ABOUT US

photograph by Pierre Guibert

Elvire de Paiva e Pona and Joana Rolo know each other since they were 8 years old. They went to the same school and music school. There they attended together all lessons like solfège, choir and music history classes where they created small pedagogical theaters. At the age of 11 they were already playing together in the chamber music class of Professor António Ferreira. After school, the passion for music led them to follow their paths professionally but this time in different cities in Europe: Vienna and Rotterdam. However, the desire to work on a common project never left them and they always kept on playing together and perform in Portugal, especially for their friends. In 2018 they performed in the Netherlands “Les fiançailles pour rire”, a cycle of songs by Francis Poulenc with poems by poet Louise de Vilmorin. Currently they are dedicated to discover music written by female authors, both poets and composers.​

photograph by Marcel van Oostrom

Joana Rolo is a Portuguese pianist who studied in Lisbon, Krakow and Rotterdam with Aquiles Delle Vigne, Ewa Bukojemska, Jean-Bernard Pommier and Bart van de Roer with whom she completed the Master in Performance at the Rotterdam Conservatory. A multifaceted pianist, Joana Rolo performs regularly in solo recitals, with diverse small and large ensembles and has developed projects in the area of dance and silent film. She participated in masterclasses with prestigious musicians like Imogen Cooper, P​ascal Moraguès, Jan Wijn, Matan Porat, among others... 
In parallel to her performer activity, Joana’s dedication to the cause of arts education has been constant, leading her to conduct several teacher’s training projects in the fields of music and dance in Nepal, Mozambique and Myanmar. She is currently Ambassador for the collaborative platform “O Outro Sou Eu”, supported by the United Nations and Centro Nacional de Cultura. Joana is the co-author and presenter of a radio show called “As Notáveis” dedicated to celebrate the music of women composers and broadcasyed weekly by Antena 2 (the portuguese National classical Radio channerl). In addition to her professional activity Joana Rolo is an enthusiastic dancer, a dedicated swimmer and a beginner scuba-diver. She also holds a degree in Art History from Universidade Nova de Lisboa.

Elvire de Paiva e Pona, is a lyric Soprano of coloratura, born in Lisbon from a Portuguese father and a French mother. She currently resides in Vienna, Austria where she teaches singing and continues to explore the possibilities of the voice in the classical repertoire and beyond. . Elvire is also the co-author of the book, “ACT for Musicians: A Guide for Using Acceptance and Commitment Training to Enhance Performance and Improve Well-Being” and uses ACT in her lessons to help students improve performance & well-being.

After having studied and finished a licence in psychology, she completed her bachelor singing degree at the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa with Sílvia Mateus and did an Erasmus in Vienna where she worked with Gabriele Fontana and Rainer Trost. She completed her Masters Degree in Singing Performance at Anton Bruckner Universität in Linz, Austria in the class of teacher Katerina Beranova, as well as the Bachelor of Singing Pedagogy. In opera Elvire has sung several roles like the Queen of the Night in the “Magic Flute” (W. A. Mozart), Despina in “Cosí fan Tutte” (W. A. Mozart)  as well as Lesbina's role in the opera “Il philosopher di Campagna” (B. Galuppi) in S.Petersburg (Dir. Stefano Carlini), Paride in the opera “Paride ed Elena” (C. W. Gluck) and the roles of le Feu and Le Rossignol in “L'enfant et les sortilèges” (M. Ravel) . 

​Elvire regularly performs in concert throughout Europe, participating in varied shows ranging from opera to Lied, Mélodie and French Chanson. Also interested in the contemporary repertoire, she debuted pieces by composers such as Eugénio Rodrigues, Carlos Caires, Till Körber and Hassan Zanjirani Farahani. In masterclass Elvire worked with several renowned teachers, such as Yvonne Minton, Tom Krause, Lorraine Nubar, Dalton Baldwin and Elena Dumitrescu Nentwig. 

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