Biography

Interested in all music styles and specialized in the contemporary classical music world, Helena Sousa Estévez, accordionist, collaborates very actively with composers to work as a soloist or as an ensemble or orchestra member.

Currently based in Rotterdam, Helena has been part of international projects and festivals, highlighting in the recent years:

• Academie Voix Nouvelles 2024 with Ensemble Linea, collective opera written by 8 composers, Royaumont Abbey, Asnières-sur-Oise, France
• Oversea VI with Ensemble Linea, collaboration and concerts with composers from United States at the next universities: Peabody Institute at John Hopkins University (Baltimore, Maryland), Northwestern (Evanston, Illinois) and Stanford (Palo Alto, California), May 2024
• World New Music Days 2023, organized by the ISCM - International Society for Contemporary Music with Vertixe Sonora, conductor Mariano Chiacchiarini (Cape Town, South-Africa)
• Festival Internacional de Música Nueva 2023 with Vertixe Sonora, conductor Iván Ferrer-Orozco (Querétaro, Mexico)
• Festival Internacional de Percusiones 2023 with Vertixe Sonora, conductor Iván Ferrer-Orozco (Monterrey, Mexico)

• Festival Internacional de Música de Canarias - Festival Contemporáneo 2023 with Vertixe Sonora, conductor Mariano Chiacchiarini (Tenerife and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain)
• Academia Internacional Cardinais 2023 with Vertixe Sonora, conductor Iván Ferrer-Orozco (Santiago de Compostela, Spain)
• Exodes, Choral opera by Gualtiero Dazzi and Elisabeth Kaess with the Choeur d'Hommes de la Villette, conductor Loïk Blanvillain (2023 in Paris, Strasbourg, Lalouvesc, Chambon-sur-Lignon and Saint-Flour, France)
• North Sea Round Town 2023 with TangoZZS&World (Rotterdam, The Netherlands)
• Dutch International Tangoweek 2023 with Inner Duo (Amersfoort, The Netherlands)
• Xemas Preciosas, soloist with the orchestra Real Filharmonía de Galicia, conductor Joana Carneiro (2022, Santiago de Compostela, Spain)

Also, Codarts Composers Festival 2022 (Rotterdam, The Netherlands); Muze van Zuid Festival 2022 with Inner Duo (Amsterdam, The Netherlands); Festival Cineuropa Compostela 2021 with Real Filharmonía de Galicia, conductor Timothy Brock (Santiago de Compostela, Spain); Xornadas de Música Contemporánea 2021 with Maruja Roca Ensemble (Santiago de Compostela, Spain); Festival Musica 2020 and 2021 with Ensemble Intercolor (Strasbourg, France and Kehl, Germany); Festival de l'Épau 2020 with Ensemble Intercolor (Le Mans, France); Arsmondo Festival 2019 with Ensemble Linea (Strasbourg, France); Thy Chamber Music Festival 2019 with Ensemble Intercolor (Thy, Denmark); IMPULS Festival 2019 with Ensemble Linea, conductors Natalia Salinas and Jean-Philippe Wurtz (Halle, Magdeburg and Leipzig, Germany) or Werken van Wagemans with DoelenEnsemble, conductor Arie van Beek (2019, Rotterdam, The Netherlands).

She is an active member of Vertixe Sonora (https://vertixesonora.gal/) since 2023 as well as co-founder and member of Inner Duo (

https://innerduo.com/) since 2020. She has premiered more than 80 works by composers such us Gualtiero Dazzi, Jesús Torres, Mogens Christensen, Jean-Patrick Besingrand, Ramón Souto, Sina Fallahzadeh, Juan José Bárcenas, Beltrán González, Damian Gorandi, Michele Foresi, Tamara Miller, Clara Olivares, Michalis Kailis, Monthati Masebe, Christian Onyeji, Daniel Roca, Pablo Pérez Sanmamed, Mioko Yokoyama, Daniel Zea, Yuchen Bian, William Martin, Emma Tucker, Alexander Wu, Joung-Yun Lee, Tianyou-Zou, Daphné Hejebri, Friso van Wijck, Adrián Crespo-Barba or Peter-Jan Wagemans, among many others.

In 2015 Helena obtained her Bachelor degree in Music at Musikene – Higher Music School of the Basque Country (San Sebastián, Spain), with professor Iñaki Alberdi. In 2017 she finished her Master of Music at HEAR - Haute École des Arts du Rhin (Strasbourg, France) with professor Pascal Contet. Since the beginning of her career, Helena has participated in numerous national and international competitions, among them:the Trophée Mondial de l'Accordéon in France (2005), Serbia (2006), Bosnia and Herzegovina (2007), Portugal (2009) and Spain (2010); Torneo Internazionale di Musica (Verona, Italy, 2010 and Paris, France, 2012); Arrasate Hiria International Accordion Competition (Arrasate, Spain, 2014) or Juventudes Musicales (Torroella de Montgrí, 2014 and Tui, Spain, 2016). She has also attended several masterclasses with musicians such as Juan Carlos Cárcamo, Pedro Pascual, Aníbal Freire, Alexey Artemyev, Anne Landa, Oleg Sharov, Vyacheslav Semionov, Víctor Prieto, Jesús Torres, José María Sánchez-Verdú, Marco García de Paz, Veli Kujala, Geir Draugsvoll, Iñaki Alberdi or Wim Warman, among others.

Besides working as a performer, Helena is in other fields related to music: she gives music lessons as a private music teacher as well as being part School of Music Rotterdam since 2018, and since May 2024 she is the conductor of the accordion ensemble Grandioso con Anima in The Hague (http://grandiosoconanima.nl/). 

Helena is as well a current member of SKVR, Stichting Kunstzinnige Vorming Rotterdam, one of the largest centre for the Arts in The Netherlands.