With initial training in classical piano (1994 to 2009) at the Orff Institute of Porto, Catarina Sá Ribeiro graduated at ESMAE in Jazz Piano (2014) and Composition (2020).
Over twenty-five years of a continuous focus on music, the constant and restless presence of other interests has remarkably contributed to her way of creating. There are traces from the years dedicated to drawing, ceramics, or amateur theater, her love for poetry, and the deep and ancestral devotion to nature, where she finds peace of mind and inspiration in the contemplation of all organic forms, particularly botanical ones.
While studying, she had Jazz teachers such as Pedro Guedes, Telmo Marques, Michael Lauren and Abe Rabade; in Composition, she was a student of Carlos Azevedo, Dimitris Andrikopoulos, Angela da Ponte, Eugénio Amorim, Daniel Moreira and Rui Penha. Catarina Sá Ribeiro premiered her first work for orchestra, Gingko, in February 2020, at Teatro Helena Sá e Costa, in an academic context, following an internal competition among undergraduate students.
Later, in 2021, she premiered the work Chord Memory, for large ensemble, commissioned by Coreto Porta-Jazz. It won, that same year, the award for 2nd best Composition in the Póvoa de Varzim International Composition Competition (CICPV) of the Póvoa do Varzim International Music Festival (FIMPV).
In addition to her artistic activity, she has been teaching classical piano, jazz piano, and Composition at Academia de Música Valentim de Carvalho since 2013. She has regularly participated as a mentor, arranger, and composer in Grande Pesca Sonora (GPS), an educational and social event bringing together students of various ages and from different schools in the municipality of Matosinhos and promoted by the center for high artistic performance CARA - Orquestra de Jazz de Matosinhos. More recently, she took part in the project Vamos Imaginar um Bairro de Luz, promoted by Balleteatro.
Catarina Sá Ribeiro participates in the Young Composers Program in 2022.
