Sofia Borges is a versatile musician active as a composer, performer, percussionist and sound designer. She focuses on interdisciplinary work and blending a variety of genres, traditions, materials and technologies. Her compositions cover a wide spectrum ranging from chamber, orchestra and vocal music up to theatre, dance and multimedia performances and installations. Sofia has participated in numerous international festivals all over Europe, U.S.A, Brazil, Macao, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand. Her versatility is also apparent in her most recent projects, e.g. the music for Regina Rossi’s choreography GLOOM and the duo with the drummer Dag Magnus Narvesen. She was selected to take part in the TENSO Young Composers Workshop 2015 (Mechelen), 2016 (Marseille) and 2017 (Nova Gorica). When performing as a composer-performer, she not only uses self-programmed electronics but also instruments she has developed herself. Sofia is also a dedicated educator, having among other projects headed the composition lab with school children at Klangradar Berlin in the years 2015/16 and 2016/17. Sofia Borges began studying Percussion and Drums in Lisbon both at the Conservatório Nacional de Lisboa and the Luís Villas-Boas Jazz School. Later she devoted herself to composition, studying at the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa. In 2012 she completed her MA in Multimedia Composition at the Hamburg University of Music and Theater.
Margarida Pinheiro started her singing studies at the Gregorian Institut of Lisbon, in 2008. In 2014 she finished her Singing Performance Bachelor at the Music University of Lisbon (ESML). Currently she studies with the prof. Sami Kustaloglu. She took part of several choir projects, such as Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian Youth Choir (dir. Paul McCreesh), Lisbon’s Summer Choir Festival Chamber Choir (dir. Eugene Rogers) and Divino Sospiro Choir (dir. Massimo Mazzeo).
Along her studies, she also took several masterclasses and courses such as Austrian Barock Akademie Summer Course (prof. Christian Hilz, Roberta Mameli, Susanne Ryden ) and “Contemporary Resources of Human Voice: creating a performance” in Lisbon (prof. Alicia Molina, Diana Pérez and Sonia Carillo, from Málaga Music University).
In 2016-17, she was member of the group Ensemble Pictórico, a vocal quintet specialized in Early Music Repertoire. As a soloist, she sang the role of Belinda, from Purcell’s opera “Dido and Aeneas” (ESML, Lisboa, 2014), Member of Soloist Ensemble, on the project “Ester” (Opera Studio from ESML, Lisboa, 2014), and 2nd Soprano, on the premiere of Daniel Davis’ “Courage to Follow the Way…” (ESML, Lisboa, 2014). She also sang at the Radio Kulturhaus in Wien, as the reward of the winning prize in Austrian Barock Akademie Contest.
Andrea Conangla is a portuguese/catalan soprano currently specializing in Contemporary Music at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart, Germany, where she studies with Prof. Angelika Luz. Her artistic interest focuses specially old and new music, improvisation, collaborative workwith other artists and acting.
Andrea Conangla also holds a Master in Teaching of Music (University of Aveiro, Portugal) where, inspired by the works of Stanislavski and others, she developed a creative approach to the teaching of voice to actors through movement and improvisation. She was awarded prizes in important music competitions held in Portugal, were we highlight the Santa Cecília International Contest, in Oporto (1st Prize), in 2013. Andrea was part of the last two Tenso Europe Chamber Choir editions (2016/2017) held in Berlin and Groznjan respectively.
Annely Leinberg (Estonia, 1983) has obtained her Master’s degree in Music Education from the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre and is currently through Erasmus program on her last Bachelors year of classical singing in Utrechts Conservatory with Karin van der Pool. Since 2011 she sings in chamber choir Collegium Musicale and regularly performs in solo projects or with other ensembles. She has sang with conductors such as Tõnu Kaljuste, Gustavo Dudamel, Kaspars Putniņš, Daniel Reuss, Sigvards Kļava, Paul Hillier, Jos van Veldhoven, Simon Carrington, Michael Hofstetter, Risto Joost, Endrik Üksvärav, Aapo Häkkinen, Andres Mustonen, Toomas Siitan etc.
Linda Kruse (mezzo-soprano) was born in north Germany in 1991. She began to study music with the clarinet as major at Hochschule für Künste Bremen, but soon changed for singing at Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln, where she will be accomplishing her Masters of Education soon. The singer and teacher is passionate for a broad variety of expressing her voice: Singing opera and lied as well as in Jazz/Pop choirs and latin bands, she is always open to exploring new ways of connecting disciplines and genres.
Her vision and wish for the choral world: “More support for ambitious and interesting projects which experiment with connecting disciplines and create new things.”