Artistic Direction

Conductor Ana Paula Mendes

Having studied piano since the age of seven, turned herself into the pipe organ in which she graduated in 1982 at the national conservatory of music in Lisbon under the supervision of the professor Joaquim Simões da Hora. Has been developing an extensive work in choir's music, like with the conductor Fernando Eldoro as a student of the Conservatório Nacional and later with the conductor Fernando Lopes Graça (Costa do Estoril music courses).

Since 1976 she has worked with several amateur choirs including Coral Canto Novo in Cova da Piedade (Almada), with the chamber choir of the music academy in Tomar, where from 1984 to 2000 she was a teacher, educational director and conductor of the choir. In 2003 she founded and has been directing the choir Coro dos Pequenos Cantores de S. Bruno, in the school EB 2.3 de S. Bruno, where she teaches the course of musical education and with which she has performed several concerts in Portugal and Spain (Barcelona). In 2013, she competed with this choir in Prague, reaching the 2nd place in it's category, equal score to Russia. In March of 2015 by directing the Coro dos Pequenos Cantores de S. Bruno, reached the 2nd place in a contest of choirs in Verona, Italy . She also directs the choir Coro dos Pequenos Cantores dos Jerónimos.

Since 2010 she has been conducting the Coro Notas Soltas de Vila Franca de Xira, which under her direction has already participated in two amateur choir festivals, the first one in 2013 at the Advent Festival in Prague and the second one in 2016 at the festival Cantat Catalunya, held in the city of Barcelona. On the 18th of November of 2017 she directed our choir at the choir's gathering, Tierra de Barros, held in Villafranca de los Barros, Spain, a twin town with Vila Franca de Xira.