Date
22/01/2026

Inspired by the chamber music class at the School of Applied Arts (ESART) of the Polytechnic Institute of Castelo Branco (IPCB), Francisco Guerreiro, Ismael Gouveia and Jaime Pereira created the KODU (home, in Albanian) Percussion Group in 2021.

Composed mainly of students of professors Bruno Costa and André Dias, the group’s formation has varied – somewhere between a duo and a quintet – eventually welcoming other ESART-IPCB students: Diogo Pinto, Manuel Dias, Francisco Teixeira and Miguel Pires.

In 2023, they won second prize in the advanced chamber music category at the London Classical Music Competition, as well as winning the equivalent category D at the BTHVN Wien International Music Competition. A year later, they won joint second prize at the Antón García Abril International Chamber Music Competition in Granada (Spain). In 2025, KODU won the Young Musicians Award in the upper level of the chamber music category and second place in the National Contemporary Interpretation Competition.

Guided by creativity, energy and artistic quality, the group specialises in contemporary repertoire and explores the timbres and sounds of various percussion instruments, inviting the audience to feel the music with their whole body.

On stage, the work with composers André Santos, João Quinteiro, Luís Tinoco and Vasco Mendonça stands out, as well as the works of Iannis Xenaki, François Tasdjian, Mark Applebaum, N. J. Zivkovic, Per Andreasson, Robert Marino, Steven Snowden and Wenjing Guo.

In addition to experimental music meetings and masterclasses, KODU, which represented ESART-IPCB at Tromp Percussion Eindhoven (Netherlands) in 2022, has performed in Alcobaça, Aveiro, Beja, Ericeira, Leiria, Ourém, Paços de Brandão and Tomar.

In Castelo Branco, they stood out at PercuArt – International Percussion Festival and in artistic residencies at Fábrica da Criatividade. In 2044, they produced the show Ecos Rítmicos no Jardim do Paço Episcopal (Rhythmic Echoes in the Garden of the Episcopal Palace), a sound and visual experience that connects music with the architecture and beauty of that historic space, followed by live accompaniment at Castelo Branco Moda 2025, among the final works of ESART-IPCB students.

After the concert of laureates at the Festival Jovens Músicos’25, at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, in September the five current percussionists premiered the show ‘We Are Still On The Move’ at the Cine-Teatro Avenida. The performance, the result of a collaboration with Pedro Lima, returned to that stage on 15 January. Between the rhythm of percussion and the immersion in electronics and video, the reflection on the links between humans, machines and nature celebrates the restlessness and vitality of movement.

In 2026, KODU’s schedule continues with a performance on 28 February at the experimental theatre of the Joaquim Benite Municipal Theatre (Almada); on 12 April at the concert series at Casa de Espinhal (Penela); on 11 July at the Estoril Music Festival (Cascais Cultural Centre); on 5 and 6 October at Casa da Música (Porto), as part of the Young Musicians Award; and on 20 November at a church in Fundão.