Friday 28th April, 11.00am
Since its start in 2005, CIUL has performed in hundreds of concerts in Portugal and abroad, where it has established itself as one of the most acclaimed vocal groups for children and young people, developing a new choral language which associates movement and theatrical expression with singing.
Throughout fifteen years of intense activity, CIUL has performed solo concerts and participated in productions with the Gulbenkian Orchestra and Choir, working with the conductors Michel Corboz, Simone Young and Lorenzo Viotti, amongst others.
In March 2022, CIUL was invited by the internationally acclaimed pianist Maria João Pires to sing in a concert with her, at the FC. Calouste Gulbenkian.
CIUL was selected to participate in the European Festival of Youth Choirs in Basel (Switzerland) in 2012 and 2018;
It was also selected to integrate the Project “Voix d'Enfants/Espace Scénique”, within the "Creative Europe" Program 2015-2017.
CIUL has toured and performed with choirs such as the Tapiola Choir, Drakensberg Boys, Sottovoce and Leoa Kantika Corala, amongst others.
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Erica Mandillo obtained her master's degree in Biophysics, where she studied piano and singing at the National Conservatory of Music in Lisbon alongside her scientific degree.
She was a member of the Gulbenkian Choir and the Choir of the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos; founder and Artistic Director of the Camerata Fiorentina and the Children's Choir of the Universidade de Lisboa - groups with which she has performed over a hundred concerts in Portugal and abroad and with which she has developed her own language which has been highly praised by the public and critics.
She was a guest teacher at the National Conservatory of Music in Lisbon and is regularly invited to International Music Festivals as a conductor and pedagogue, conducting workshops and master classes on new techniques of Choral Pedagogy for children.
She is one of the invited conductors of Europa Cantat Junior 2023, in Ghent (Belgium).