The soprano Sandra Medeiros was born in S.Miguel Island (Azores/Portugal). She studied at the Regional Conservatory of Ponta Delgada with Imaculada Pacheco and graduated at the Lisbon College of Music, where she studied with Joana Silva. She also studied singing with Lucia Lemos. She continued her studies (with scholarships from the Gulbenkian Foundation and the National Cultural Centre) at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she studied with Julie Kennard and Clara Taylor. Sandra Medeiros graduated with “Distinction” and Dip. RAM from the Postgraduate Degree in Vocal Performance. Her prizes have included the Amanda von Lob Memorial Prize.
She has attended masterclasses in Portugal, Austria, Spain, England and France with eminent musicians such as Ileana Cotrubas, Teresa Berganza, Marimi del Pozo, Gundula Janowitz, Rudolf Knoll, Christiane Eda-Pierre, Frank Ferrari, Liliana Bizineche, Jill Feldman, Paul Esswood, Richard Miller, Robert Tear, John Streets, Teresa Cahill, Martin Isepp, Paul Kiesgen, Rudolf Jansen and Udo Reinemann.
She has been awarded several prizes in national and international singing competitions. She was finalist of the prestigious Wigmore Award at the Wigmore Hall in London and won second prize in the V International Singing Competition Bidu Sayão in Brazil.
Her activity as a soloist ranges from early music to oratorio, lied, melodie, 20th and 21st century song and opera. She has already performed under the direction of conductors such as Michael Corboz, Lawrence Foster, Marc Minkowski, Philippe Herreweghe, Sir Charles Mackerras, Laurence Cummings, Alberto Lysy, Enrico Onofri, Jane Glover, Emilio Moreno, Nicolay Lalov, Christopher Bochmann, Manuel Ivo Cruz, Jorge Matta, Osvaldo Ferreira, Rui Pinheiro, Pedro Carneiro, Pedro Amaral, Pedro Neves, João Paulo Santos, Ferreira Lobo, Paulo Lourenço, Marcos Magalhães, Ricardo Bernardes, Luís Carreiro, among many others. She also performed with the most prestigious Portuguese orchestras, with the most eminent early music Portuguese groups, including Os Músicos do Tejo and Divino Sospiro and with PIBO (Baroche orchestra of Royal Academy of Music-RAM), Conjunt d’Antiga de L’ESMUC, Camerata Lysy Gstaad, the Warsaw Symphony orchestra, L’Avventura London, Concerto Köln, among others.
She is one of the founding members of the Ensemble D. João V and Ensemble Affetti d’Amore.
Sandra Medeiros has recorded for Portuguese, Brazilian and Spanish television and for Portuguese, Bulgarian and English radio (BBC 3). She also recorded for Naxos and Hyperion label.
The Portuguese contemporary music has played a prominent role in her career, having premiered four 20th and 21st century operas and works from composers like João Madureira, Carlos Marecos, Carlos Caíres, Nuno Côrte-Real, Sérgio Azevedo, Rogério Medeiros, Eduardo Rocha, Emanuel Frazão, Eurico Carrapatoso among others.
Sandra Medeiros has performed in recital with the pianists Margarida Magalhães de Sousa, João Paulo Santos, Nuno Vieira de Almeida, Olga Prats, Nicholas Mcnair, Alexei Eremine, Alessandro Segreto, Aurélio Viribay, Bethany Phillips, Svetlana Pascoal, Gabriela Canavilhas, Afonso Malão, Margarida Prates, Ana Paula Andrade, Paulo Pacheco, Carla Seixas, José Brandão, Nuno Lopes, Francisco Sassetti, Armando Vidal and Joana Gama.
Her operatic roles include Barbarina (Le Nozze di Figaro), Princese / La chauve-souri (L’énfant et Les Sortiléges), Siamese Twin (The White Raven, Philip Glass), Dragonfly (The Cunning Little Vixen), Frasquita (Carmen), Serpina (La serva padrona), Carlota (As Damas Trocadas, Marcos Portugal), Donna Anna / Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Cardella (Lo Frate Nnamorato, Pergolesi), Lindane (Lindane e Dalmiro, Cordeiro da Silva), Flaminia (Il Mondo della luna, Pedro Avondano), Amore (Orfeu ed Euridice) among others.
She is a regular guest at the main theaters, concert halls and music festivals in Portugal. She has also performed in the U.K., Germany, France, Luxembourg, Spain, Bulgaria, Macau, Brazil and Uruguay in venues such as London Bach Festival, Brancaster Midsummer Music Festival, York Early Music Festival, Brighton Early Music Festival, Tudeley Festival, Kölner Philharmonie, Teatre de Bobigny, Teatro Real de Madrid, International Music Festival of Plasencia, International Music Festival of Macau, Teatro da Paz, among others. Sandra Medeiros as performed in the Expo 98 (Portugal) and Expo An Meer 2000 (Germany).
Alongside her artistic activity, Sandra Medeiros has been developing educational activity. She is a member of the faculty of Évora’s Regional Conservatory School – Eborae Musica (CREV) since 2003, teaching choir (till 2017) and singing classes, which she has also coordinated until 2011. She is regularly invited to give workshops on vocal health and technique, singing masterclasses (S. Miguel/ Azores, and Badajoz/Spain) and to be a member of the jury in singing competitions in Portugal.
