Gabriela Canavilhas

Gabriela Canavilhas (born 1961) is a Portuguese classical pianist, music teacher and former politician. As well as being the Minister of Culture between 2009 and 2011, she was a deputy in the Assembly of the Republic from 2011 until 2018.

Early life Maria Gabriela da Silveira Ferreira Canavilhas was born in Lubango (formerly known as Sá da Bandeira) in Angola on 29 March 1961. Living briefly in Mozambique, she spent most of her childhood and adolescence on São Miguel Island in the Portuguese island group of the Azores, apart from two years spent in the USA. She obtained a degree in Musical Sciences from the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences of the NOVA University Lisbon and took a further Piano Course at the National Conservatory of Lisbon. She then taught at the Academia de Amadores de Música (1982–1986) before joining the School of Music at the National Conservatory in 1986.

Pianist As a pianist, between 1986 and 2004 she performed throughout Portugal, as well as in the US, Canada, Brazil, Macau, Italy and Germany. She also presented a television programme on Portuguese museums.

Political life In 2002, Canavilhas was a candidate for the Portuguese Socialist Party (PS) in the Azores in the national elections but was not elected. In 2009 she was appointed Minister of Culture of Portugal,

Recent activities After resigning from both the national parliament and from the Cascais council, Canavilhas enrolled to take a PhD at the Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas (Higher Institute of Social Sciences and Politics – ISCSP), with a thesis on "Female characters in Opera, The Voices of a Gender discourse". She returned to work at the National Conservatory and began to collaborate with a project of the Ministry of Education to support elementary schools in the areas of music and dance. She also broadcast a radio programme on RTP. Canavilhas has been a non-Executive member of the Board of Directors of Fundação Oriente and a member of the General Council of the Universidade Aberta. She is married to José Manuel Pinheiro Lopes Canavilhas and they have one daughter.

Prizes won As a pianist, Canavilhas won the following prizes: 1st Prize at the V International Competition "Città di Moncalieri" in Turin, Italy – 1990; 1st Prize for Classical Music in the National Culture and Development Competition promoted by the Portuguese Club of Arts and Ideas – 1989 1st Prize in the Dame Ruth Railton Award – 1976.

Recordings CD: Song and Piano Pieces by Alfredo Keil; CD: Music for Clarinet and Piano of the 20th century; CD: Portuguese and Brazilian works from the 18th and 19th centuries; CD: Quintets for Piano and String Quartet by J. Domingos Bomtempo; CD: Sonatas for Piano by J. Domingos Bomtempo; CD: Works from the historical repertoire of the Palácio Nacional da Ajuda.