José Manuel Bettencourt da Câmara was born in São Miguel island, Azores, in Portugal, where he concluded his secondary school studies and began studying piano with Maria Luísa Bruto da Costa. Later on in Lisbon, he graduated in Philosopy and Theology from Instituto Superior de Estudos Teológicos and in History from Universidade de Lisboa. At the same time, he studied Composition with Frederico de Freitas, Organ with Antoine Sibertin Blanc and Conducting and Gregorian Chant with Júlia d'Almendra at Instituto Gregoriano. He attended the Lisbon National Conservatoire’s Piano General Course and the Composition Graduate Course with Armando José Fernandes, Joly Braga Santos and Filipe Pires. He also graduated in Singing from this institution with Arminda Correia and Helena de Pina Manique. His postgraduate studies include a master's degree and a doctorate degree with distinction by unanimity from Universidade Nova de Lisboa. He was president of Juventude Musical Portuguesa, a board member of Conselho Português da Música and the representative of Conselho Português da Música at the Ministry of Education's Gabinete Coordenador do Ensino Artístico. He was a full member of the Gulbenkian Foundation choir from 1972 to 2001, with which he took part in hundreds of concerts nationally and internationally, as well as many CD recordings. Bettencourt da Câmara was a professor at Universidade de Évora where he taught more than a dozen disciplines, such as Aesthetics of Music, Contemporary Aesthetics, Ethnomusicology, Sociology of Performing Arts, Music and Literature, various periods of music history and Portuguese music history. He also tutored several master and doctorate thesis and was the director of the Master of Musicology and Postgraduate of Music Teaching degrees, as well as being a member of the Evaluation Council of the university. From his musical works, a set of piano pieces for children was published in 1998 and other works were premiered in Lisbon, the Azores and Brazil, where he was the guest composer at the 1992 São Paulo's Música Nova festival. He is currently a member of Universidade do Porto's Centro de Investigação Transdisciplinar Cultura, Espaço e Memória, where he is responsible for the project 'As freguesias do lado oriental do Concelho da Ribeira Grande (São Miguel, Azores)'. He is the author of a vast number of books and articles published in national and international journals, magazines and newspapers. Bettencourt da Câmara started his career as a researcher in the late 1970s, focusing on Portuguese music of the 18th Century and publishing several articles on this subject. He later centered his work around Azorean folk music and musicians born in the Azores, in particular Francisco de Lacerda, on who he organised several initiatives in Portugal and abroad, from concerts and festivals to conferences and publications. Besides several books published on this great Azorean musician, he also edited Lacerda’s notes on Madeiran folk culture, as well as the letters from his father, and two volumes with the complete works for piano and voice and piano, published by the Azorean government in the 'Fontes Musicais Açorianas' collection, created by his proposal. On Azorean writer Vitorino Nemésio he authored several articles and an essay. From 1986 onwards, he also researched on Fernando Lopes Graça work, for which he received support from the composer himself. Finally, given his university studies in history and philosophy of art, he opted for the problematic of contemporary aesthetics according to Maurice Merleau-Ponty as the subject for both his master and doctorate dissertations, later published.