Paulo Bastos was born in Vila Pouca de Aguiar. He began his musical studies at the Porto Music School, under the guidance of Hélia Soveral. Most of his compositional work focuses on chamber music and children's music, although he has written a significant number of orchestral works, solo instrument and electronics. He works at the Braga Conservatory since 1996, where he teaches composition and electronic music. He was responsible for setting up the first secondary composition course in Portugal, which has been running at the conservatory since 2000, and which originated a new, and already very large generation of composers called “The Braga Composition School”.