Vanessa Pires

Vanessa Pires, b. 1980, graduated in music (cello) from ESMAE and holds a master's degree in Business and Cultural Institution Management from the University of Barcelona. She is the director of Artway, a cultural management and artistic projects company based in Porto, which she co-founded in 2011. As a cellist with the Casa da Música Baroque Orchestra, since the Porto 2001 European Capital of Culture she has been involved in various musical and recording projects at Casa da Música, having played for several years with the Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto and the Remix Ensemble of that renowned musical institution. She joined the European Association of Artist Agents, representing Portugal for the first time since the association's founding in 1947. The work she has developed in close partnership with artists, technicians, programmers, performance venues, festivals, local authorities, among others, gives her a unique and comprehensive understanding of the Portuguese and European music scene. She is a driving force behind the internationalisation of Portuguese musicians and projects, while actively contributing to the development of the artistic and cultural fabric in Portugal. She directs several projects with Portuguese and European public funding, such as "Temporada Artway / Itinerâncias: música para outros ouvidos" (Sustained Support DGArtes) and "Building Musical Heritage" (European Cooperation Project - Creative Europe). With these two projects, Vanessa Pires stands out in executive direction and artistic programming with a special focus on the decentralisation of cultural offerings and the cultivation of new audiences through the "Festival Província Sonora" and "BEYRA Laboratório Artístico", among other initiatives. With a differentiating comprehensive and globalising vision, Vanessa Pires also created a record label with two catalogues – Artway Records and Artway Next – and the mentoring programme for young musicians and their emerging projects, Artway Showcase. She teaches the subjects of Artistic Career Management and Introduction to Programming and Production of Cultural Events at ESMAE IPPorto.