I was born.

Then I went to school

Then I went to Medical school

Then I went to Jazz school

Then I went to Film school.

See a pattern here?

Me neither.

for a less coherent account of my affairs please read below

Music was pretty much always present, but Miguel’s path has been an unusual one, to say the least. During Medical School at University of Coimbra, he played in several ensembles. Ranging from orchestra to Ethnic and Jazz to Folk. Instruments played varied almost as much as the ensembles, keyboards, guitar, bass guitar, cavaquinho (the original steel string ukulele) and later soprano sax.

After graduation and the odd job as cartoonist and scuba diver instructor in Lisbon, he decided to resurface in London. A quick stop in New York – no direct flights to London I’m afraid - allowed him to get acquainted with a country band, with whom he played (cavaquinho) briefly in Manhattan. He was then invited to join and tour the US by an ethnic-fusion band. But his skills were still a green card away.
In London at last, Miguel started to study audio production and orchestration by himself and, a few months later, Indie rock band Lapland invited him to join their ensemble playing keyboards and trumpet. For two years they toured the UK and recorded a couple of albums.
One day, a student from the London Film School asked him to score his graduation film, and there was no turning back.

Self taught and with a passion for playing and collecting every musical instrument known to man, Miguel started to score more and more projects that went on to play at Cannes, Edinburgh and other main film festivals around the world.
From TV commercials to feature films and from documentaries to installations he has scored for big live ensembles and studio based electronic productions.

Miguel has vastly increased his collection of musical instruments by now - always trying to incorporate them in a fresh and original way into his scores. He is also a baritone/deep bass singer (reason there are no dogs in his neighborhood). His knowledge of instrument playing techniques, electronics and audio software allow him to push the envelope of experimentation with each score that requires a new approach.

Between 2004 and 2007 Miguel was also audio editor for Showreel magazine, writting about film music,  audio software and hardware.

In the beginning of 2007, Miguel completed his MA in Composition for Film at the National Film and Television School, and was subsequently selected by the AMPAS and NFTS to attend a series of workshops and meetings in Los Angeles.
In the summer of 2007, the PRS Foundation invited him to attend a creative residency in China.

Mid 2007 composers Adrian Johnston and Jocelyn Pook asked him to collaborate, as music programmer, respectively in the TV series Cape Wrath and feature film Chaotic Ana.

In 2008 Miguel was asked to produce and orchestrate the score for Michael Winterbottom's latest feature, Genova.

He is presently writing the score for three TV series and, God forbid, plans to have a holiday soon.