Mário Simões Dias

Who is Mário Simões Dias?

Mário Simões Dias de Figueiredo was a Portuguese musicologist and professional violinist, as well as a prolific music critic and poet. He was blind from the age of 10.

As an academic affiliated with the University of Coimbra, he authored works on music theory and the history of music as well as introductory texts concerned with raising public awareness of classical music; his collection of essays A Música, essa desconhecida became a popular introduction to music history in Portugal. For 13 years he maintained a series of weekly live radio shows devoted to the divulgation of classical music, broadcast by the former Emissora Nacional. As a poet, he was affiliated with the Portuguese neo-realist tradition and is celebrated chiefly for his book-length poem Cântico das Urzes.