Biography

Maria Reis Sá, born in December 2004, began her musical studies at the "Academia de Música A Pauta" in Porto, Portugal at the age of 4, following the Suzuki method. She began her viola training with Professor Luís Norberto and, in 2010, studying violin with Joana Jesus, she won first prizes at the Fátima National Competition (2012) and the Capela Competition (2014). In 2014 she began studying with Professor José Paulo Jesus and since then she has won several 1st prizes in National and International Competitions: Elisa de Sousa Pedroso (Vila Real) in 2015, Porto city in 2016, Vigo International Competition (Spain) in 2016, Vasco Barbosa (Lisbon) pre-juvenile category in 2017, Fundão city in 2018, Vasco Barbosa juvenile category in 2019 and, finally, the "Prémio Jovens Músicos" also in 2019. She also won the Elisa de Sousa Pedroso trophy in 2015, the Carlos Fontes trophy in 2016, the Bruno-Frey Pädagogischer Musikpreis in 2020 in Germany and the special prize at the Cantus Firmus International Violin Competition in Bulgaria in 2025. Since 2022 she has been studying at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg (Austria) with Professor Benjamin Schmid and Professor Emmanuel Tjeknavorian. She has held several Masterclasses with Joseph Swensen, Boris Kushnir, Evandra Gonçalves, Gerardo Ribeiro, James Dalhgren, Yuri Zhislin. She has played as a soloist with the Vigo Conservatory Symphony Orchestra, Camerata Atlantica under the direction of Maria Beatriz Manzanilla, the Gulbenkian Orchestra and the Classical Orchestra of the Centre conducted by José Eduardo Gomes. Since 2017 she has been a member of and still collaborates with the Portuguese Youth Orchestra (JOP) under the direction of Pedro Carneiro, since 2022 she has been a member of the European Union Youth Orchestra (EUYO) and has played under the direction of Iván Fisher, Peter Stark, António Papano, Elim Chan, Gustavo Gimeno, Gianandrea Noseda, Manfred Honeck, Susanna Mälkki. She was an academy-member in 2022-2024 and is currently a collaborator with the Salzburg Philharmonic under the direction of Elisabeth Fuchs. In 2024 she was also a guest member of the Budapest Festival Orchestra under the direction of Iván Fisher, is a current member of the Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now International Program with her - “Trio Vivo” - violin, piano and cello trio and was admitted in 2025 to participate in the Pacific Music Festival (PMF). In August 2025 she had her debut playing Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with the EUYO under the direction of Jakub Przybycien.