Biography

Helena Sousa Estévez (Galicia, Spain), is a professional accordionist who covers various music styles and is specialised in the field of contemporary classical music. She has a keen interest in the collaboration with composers to work as a soloist or as an ensemble or orchestra member.

Being part of international projects and festivals such as Codarts Composers Festival 2018, 2019 and 2022 (Rotterdam, The Netherlands), MIHLSons-XXI 2022 (Lugo, Spain), Tremor Project 2022 (Aveiro, Portugal), Festival Cineuropa Compostela 2021 (Santiago de Compostela, Spain), Xornadas de Música Contemporánea 2021 (Santiago de Compostela, Spain), Festival Musica 2017, 2020 and 2021 (Strasbourg, France and Kehl, Germany), Festival de l'Épau 2020 (Le Mans, France), Arsmondo Festival 2019 (Strasbourg, France), Thy Chamber Music Festival 2019 (Thy, Denmark), IMPULS Festival 2019 (Halle, Magdeburg and Leipzig, Germany), or North Sea Round Town 2018 (Rotterdam, The Netherlands), Helena premieres multiple works and performs with orchestras or ensembles such as Real Filharmonía de Galicia, Vertixe Sonora, DoelenEnsemble, Ensemble Linea, Ensemble Intercolor (co-founder and member between 2015 and 2022), or AKOM Ensemble under the direction of Joana Carneiro, Timothy Brock, Arie van Beek, Jean-Philippe Wurtz, Natalia Salinas, Roberto Beltrán-Zavala or Sander Teepen.

Since the beginning of her career, Helena has participated in numerous national and international competitions, among them: the Certamen Nacional de Acordeón (Ourense, Spain), winning the first prize in one of the contest’s categories between 2005 and 2010 and therefore allowing her to represent Spain in 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) and Juventudes Musicales (Torroella de Montgrí, 2014 and Tui, Spain, 2016) where she was a finalist.

In 2015 Helena obtained her Bachelor degree in Music at Musikene – Higher Music School of the Basque Country (San Sebastián, Spain), with professors Iñaki Alberdi, Miren Iñarga and Aitor Furundarena. In 2017 she finished her Master of Music at HEAR - Haute École des Arts du Rhin (Strasbourg, France) with professors Pascal Contet, Craig Goodman and Martin Gester.

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.

Helena is a current member of different chamber music groups, among them Inner Duo with double bassist Alejandra Rony, based in The Netherlands. Besides her  activity as a soloist and ensemble performer, Helena also works as a music teacher, giving lessons in the Dutch schools Nord Anglia International School Rotterdam, International School of Utrecht and School of Music Rotterdam.

Among the projects she has realised, she has commissioned and premiered the reduction for piano and accordion of the Concierto para Acordeón y Orquesta (2004/2019) by the composer Jesús Torres, a concerto recorded in 2020 in Estudios Mans (A Coruña, Spain) thanks to the financial support received by the HEAR - Haute École des Arts du Rhin, and premiered in 2021 in The Netherlands thanks to the Stichting Droom en Daad.

Helena currently lives in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.