"Born in Lisbon in 1979, pianist, composer and improviser Joana Sá works in the field of new music/contemporary classical music. She is currently enrolled in a doctoral program in music (performance) at the University of Aveiro, as an FCT (Fundação para Ciência e Tecnologia) fellow. She holds an undergraduate degree in piano, having studied under Caio Pagano and Paulo Álvares, in Lisbon, Paris, Castelo Branco and Köln. She received an INOV-ART grant in 2009 and, in 2010, was distinguished with a honourable mention from the Ernesto de Sousa Scholarship program.

Joana Sá is particularly interested in incorporating other means and artistic areas in her works. Her first solo work, through this looking glass, shot by filmmaker and cinematographer Daniel Costa Neves, was released as a dvd+cd by the German label blinker - Marke für Rezentes in 2011. Her current work, IN PRAISE OF DISORDER, integrating texts by Gonçalo M. Tavares as read by Rosinda Tavares, was just released by Shhpuma, an imprint of Clean Feed Records.

Joana Sá has performed in several festivals and as part of season programs of renowned institutions both in Portugal and abroad, such as Teatro Maria Matos, Gulbenkian Foundation, CCB, Casa da Música, Culturgest, Serralves, Kunst Station Sankt Peter (DE), Studium MusikFabrik (DE), Festival Música Viva (PT), Forum Neue Musik (DE), Ring Ring Festival (SER), Festival Jazz Cerkno (SL). She is one half of the duo of Almost a Song (with Luís José Martins), with whom she recorded the album Almost a Song, in 2013, and one third of POWERTRIO (with Luís José Martins and Eduardo Raon). She collaborates frequently with visual artist Rita Sá. Highlights of the collaboration between the two include installations at Gallery of Visual Arts, 255 Canal (New York) and Siggraph Asia (Yokohama). Joana Sá has made music for films, including Tabu, by Miguel Gomes, which was nominated for best music at the 2013 Sophia awards. She has collaborated with artists and projects in a number of musical genres (Deolinda, Simão Costa, Marco Franco, Nuno Aroso, Drumming GP and Peixe, among others).

As co-coordinator (with Luís José Martins) of the music department at CENTA, Centro de Estudos de Novas Tendências Artísticas, at Vila Velha de Ródão (2007/08), she worked with the community (‘Sons do Salgueiral’, ‘Concertos Improváveis’), as well as developing personal projects (‘50 anos - Cage, Concert for piano’ e ‘POWERTRIO - ensemble residente do CENTA’). In this condition, she took part in ‘rExistir’, a project with inmates from the Instituto Prisional de Castelo Branco and accompanied artistic residencies, seminars and concerts held at CENTA.

Joana Sá has recorded for radio stations such as Deutschland Funk and SWR2, in Germany, and Antena 2, in Portugal, and has released music through blinker, Shhpuma, Creative Sources and Centa.

Between 1993 and 2000 she played bass in Pinhead Society, a band with which she performed more than a hundred shows, including concerts at the main stages at festivals such as Sudoeste, Vilar de Mouros and Paredes de Coura as well as the Coliseu dos Recreios. With Pinhead Society she shared line-ups with bands such as Sonic Youth and Morphine and recorded for Música Alternativa and Bee Keeper."