Isabel Novais Gonçalves

Isabel Novais was born in Porto. She completed the 8th grade of the Piano Course at Escola de Música Silva Monteiro. She graduated in Music Teaching at Escola Superior de Educação do Porto, and later in Musicology at Universidade Nova de Lisboa, with a semester held at the Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia. She has a PhD in Musicology with the thesis A música teatral na Lisboa de Oitocentos: uma abordagem através da obra de Joaquim Casimiro Júnior (1808-1862) (Theatrical music in Lisbon in the 19th century: an approach through the work of Joaquim Casimiro Júnior (1808-1862). at Universidade Nova de Lisboa, under the supervision of Prof. Doctor Manuel Carlos de Brito,  with a studentship by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT). She is a research member of Centro de Estudos de Sociologia e Estética Musical (CESEM), with several articles published in the field of theatre, theatre music and 19th century operetta, and papers and conferences in various academic and cultural institutions. She was a member of the research project “Teatro para Rir”: Musical comedy in Portuguese-speaking theaters (1849-1900)” and she is currently on the research project “Lanterna Mágica – Technology and preservation of painted glass slides for projection with Magic Lanterns”. She worked as musicologist at Câmara Municipal de Lisboa (CML) – Department of Culture from 2004 to 2021, where she was responsible for the Fonoteca Service, programmer, trainer and cultural mediator in various cultural institutions at CML. She was the author of two RDP Antena 2 broadcasted radio programs. Since 2018 she gives cultural and musical mediation classes at Centro de Formação Contínua António Sérgio. She has provided musical assistance in several theatrical projects and often writes concert program notes to Centro Cultural de Belém. Since November 2021, she is the head of the Music Department of Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal. At the same time, she is developing as an author a documentary series on Portuguese music, with the producer Laranja Azul and the financial support of Instituto do Cinema e do Audiovisual.