Beatriz Maia
Interview
Where do I come from?
From a small village called Vale do Açôr, located in Miranda do Corvo - Coimbra, Portugal.
Why do I sing?
Through singing, I can immerse myself in other worlds and emotions and create different experiences for those who listen to me.
And what do I like apart from singing?
Reading, writing, eating, cooking, spending time with my family, developing new projects, spending time in nature.
My own personal musical highlight?
Marie, from the opera “La fille du régiment” at the Festival de Ópera de Óbidos 2024 (Portugal).
My motto?
„To be great, be whole; exclude nothing, exaggerate nothing that is not you. Be whole in everything. Put all you are into the smallest thing you do. So, in each lake the moon shines with splendor, because it blooms up above.“ – Fernando Pessoa
Biography
Beatriz Maia is a Portuguese soprano from Miranda do Corvo, Coimbra. She studied
under Isabel Melo e Silva, Isabel Alcobia, and tenor Paulo Ferreira. Her academic
background includes the Coimbra Conservatory of Music and the University of Aveiro,
where she completed a bachelor’s degree in music and a master’s in music education.
Recently, she was accepted into the Masterstudium Operngesang/Musiktheater an der
Bayerischen Theaterakademie August Everding, joining the singing class of Professor
Christiane Iven.
In opera, her notable roles include Marie (La fille du régiment, G. Donizetti), Flora (The
Turn of the Screw, B. Britten), Cábula (O Cábula, Fernando Corrêa de Oliveira),
Rouxinol Mecânico (O Rouxinol, Sérgio Azevedo), Despina (Così fan tutte, W. A.
Mozart), Claudine (La fille du Tambour-Major, J. Offenbach), Pamina, Papagena and
Second Lady (Die Zauberflöte, W. A. Mozart), as well as Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel, E.
Humperdinck; Portuguese version).
She has collaborated with various conductors, including Osvaldo Ferreira, Jean Paul
Bucchieri, Martim Sousa Tavares, Rita Castro Blanco, Cameron Burns, Rui Pinheiro, Jan
Wierzba, Toby Purser, Cesário Costa, and António Vassalo Lourenço, in productions
with the Festival de Ópera de Óbidos, Orquestra de Câmara Portuguesa, Orquestra do
Algarve, Orquestra Sem Fronteiras, Camerata Atlântica, Vienna Opera Academy,
Orquestra Clássica do Politécnico do Porto, Orquestra Clássica Metropolitana, Orquestra
Filarmonia das Beiras, and Movimento Patrimonial pela Música Portuguesa.
Since 2015, Beatriz Maia has performed as a duo with pianist Gustavo Afonso, focusing
on the song repertoire. They have performed at the Festivais de Outono 2019 in Aveiro,
Ciclos de Lua Nova in Águeda, and the Festival de Canto de Castelo Branco in 2021, as
well as the Ciclo Cultural e Musical da Bairrada, Projecto:canção and Ciclo Romântico
in Porto in 2023.
She is the winner of the XXI Operafest Marathon 2023: Great Singers for Today’s Opera
(1st prize and audience prize), the VERÃO CLÁSSICO 2023 Academy Awards – VOCAL
(1st prize ex aequo) and has received awards in the 1st and 2nd Almada International
Music Competition (2nd prize; Level I – 2016 and Level II – 2017).