BIOGRAPHY
With her unmistakably rich and luminous tone, Berlin-based Portuguese soprano Inês Simões is known for her interpretations of contemporary music, including 27 premieres of operatic, symphonic, electronic, and chamber music repertoire under her belt.
In recent years, a natural progression into the spinto soprano fach has opened up the possibilities of larger-scale Germanic works with Strauss’s Salome added to her repertoire, Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder featuring regularly in her concert appearances and her first interpretation of Isolde’s Liebestod in autumn 2023. Her debut at the Barbican Hall debut with Berg’s Wozzeck Suite under the baton of Sian Edwards and, more recently, her interpretation of Schoenberg‘s Das Buch der hängenden Gärten, testify to a passion for the music of the first half of the 20th century, a period she continues to explore with fervour and dedication.
In the 2023/2024 season, Inês returns to the main season of Teatro Nacional de São Carlos to breathe life into Perpétua in the first modern performance of Augusto Machado’s operetta Maria da Fonte. At the Teatro Municipal of São Luiz and the Coliseu do Porto, she appears in the Mala Voadora production "It's not over until the soprano dies" with excerpts from the roles of Salome, Senta, Marie (Wozzeck), Liù and Lulu. She also expands her repertoire with two major orchestral works: Chausson's Poème de l'amour et de la mer and Mahler’s Rückert Lieder.
Her collaboration with the Brazilian flautist James Strauss and the release of "Poema" for the Universal Music Group, testify to her versatility and her ability to shine in unusual formations. Her debut at Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation with the Gulbenkian Orquestra, under the baton of Magnus Lindberg was a real tour de force, in which she presented six new works in a single concert. Following this successful debut, Inês was invited back to perform in Jamie Man's opera "Play", conducted by Hannu Lintu and to sing alongside Iestyn Davies in Handel’s Solomon and The Messiah.
Inês Simões enjoyed a regular collaboration with Miso Music, which commissioned new pieces especially dedicated to her voice. She has sung with renowned orchestras such as the Camerata Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and taken part in prestigious events such as the Dias da Música Festival, the Oxford Lieder Festival and BBC Radio 3's In Tune radio programme.
Alongside operatic world premieres of works like A Canção do Bandido by Nuno Côrte-Real (Teatro Nacional de São Carlos and Teatro Trindade co-production) and Tabacaria and Flores do Mal by Luís Soldado (Inestética), Inês is proud to have sung in Portuguese premieres of operas Onheama by João Guilherme Ripper (Teatro Nacional de São Carlos and Festival Terras Sem Sombra co-production), King Harald’s Saga by Judith Weir, The Waiter’s Revenge by Stephen Oliver, and Hummus by Zad Moultaka.
In addition to her solo career, Inês is one half of Duo Tágide, whose bold programming encompasses works from both past and present as well as a dedicated place for Portuguese songs. They perform regularly at the most important festivals and venues in Portugal, as well as for the Portuguese classical music radio Antena 2. In 2014, they released their first album, Alma Ibérica, which showcases Iberian Art Song. Recently, they received the support of the Fundação GDA for the release of a new recording in 2024, featuring song cycles by Portuguese composers of the 21st century.
Inês Simões began her musical training at the age of 4 at the Fundação Musical dos Amigos das Crianças, has a Bachelor degree from the Academia Nacional Superior de Orquestra, a Master of Arts in Advanced Vocal Studies from the Wales International Academy of Voice and a Master of Arts in Performance from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Last edited May 2024.
