Biography
A regular soloist in Europe and in the United States, Marta Menezes is recognized as a skilled pianist with a broad range of interests and styles. In 2013, she received 1st Prize at the International Piano Competition Nice - Côte D’Azur “Simone Delbert-Février” and won the Beethoven Competition at the Royal College of Music in London. Marta has received several additional awards in international competitions in Portugal, Spain and France.
She has presented recitals as a soloist and chamber musician in Europe, in the United States and in Cape Vert. Highlights of recent seasons include her performances at the Chopin Society of Connecticut (USA), at the Centro Cultural de Belém (Portugal), at the Antena 2 Radio (Portugal) and at the opening concert of the international festival “Lisbon Music Fest”. This past season, Marta presented a solo tour in six different cities in China, that ended with two sold out concerts in Beijing.
As a soloist, she performed with the Orchestre Régional de Cannes, the Symphony Orchestra from the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa, the Camerata MusArt, the Camerata Amicis, the Orquestra de Câmara de Cascais e Oeiras and the Student Orchestra at the Jacobs School of Music, under conductors such as Nicolas Simon, Vasco Azevedo, Gareguin Aratiounian, Carlos Silva, Nikolay Lalov and Louis Lohraseb.
Marta is an active performer of Portuguese music. She has premiered several works of Portuguese composers and developed projects dedicated to the dissemination of Portuguese music abroad. She formed a duo with pianist Inês Andrade to perform repertoire for two pianos and for piano four-hands, and most recently with Bruno Sandes, performing vocal works by Portuguese and Brazilian composers.
Marta was awarded the Silver Medal of Honor and Distinction - “Medalha de Prata de Valor e Distinção” - by the Polytechnic Institute of Lisbon in acknowledgement of her artistic accomplishments in 2014.
In 2015 she released her first CD with works by Beethoven and the Portuguese composer Lopes-Graça that was awarded the prize Global Music Awards (USA) - Silver Medal for Outstanding Achievement, in the categories Classical Piano and Emerging Artist.
She began her music studies at Jaime Chavinha Conservatory of Music (Minde, Portugal), with Gabriela Capaz, and later proceeded with Paulo Pacheco. She holds a Bachelor degree from Lisbon Superior School of Music, under Miguel Henriques, and a Master of Music from the same institution, under the tutelage of Miguel Henriques and Jorge Moyano, having completed the course with the highest grade. She completed a Master of Performance at the Royal College of Music in London with distinction, under Dmitri Alexeev, having previously studied with Andrew Ball.
Marta has participated in master-classes with the pianists Vitaly Margulis, Boris Berman, Galina Eguiazarova, Mikahil Voskresensky, Vladimir Viardo, Menahem Pressler, Gabriel Tacchino, Luiz de Moura Castro, José Eduardo Martins, Álvaro Teixeira Lopes and António Rosado, among others.
Marta is in the 4th year of her Doctor of Music degree at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where she studied under Arnaldo Cohen. She is currently based in Europe, teaching, performing and working on the final document of her degree entitled “Works for Piano and Orchestra by Portuguese Composers”.
