Pedro Sousa Silva

Pedro Sousa Silva studied the recorder with Pedro Couto Soares at Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa (1992-1996) and Pedro Memesldorff at Civica Scuola di Musica di Milano (1996-2000) and Musicology at Universidade Nova de Lisboa (1999-2000). In 2010 obtained a Doctor in Music degree at Universidade de Aveiro with a thesis that discusses the interaction between practice and theory in the performance of renaissance polyphony.

As a recorder player he has been often invited to perform in countless venues in Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Germany and Netherlands. More recently, his musical activity is focused on the work with the ensembles A Imagem da Melancolia (with whom he recorded ‘Arte da Usurpação’ and ‘The Bad Tempered Consort’), Mi contra Fa and Arte Minima.

Since 1992 he has devoted part of his time to the teaching of the recorder and early music. Presently he is Adjunct Professor at Escola Superior de Música, Artes e Espectáculo (Porto), where he teaches the recorder, chamber music and historically informed performance, directs the baroque orchestra and the renaissance ensemble and coordinates the Early Music Department and the Master in Performance. He is often welcomed by European higher education institutions (such as Conservatorio Superior de Música de Vigo, Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien, Joseph Haydn Konservatorium, Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel, Conservatorio di Musica di Cosenza, or Norges Musikkhøgskole, Akademie für Alte Musik Bremen) to give lectures and masterclasses.

As a researcher and performer, Pedro is currently engaged in the transcription and performance of the immense unpublished repertoire from the renaissance in Portuguese sources.