|
The Brazilian choral conductor, Mércia Mafra Ferreira, had her professional training at the Conservatório Brasileiro de Música, Rio de Janeiro, where she obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree in Piano and studied Singing and Conducting.
Mércia Mafra Ferreira has been dedicated to music for 55 years, intensely and uninterruptedly. During her career, which began in the 1960's with conductors Isaac Karabtschewisk and Elza Lakschevitz, she conducted amateur and professional choirs, taught both in the public and private sectors, In Florianópolis, she dedicated herself to teaching music at the Federal Technical School (IFSC), and at the Escola Técnica Federal, where she was the conductor of the IEE choir for 15 years. She was a judge of the second Concurso Nacional Funarte de Canto Coral in 2002 and is currently a member of the Academia Catarinense de Letras e Artesde Santa Catarina. She was awarded the Cruz e Souza Medal of Cultural Merit in 2009 by the Government of Santa Catarina. From 2004 to 2010 she was Artistic Director of the Festival Aldo Baldin and of the operas staged by Pró-Música de Florianópolis. She was Artistic Director of the operas staged by Pró-Música de Florianópolis and Cia Ópera de Santa Catarina. In these 20 years, Polyphonia Khoros has shown the result of its intense work through a cappella concertos, choir and orchestra, choir and piano and participation in operas.
Mércia Mafra Ferreira created in 2000 the Polyphonia Khoros, a group she still directs today. As conductor and Musical Director of Poyphonia Khoros, she performed 21 tours in the main cities of Santa Catarina, southern and southeastern Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. She recorded the CD's "Natal", with compositions by Aldo and Edino Krieger; "As Vozes da Poesia", with works for choir and piano by Alberto Andrés Heller; DVD "Coro, Instrumento de Educação Musical Maestro Carlos Besen", by Edital Elisabete Anderle da Fundação Catarinense de Cultura Santa Catarina; DVD "The Crucifixion", by John Stainer; In November 2015 she received the medal of “Merito Cultural Carlos Gomes” in the degree of Commander in São Paulo SP, by the Sociedade Brasileira de Artes Cultura e Ensino. She has lived in Florianópolis for 44 years. |
