Biography
Joana Gama (Braga, 1983) is a Portuguese pianist who is involved in multiple solo projects and collaborations in the fields of cinema, dance, theatre, photography and music. Moved by music and the stories it carries, or can carry, Joana Gama endeavours to give concerts and performances that express her interests and affinities. Fascinated by the idea of music that is almost silence, or music that invites contemplation, she has performed music by Erik Satie, John Cage, Federico Mompou and Hans Otte in recent years. Aware of the importance of ecology, he has two performances for children which, through music, alert them to the importance and, simultaneously, the fascination that trees, birds and mushrooms can bring to our lives.
She began her musical studies in Braga at the Calouste Gulbenkian Conservatory of Music with Ema Pais Martins, Ana Rita Lima and João Paulo Teixeira. She studied for a year at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Vanessa Latarche and completed her degree in Piano, in the class of Tania Achot, at the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa in 2005. In 2010, in the class of António Rosado, she completed her Master's Degree in Performance at the University of Évora, with a thesis on Alberto Ginastera, where, in 2017, she received her doctorate, as an FCT scholarship holder, with the thesis "Interpretative studies on contemporary Portuguese piano music: the particular case of music evocative of Portuguese cultural elements". Today she continues her research as a member of CESEM / NOVA FCSH. She was awarded the Prémio Jovens Músicos/RDP in 2008, 1st Prize in the Piano - Higher Level category; in 2005, 1st Prize in the Piano Accompaniment category (with violetist Lisboa); and in 2004, 3rd Prize in the Chamber Music category (with flutist Fernando Marinho).
Between 2005 and 2009, he collaborated regularly with the Metropolitan Orchestra, where he worked with conductors such as Cesário Costa, Michael Zilm, Jean-Sébastien Béreau and Pablo Heras-Casado. He has also collaborated with the Portuguese Symphony Orchestra in the premiere of works by Christopher Bochmann, as well as with the Lisbon Ensemble 20/21, Orchestrutopica, the Sond'Ar-Te Electric Ensemble, the Lisbon Contemporary Music Group and the Gulbenkian Orchestra. Between 2004 and 2010 she was a member of the Metropolitana teaching staff, as pianist and accompanist for the ANSO, piano teacher at the CMML and accompanist for Os Pequenos Violinos da Metropolitana.
As a pianist, performer and composer, in recent years Joana has been involved in projects that combine music with dance - "Danza Ricercata", "Danza Variada", "Idiolecto" and "27 Ossos" by Tânia Carvalho; "Trovoada" by Luís Guerra, "Pele" by Miguel Moreira, "Nocturno" (in co-creation), "Drama" and "Os Três Irmãos" with Victor Hugo Pontes -, theatre - "Benny Hall" by Esticalimógama -, photography and video - "Antropia", "Linha" and "terras interiores" by Eduardo Brito - and cinema - "La Valse" by João Botelho, "Incêndio" by Miguel Seabra Lopes and Karen Akerman, "A Glória de fazer Cinema em Portugal" by Manuel Mozos, "Penúmbria" by Eduardo Brito and "Lobo e Cão" by Cláudia Varejão. She is part of the cast of "A Grande Fantochada", a show by and starring Hugo van der Ding, which premiered in October 2023.
Since 2010, he has dedicated herself to promoting the work by French composer Erik Satie: in 2016, with the support of Antena 2, she marked the 150th anniversary of the composer's birth with the SATIE.150 tour and the release of the special edition of the score "Embryons desséchés". In recent years she has presented commented recitals for adults and children focussing on the music by Erik Satie and has also published the albums SATIE.150, HARMONIES and ARCUEIL. She played Erik Satie's "Vexations" on four occasions: Serralves em Festa, 2016; Jardins Efémeros Festival, 2016; Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, 2018; Atelier Re.al with João Fiadeiro, 2019, in performances lasting 40 minutes, 15 hours, 14 hours and 7 hours, respectively. In 2018, in a concert that included music by Erik Satie, Joana Gama played John Cage's piece 4'33'' at the National Pantheon. In April 2024, she performed a ritual concert at the MAC/CCB with Erik Satie's piece ‘Le fils des étoiles’.
As a result of the work carried out at the doctoral programme, in May 2019 she released the album "Travels in my homeland" on Grand Piano Records (Naxos group) with music by Amílcar Vasques-Dias and Fernando Lopes-Graça, whose scores, in an edition coordinated by her, were published at the same time by mpmp. Based on this repertoire, she premiered "O Figo que prometeste" with Sopa de Pedra at the 2019 edition of the Bons Sons Festival.
In October 2020, at a concert at Culturgest, she premiered Hans Otte's piano cycle "The Book of Sounds" in Portugal. This was the first action to promote Hans Otte's work in Portugal, part of the Hans Otte Festival: Sound of Sounds which, in 2021 and 2022, with the support of the Goethe Institut and various Portuguese and German institutions, will take Hans Otte's multifaceted work to Lisbon, Évora, Guimarães and Viseu. She recorded Hans Otte's "The Book of Sounds" for RTP2 in the greenhouse of Coimbra's Botanical Garden. This recording is available on RTP PALCO.
Also in 2020, he premiered the performance "As árvores não têm pernas para andar”, which has already exceeded one hundred and fifty performances and which, in 2022, was presented in the garden of the Palacete de São Bento, as part of the 25 April celebrations. For younger audiences, she also created "Eu gosto muito do Senhor Satie" (2018) and "Pássaros & Cogumelos" (2022).
The piano and electronics duo, shared with Luís Fernandes, has played at festivals such as Novas Frequências (Rio de Janeiro) and MADEIRADIG. QUEST, the duo's first album, released by Shhpuma, was considered one of the best albums of 2014 by several national critics. In 2016 they released HARMONIES, with Ricardo Jacinto, inspired by Erik Satie's music and peculiar universe. The work as presented at the most important Portuguese venues, and also in Berlin, Valência and Dumfries.
In 2017, in response to a commission from the Westway LAB festival (Guimarães), they created "at the still point of the turning world", a collaboration with the Guimarães Orchestra that was released on an album by Australian label Room40. In 2018, the concert took place at Curtas de Vila do Conde, and in 2019 they performed with the Metropolitan Orchestra at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation's Grand Auditorium (a concert filmed by RTP) and at the Micaelense Theatre, at the opening concert of the Walk&Talk Festival. In April 2019, the duo premiered a new collaboration at the Porto Municipal Theatre, this time with the Drumming Percussion Group. January 2022 marked the release of the fifth album by the piano and electronics duo that she has had with Luís Fernandes since 2014. "There's no knowing" followed an invitation from Nuno M. Cardoso to create the soundtrack for the television series "Cassandra", which aired on RTP2 in 2023.
She is the author of the sound environments for the podcast "A drop in the rain . A flower in the garden", released by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in 2022, the centenary of Landscape Architect Gonçalo Ribeiro Telles' birth.
She is a founding member of the CAAA Centre for Art and Architecture in Guimarães and of O Homem do Saco, a typography and publishing studio in Lisbon.
Joana Gama's eclectic discography can be found on the Portuguese labels Shhpuma, mpmp, Pianola, Boca/ Douda Correria and Holuzam, the Australian Room40 and Grand Piano (Naxos group).
