FCSH (Aveiro, Portugal)
|
| 2022/07/22 | The MidiMbira - Performative applications of a Musical Hyper-Instrument | ICTM World Conference - Portugal
ICTM (Lisbon, Portugal)
|
| 2022/06/13 | Working with Mbira Makers in Maputo, Mozambique | Dialogue of African musics and cultures through space and time ICTM - 3rd SGAM Symposium
SGAM
|
| 2021/06/26 | Challenging Centric Imaginaries in Contemporary Music Studio Practices | Transformations of Musical Creativity in the 21st Century - TTI Conference - Turkey
Transtraditional Istanbul (TTI) Project (Istambul, Turkey)
|
| 2021/05/07 | Social Mediums in Lusophonia - Notes from Afro-Portuguese Underground Imaginaries | International Symposium Musics in Africa (ISMA 21)
INET-MD, NOVA - FCSH, ISMA (Lisbon, Portugal)
|
| 2019/12/06 | Working with Mbira Makers in Maputo | The International Symposium Musics in Africa- Listening to Mozambique (ISMA19)
INET-MD, NOVA - FCSH (Lisbon, Portugal)
|
| 2016/10/07 | The Mobility of Music - Analysis and considerations concerning music and mobility Today | LOG IN, LIVE ON: MÚSICA E CIBERCULTURA NA ERA DA INTERNET DAS COISAS
FCSH/NOVA (Lisbon, Portugal)
|
Event participation
| Activity description Type of event |
Event name Institution / Organization |
|
|---|---|---|
| 2026/07/09 - 2026/07/11 | The C21MP Research Centre issued a call for practice research / artistic research
/ research-creation to explore how practitioners embody socio-cultural and political
ideas into their creative work beyond the literal portrayals of lyrical and video
narratives. Jan Torge Claussen and I were teamed up by KISMIF 2026 to participate
in their Practice Research Challenge about using DIY production techniques to create
a piece of music (with an accompanying video) that embodies some ideological/critical
message.
Other
|
C21MP KISMIF Research Challenge
Universidade do Porto, Portugal
|
| 2026/04/15 - 2026/04/25 | Part of the public programme of ARE 2026. My film on rotation entitled: "Remixing
Memories of Mozambique" is a 20-minute audiovisual work that re-performs late-1980s
ethnographic fieldwork footage from Mozambique (INETmoz/INET-md) as an “unstable ground”
rather than a fixed document. Without altering the original images, the piece intervenes
through live-looping, sampling, and improvisation with contemporary Mozambican instruments
and a custom digital midimbira, turning archival sound and vision into a cyclical,
contested present.
Exhibition
|
ARE FilmEU 2026
ARE – FilmEU Artistic Research Exhibition - FilmEU European University, Portugal
|
| 2025/10/18 - 2025/10/18 | Chair for the session "Papers session—Sound as Art 2" at the Sound In Museums International
Conference at the Mafra Palace, Portugal
Conference
|
Sound In Museums
Universidade Nova de Lisboa Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas, Portugal
Instituto de Etnomusicologia Centro de Estudos em Música e Dança, Portugal |
Course / Discipline taught
| Academic session | Degree Subject (Type) | Institution / Organization | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017/04/06 - Current | Assistant lecturer for the "World Music Composition Styles" Online Undergraduate-Level Course | World Music Composition Styles (Licence) | Berklee College Of Music, United States |
Distinctions
Award
| 2025 | Best Multimedia Installation at Sound In Museums International Conference, 2025
Sound In Museums Conference, Portugal
Museu Nacional da Música, Portugal Instituto de Etnomusicologia Centro de Estudos em Música e Dança, Portugal |
| 2019 | Melhores Mestres - Prémio de Mérito e Excelência 2018/2019
Universidade Nova de Lisboa Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas, Portugal
|
| 2015 | BOLSAS POR MÉRITO 2015/2016 DGES - Direção-Geral do Ensino Superior - CIÊNCIA, TECNOLOGIA
E ENSINO SUPERIOR
Governo da República Portuguesa Ministério da Ciência Tecnologia e Ensino Superior, Portugal
|
| 2003 | Best Portuguese Artist (Primitive Reason) MTV Europe Music Awards |
| 1996 | Canção do Ano / Song of the Year (with the band Primitive Reason) - Prémios Blitz |
| 1996 | Melhor Banda Nova/Best New Band (with the band Primitive Reason) - Prémios Blitz |