ABOUT
Leonor Maia started her harp studies at the age of nine in Portugal. In 2013 she completed her Professional Music Course with Professor Ana Paula Miranda with a 20/20 in her final recital. She then began her Bachelor’s degree at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste with Prof. Sarah O’Brien, graduating in 2017. She concluded, in 2020, her Master’s degree with Prof. Stephen Fitzpatrick at the Universität Mozarteum.
Previously, she was mentored by Irina Zingg in the Harp Masters Academy and, for four consecutive years, has co-organize, alongside Irina Zingg, the Harp Week Porto, held at the Oporto High School of Music and Stage Arts.
Leonor has recorded several film and television projects.
She has also produced a CD, with only Henriette Renié's pieces, which has won the "GenDivers 2020" feministic award in Salzburg.
She attended masterclasses with renowned harpists such as Emmanuel Ceysson, Milda Agazarian, Marie-Pierre Langlamet, Isabelle Perrin, Isabelle Moretti, Carrol McLaughlin, Karen Vaughan, Mário Falcão.
Her debut CD "Jamais renier Renié" was awarded the GenDivers recognition Prize of Mozarteum University
Leonor has already
played alongside the
Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Vienna Symphonic Orchestra
She has won international competitions such as “Arpa Plus”, in both 2008 and 2012, and the “Competition Nossa Senhora do Cabo” in 2013. In 2019, she earned a second prize in the Savarez-Corelli Competition in Salzburg with her harp duo.
Leonor has a temporary contract with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. Her passion for orchestra playing has led her to perform with many international orchestras under the direction of Semyon Bychkov, Stepháne Denève, Yutaka Sado, Andres Orozco-Estrada, Giancarlo Guerrero, Alex Schillings, Johannes Schaefli, Pedro Neves, José Ferreira Lobo, amongst others, and she is now principal harpist with the Atlantic Coast Orchestra and the Portuguese Phillarmonic Orchestra
Leonor is also an established chamber musician, both with her jazz group, with whom she has given several concerts in Salzburg, and the Trio Solaire, a viola, flute and harp trio she founded 2015 in Zurich. They have performed in famous international concert halls in Bucharest, Zürich and Porto and the group is currently recording a CD for the Sheva record label.
She also has a duo with the flutist Francisco Barbosa, with whom she has won a Cultural Merit prize in 2023 in Portugal and both have played in the International Harp Festival in Brasil, as well as in Austria and Portugal.