Manuela Fonseca has been working as a piano accompanist and as a music teacher at Escola de Dança do Conservatório Nacional. With Mariana Soares, she is part of Duo de Piano a 4 mãos, a piano four hands duo. The group formed during their undergraduate piano studies at Academia Nacional Superior de Orquestra — Metropolitana, where Manuela discovered one of her preferred musical areas: chamber music and accompaniment. As regards teaching, she completed her master’s degree in piano teaching in 2021, at Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa, under the supervision of Artur Pizarro.
Manuela has worked as a piano teacher at various institutions, notably at Escola de Música Nossa Senhora do Cabo, Conservatório de Música de Mafra, where she also worked as a piano accompanist, Os músicos — Academia de Música de Miraflores, TASIS, St. Dominic’s International School in Portugal, and Festival de Música Júnior. Her vast experience in performance led her to explore the area of teaching, drawing inspiration from Professor Mariana Cruz, under whom she began and completed her piano studies at Escola de Música Nossa Senhora do Cabo.
In parallel, she has established herself in the areas of fado, song, and opera, working as the piano accompanist for the group OperaWave during its foundation. Manuela has vast experience both as a piano accompanist and as an orchestra musician, having played with Scherzo Eventus, Orquestra Académica da Metropolitana, and Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa. In 2023, she recorded À sombra do cante with hornist João Gaspar, an album developed within a teaching project and including Gaspar’s original compositions, based on typical melodies from Alentejo.
Photograph
© Nicole Sánchez
