MANUEL MAIO

Manuel Maio is a Portuguese musician. He started playing the violin at an early age. Soon he became passionate about different music genres and started experimenting with his own music. In 2006 he got his college degree in Violin, followed by Jazz studies at CMDL, France, and a Master in Music Education in 2012. As founder member of the Verazin String Quartet, he premiered and recorded António Pinho Vargas’ second String Quartet. He has played with several major orchestras, both on modern and baroque violin.

He has been involved in numerous musical projects as performer, composer and producer. His most personal project to this day is A Presença das Formigas, a band with which he has released two albums: “Ciclorama” (2011) and “Pé de Vento” (2014). The latter won the Vox Pop Award at the Independent Music Awards 2015 and made the European World Music Charts in 2016, after being rereleased by German label CPL Music.

As a member of FolkMus - Young musicians and old stories - he toured several European countries, giving new life to traditional repertoire with fellow musicians from different countries and musical backgrounds.

Manuel collaborates on a regular basis with ACERT and d’Orfeu AC, two very special and creative cultural associations. He appears as producer and guest musician on several CDs, and writes music for film, theatre, music productions and albums. Manuel started teaching at “A Pauta”, a Suzuki Music School where he became acquainted with the method. He taught violin and group classes at Santa Maria da Feira Music Academy and EMAAG, Porto, where he also worked as pedagogical director between 2008 and 2012. His Masters dissertation focused on the creation of musical arrangements for group classes.