Ana Ester Neves, soprano
The Portuguese soprano Ana Ester Neves studied at the National Conservatory of Lisbon and, with a Calouste Gulbenkian scholarship, at the London Royal Academy of Music, winning important prizes in 1990, the year of her debut with the Vienna Chamber Opera as Micaela in BizetÂs Carmen and a further series of leading rÃŽles in a varied operatic repertoire. In the 1996 season at the Lisbon Teatro Nacionalde São Carlos she sang the role of Musetta in PucciniÂs La BohÚme and continues her diversified activity as a recitalist, being a member of the Trio Vissi dÂArte and of the Contemporary Music Group of Lisbon. She won first prizes in the Luisa Todi National Singing Competition and in the Mary Garden International Competition in Scotland and took a master's degree in singing at Boston University. Her present career has allowed her to do much to encourage the promotion of Portuguese music, with recitals in Paris and London, in addition to her regular international and national appearances in the opera-house and the concert-hall.
