Maria João Sousa

Maria João Sousa is a soprano singer who was born in Lisbon, Portugal, and began her musical studies at five years old, where she learnt to play the violin and at eighteen years old, began studying singing with Liliana Bizineche. Master’s degree in Music Education at the ISEIT – Piaget Institute; Degree in Singing at the Academia Nacional Superior de Orquestra.; Degree in Musicology at the Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas (Universidade Nova de Lisboa), where she also attended Philosophy classes. She studied with the baritone Marcel Boone in Switzerland and attended singing masterclasses (with Teresa Berganza, Lella Cuberli, Ileana Cotrubas, Sarah Walker, Graham Johnson, among others), violin masterclasses and workshops concerning pedagogic and didactic challenges about singing teenagers and art for childhood (with Helena Rodrigues, Paulo Maria Rodrigues, Ana Leonor Pereira, Beth Bolton, among others). As a scholarship holder of Project-ENOA, sponsored by Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, participated at Festival Aix-en-Provence in “Outreach skills workshop for singers” – a Workshop for singers in a pedagogical context (2017). Her professional activity is a combination of opera productions, solo recitals from baroque music to music by contemporary composers in many concert Halls and Festivals, music sessions for babies and children and concerts as violinist.

Lectured vocal technique workshops (Estoril International Choir Meeting, 2018, LabOratório’19) and a Practical and Theorical Workshop about Didactic Challenges in Childhood Education (Escola de Serviços e Comércio do Oeste at Torres Vedras 2019). She is a singing teacher at Academia de Amadores de Música in Lisbon (was in charge of department coordination and was a Member of the Educational Board). Also teaches at Associação Cultural Cantar Nosso, Lugar da Música and Espaço Mousiké. In November 2019 will participate at ENIM 2019 – IX Encontro Nacional de Investigação em Música at the FCSH (Universidade Nova de Lisboa), as a music researcher.