Gustavo Costa (Most People Have Been Trained To Be Bored)

Percussionist and composer Gustavo Costa is a longstanding figure in Portugal's music scene; since the early 90´s he has wandered the fields of grind core, experimental and contemporary music, free jazz or electroacoustics,  performing in the United States, Lebanon, Japan and Europe with or under the direction of artists like Damo Suzuki, John Zorn, Christian Marclay, Jamie Saft, Alfred 23 Harth, Barbez, Carlos Zíngaro, Steve Mackay, Mark Stewart, Massimo Pupilo and Adolfo Luxúria Canibal.

He studied classical percussion, music technology, sonology and composition with Miguel Bernat, Clarence Barlow, Konrad Boehmer, Dimitris Andrikopoulus and Frederick Gifford, and attended masterclasses and short term courses with Fritz Hauser, Kroumata Percussion Ensemble, Kaaija Saariaho, Jonathan Harvey and Wolfgang Mitterer. Gustavo Costa explores his interests in the area of contemporary music practice, employing sources such as percussive objects, prepared piano and electronic synthesis in a body of work influenced by Iannis Xenakis and Giacinto Scelsi, but also by the political commentary of Crass and Dead Kennedys.