EMS welcomes Maria back for a second residency! Maria da Rocha Gonçalves was born in Lisbon and plays violin and viola mostly in the field of new/experimental music. She studied at the Lisbon Conservatory (ESML) and Aveiro University, as well as did an internship program at Klangzeitort - Institut for New Music at the UdK Berlin and HfM Hanns Eisler.

She was part of Orquestra Clássica do Centro and Orquestra Filarmonia das Beiras. She also played with ensembles for new music in festivals such as Münchener Biennalle, Nymus Festival, Warsaw Autumn and März Musik and played at Minkla Streichquartett and Laborintus Ensemble.

Maria gives value to improvisation and compostion as a collaborative process - for example, the piece Morganic in which she explored sound/movement with Kollektiv Transit and the sound/theatre piece Coisas with Andre Bartetzki, where she dedicated to the interaction with electronic music and video.