For this interview I chose Manuela Pontes.

Portuguese soprano, active for almost 20

years on the Portuguese musical world, made part of many projects as a performer, teacher,
coach and producer.

Afonso: When you started in the professional world, what your main expectations?

Manuela: Music was present all my life. Since I was very little I always had the
influence of my father, who is a professional musician as well. Until my 15 years, I studied
piano and my dreams were all related to solo piano concerts and giving masterclasses.
Everything changed when I was asked to accompany a singer in a school concert. I became
delighted by the classical voice world and started to sing solo myself. From that moment on, all
the “piano-dreams” were replaced by singing, making operas and concerts, solo or in choir.
And those were and are the dreams that I still pursue today.

Afonso: And were the difficulties that you found on the first moments?

Manuela: I could say that it was the self-organization. Thanks to my father and my
voice teachers, I had a lot of connections already on the musical world and worked with many
people on my study years. I was accepting a lot of gigs on my first years, which was good, but it
was a lot of repertoire and rehearsals in different places. I remember many times that I found
myself exhausted, both physical and mentally. Through time I became self-organized and now I
can cope much better with managing many projects.

Afonso: When did you decided to start your own projects?

Manuela: While in high school, I worked sometimes with chamber music groups, but I
never thought about it seriously. But 10 years ago I started to teach in a music academy as a
voice and choir teacher and did some small musical productions with the kids. I found the
whole process very interesting and it became a tradition in that school and we are now
working on the 11th musical. That gave me the opportunity to work with people from different
artistic areas, such as theatre and dance. In 2022 we are starting a new project called
Intermitente which unites different artists from Guimarães in order to create a creative lab in
the city.

Afonso: And did you find challenging working on areas that were so far away from your
study topic?

Manuela: In the beginning I was a little worried since I was quite new as a singer
professional and I was already out of my comfort-zone. But everyone was very friendly with
me and it helped me to be more confident on the project production. Now I feel that I gained a
lot of knowledge and experience in many areas and I can apply that to myself as a performer
and also to my students as a teacher.

Afonso: Do you have any project more close to your study-topic?

Manuela: Yes. 5 years ago me and four friends that I met on my professional path
created a vocal ensemble (four voices and a pianist). It is going quite well, we are getting a lot
of gigs, from weddings to events, but now our pianist pursued another professional path and
now we are focusing more on acapella repertoire. I also worked with choirs, ensembles and
musical groups, not only in the classical sphere but also on jazz, pop and traditional music.

Afonso: To finish, which advice would you give to a musician starting now his
professional path?
 Manuela: I would say to be patience. Sometimes you will feel that you are lost, that
your career is not developing as you wanted it to be and that your dreams are getting further
and further away. That is a phase that every musician founds himself in. Sometimes it only
takes one gig to change everything, to meet the right people. Your career will develop and
mature itself with the time and you must be strong and patient to give that time to it. It will
come and you will have the opportunity to reach your dreams and be a great musician.

Afonso: Thank you very much for your time.

Manuela: You are welcome.