Filipa, classical musician from an isolated island.
Your work is extremely unique – tell us about your artistic style.
I am a portuguese classical musician working in the opera house in Zurich since 2013.
Music has always been my passion and I knew since my childhood there was nothing else I wanted to do with my life than to have an orchestra to play with, a choir to sing with us and a ballet for the amazing effect of all these arts working together. And I was lucky enough to have won almost all my dream jobs!
Music is the oldest form of communication and there is no life without it. Imagine a life without any kind of sound. No ocean sound, no wind, no animals, no music during a film, nothing. Music is always present.
I think the main reason why I always wanted to be a classical musician is that I was a shy child who wanted to communicate with others without barriers. And the music is international, it does not judge you for the way you look or who you are, it does not have any discrimination, no matter your gender, sexual orientation, race, or anything else.
Communication. Connection between cultures and people. No wars, no fights. It brings people together. It is truly the best thing in the world and as all arts, it makes us see the best in people and in the world.
Interesting enough, in the darkest of times fantastic music has been written. It has always given me hope for a better future and it has always made me smile. A true pleasure to work in this field! It is not easy, but definitely worth it.
And a little bit about yourself – what’s your story?
I grew up in the beautiful Madeira Islands, in Imaculado Coração de Maria (Funchal).
I love my island and therefore it was hard for me to leave when I was 17. But I knew I had to, because I needed to learn lots of things in many different fields so I could be a more complete musician and I needed the experience to be able to be successful in this field.
It was not easy, because the classical music industry at the time when I was 17 was even much more closed than it is today and there was still ideas like “women can not play a wind instrument”, etc. Which is of course some invention of someone in the dark ages to get rid of the competition.
So in the beginning was quite a rough ride to stand out of the masses and win a job. But thanks to my amazing teachers in Basel (Francois Benda and Marcos Perez Miranda), I have gained the confidence to simply be myself and have no fear of showing all my musical ideas, no matter if they were well received or not. And they helped me get rid of any technical problems that I had.
I remember Francois phrase like it has been said to me yesterday: “never give up on expressing yourself musically. You have a special gift and you need to show it to the world without fear of judgement. If you do that, your gender will not matter for getting an orchestral job or do whatever you want. Practice, practice, practice. And trust me, I will guide you.” And he was spot on, he is one of the persons that I admire best for his knowledge and ability to make his students be the best they can be.
Shortly after this (and after working a lot with Francois on orchestral excerpts for auditions), I won the audition for a couple of international european youth orchestras like Schleswig Holstein Musik Festival and Gustav Mahler Jugend Orchester. Shortly after, the job for solo bass clarinet at the Opera House in Zurich. I will be forever grateful to Francois and Marcos and truly hope I can help many more people to achieve their dreams too through hard work and focus.
I guess everything is possible for everyone, even for a small woman from a distant beautiful isolated island if I can do it, you can too!
What’s your favourite part of the creative process?
Learning new things all the time and the teamwork. As a musician, you are responsible to represent and transmit the feelings the music requires. And with a great team, the best part is to create something new and special together.
Music only lasts for a moment and you are as good as your last performance, so we have always to keep on the top of our game and develop skills to react immediately and help the colleagues wherever they need. I love the team work and this is definitively my favorite part. There is no correct way of doing music, there is simply people trying to do their best together and elevate a moment and make it special for the public.
Shoutout to your top source of inspiration? Person, book, snack… go wild.
So many!
My parents, my first clarinet teachers (José António Sousa and Robert Bramley and many others from Madeira´s conservatory)… Of course Francois and Marcos, like I said above… Sabine Meier, so many other music friends…
But to be honest, I think, generally, nature inspires me. There is nothing more pure or more beautiful. I tend to stare at the sky in the evening, go to a place far away from too many people and enjoy the sounds of nature and just breath fresh air. Or listen to the ocean and the rolling stones it takes with it.
People generally inspire me too: even though many are horrible and there is a terrible chaos at the moment (wars, virus, violence against people and animals, etc), they always manage to surprise me on how good people can be as well. Imagine how nice the world could be if we helped each other out more and if we learned to listen to each other without judgement…
“I guess everything is possible for everyone, even for a small woman from a distant beautiful isolated island if I can do it, you can too!“
Any downside to being an artist – apart from cleaning your tools?
The materials!! Which clarinets to play on, which reeds, which mouthpiece, money flying out of the window on these things is the downpart.
Many freelancers have a hard time, because it´s a very difficult industry to stand out and it´s extremely hard to get jobs that give you a kind of financial security… An audition is extremely difficult to win as well: many people who sit behind the curtain listening to the candidates forgot what is it like to be on the other side and of course, the level is crazy high. Teaching positions happen many times by connections and are not even published, it happens quite a lot.
So, it can be really hard sometimes not to give up. But I am a true believer of hard work and great guidance. Like I said before, the “impossible” we so often hear about does not exist. We just need to keep at it at all times and never give up.
It´s a business of rejection and we need to be able to handle it, even if most musicians are highly sensitive.
Something everyone loves but you can’t stand
Fish! I hate the smell and how it tastes
Zodiac Sign
Gemini
Super power
Spirit animal
Black Panther
Super tool
Adobe After Effects
ARTIST FEATURE
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