António Chagas Rosa was born in Lisbon, Portugal (1960), where he graduated in Piano and History. Between 1984 and 1996 he lived and worked in The Netherlands, where he graduated in advanced studies of Contemporary Piano and Chamber Music Repertoire at the Sweelinck Conservatorium of Amsterdam, and Composition at the Rotterdams Conservatorium. In Holland, he worked as a repetiteur at Het Nederlandse Opera and at the Sweelinck Conservatorium. 

As a composer, António Chagas Rosa’s output includes three operas, a wide range of chamber music works, choral music, song cycles, music for solo instruments and four concertos. His first opera (Cânticos para a Remissão da Fome/Canticles for the Remission of Hunger) was commissioned by the Gulbenkian Foundation and was premiered in 1994, when Lisbon was named Cultural Capital of Europe. His second opera (Melodias Estranhas/Strange Melodies) was commissioned by the cities of Oporto and Rotterdam, Cultural Capitals of Europe in 2001. His third and most recent opera (O Homem dos Sonhos/The Man of Dreams) was commmissioned by the Portuguese Companhia de Ópera do Castelo (Lisbon) and was performed six times along the year 2022. A DVD recording of this opera was released in 2024, having been produced by Companhia Ópera do Castelo.

Amongst his numerous recordings, three monographic CDs are worth mentioning: Les Sorcières (2006 Actes-Sud) with a musical tale performed by Ensemble Musicatreize from Marseilles, having won a Victoire de la Musique in France (Radio France 2007); secondly, Pas-de-Deux (2010 Portugaler), with songs and chamber works by Remix Ensemble and Klangforum Wien;  finally Mares (2016 MPMP), with works for percussion performed by Drumming GP, which was considered to be the best classical music release in 2016 (Jornal Público).  

More recent works consist on Lumine Clarescet (2015), for 18 mixed choir a capella, commissioned by Les Éléments from Toulouse (Iberia album, recorded by Mirare), the Cello Concerto Circumnavigare (2019) recorded by Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa/Casa da Moeda, and the Violin Concerto (2023), commissioned by Arte No Tempo (Aveiro, Portugal).

António Chagas Rosa is at present working on new opera for Companhia de Ópera do Castelo.  He teaches Chamber Music and Music History at the University of Aveiro since 1996, where he got his PhD upon a research concerning the dialogue between music and text in Schoenberg’s op. 15.