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The Portuguese harpsichordist, Elsa Sofia de Oliveira Santos Mathei, studied Business Management in Lisbon; obtained her Harpsichord degree from the Escola Superior de Música e das Artes do Espectáculo (ESMAE) in Porto; her postgraduate degree on Pianoforte from ESMUC, Barcelona; and her a Bachelor degree in Harpsichord from the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht, the Netherlands, where she studied with Siebe Henstra.
Elsa Mathei has lived in many places such as Barcelona, Utrecht, Lisbon, Porto and now Lagos, which turned out to be a journey across a diversity of cultures and experiences that enriched her life. During her studies, she developed her teaching career, and promoted the opening of the harpsichord in several specialized music teaching institutions in the Algarve, during the past decade. She has been Répétiteur at the Conservatório Nacional de Lisboa since September 2017; and harpsichord teacher at the Conservatório de Música Loulé since October 2018. She is co-founder and member of the pedagogical team of the Conservatório de Artes de Lagoa (since September 2018), where she established a transversal organization model, avoiding hierarchies. She is part of an artists collective | association Contemporaneus | established to promote contemporary music and foster multidisciplinary creativity. She has already integrated several moments of artistic experimentation, based on the dichotomy of the opposites past and present.
As a harpsichordist accompanist, Elsa Mathei plays regularly in various chamber music courses and groups, collaborating with orchestras. She has performed in several music festivals and was the founder and Artistic Director of Sons Antigos Sul, an early music festival in the Western Algarve. She was also artistic director and founder of D’Aquém Mar, Festival Out-(In)Verno. To combat the aging of the public that commonly attends classical/early music concerts, she explored over the last four years new ways and strategies to reach the youngest listeners, especially in areas where cultural education is lacking. She created Espelhos Entre Paisagens (Mirrors between Landscapes) as a multidisciplinary project that exposes the convergence of various artistic languages, visual arts, shadow plays and music, aimed at teenagers. Another project is GarB'urlesco, currently in its creation phase, is a reflection on the effects of mass tourism in the Algarve and its cultural identity. It is a multidisciplinary project that she conceived and she is directing, being supported by Direção Geral das Artes. The creation process aims to find new ways of horizontal group decisions. Other multidisciplinary projects she has developed in recent years: Espelhos Em Movimento, Elementos II. Promoter of the Photography exhibitions: Polarities, EXTRACTS and the Engraving exhibition: Chaminés Algarvias. She is the Artistic Director of the Armilar Project founded in the Netherlands in 2028 and regularly performs in concert, both solo and in groups, both nationally and internationally. |
