Ines Simoes

Inês Simões has graduated in singing at the Academia Nacional Superior de Orquestra, in the class of mezzo-soprano Liliana Bizineche. She has specialized in song repertoire in Amsterdam, in the “International Lied Masterclass 2007/2008” for post-graduates, with Udo Reinemann, David Selig e Rudolf Jansen. She is currently undertaking a Masters Degree at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, under the guidance of soprano Susan McCulloch.

She was given the Excellency Prize in the Curso de Verão para Jovens Cantores Internacionais do Festival do Estoril, in August 2006 and she won the Second Prize in the Prémio José Augusto Alegria in July 2008.

She has participated in many master classes working with Ricardo Visus, Manuel Cid, Eleane Netwing, Yvonne Minton, Loh Siew Tuan, Sarah Walker, Susan McCulloch, Udo Reinemann, Catherine Wyn-Rogers, Graham Johnson, Rudolf Jansen, David Selig and Paolo Olmi. She has had the opportunity to explore the song repertoire with many established musicians such as Jose Manuel Brandão, Rui Pinheiro, Gordon Stewart, Eugene Asti, Lada Valesova, Ian Burnside and Emmanuelle Moris.

In opera, her debut was in the role of Bastienne in December de 2004 in Évora, under the conduction of Max Rabinovich. In May 2006 she sang Aminta in Mozart’s opera Il Re Pastore in Lisboa, Alcochete and Maia, conducted by Jean-Marc Burfin. In July 2008 she interpreted the part of Susanna in Wolf-Ferrari’s Il Segreto di Susanna, in the Summer Festival of the Convento dos Capuchos, with the baritone Diogo Oliveira and the conductor Kodo Yamagishi.
     
As a recitalist she has sung in many concert houses in Portugal: Palácio da Independência, Teatro D. Maria II, Festival do Estoril, Convento dos Capuchos, Centro Cultural de Lagos, Centro Cultural do Redondo, Auditório Municipal de Alcochete, Palácio de Queluz. She works regularly with the pianist Daniel Godinho, exploring the song repertoire and playing for the classical national radio Antena 2. She was the soloist for the Rutter’s Requiem with the Ensemble Contemporaneus and for the Schubert’s Fifth Mass. She has recently made her debut in the Barbican Hall, singing in Berg’s Wozzeck Suite, under the conduction of Sian Edwards.
    
Her next engagements are a renaissance polyphony consort concert at the British Museum in May 2010 and a recital in the Institut Franco-Portugais in September of this year.