Filipa Palhares began her musical studies at the age of nine at the Instituto Gregoriano de Lisboa. She later entered the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa, where she completed both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Choral Conducting. At this institution, she studied with professors including Christopher Bochmann, Sibertin-Blanc, Vasco Azevedo and Paulo Lourenço, among others.

She has attended choral conducting courses with Bernard Tétu, Herbert Breuer and José António Sainz Alfaro. She also studied singing with Max van Egmond and Marius Altena, and harpsichord with Jacques Ogg during the Baroque Music courses at the Casa de Mateus.

She began her teaching career in 1990 and has taught at the Instituto Gregoriano de Lisboa since 2006, where she directs the choirs and presents regular concerts. With these ensembles, she has participated in international competitions, earning a gold medal at all seven editions of the Festival Coral de Verão de Lisboa, first prize at the Certamen Juvenil de Habaneras de Torrevieja in 2015, a silver medal at the World Choir Games 2018 in South Africa, and three gold medals plus the title of “Champion” in sacred music with accompaniment at the European Choir Games 2019 held in Sweden.

She has premiered numerous works by Portuguese composers written specifically for her choirs. In 2016, she recorded the CD Mesmo que faça frio featuring works by composer Nuno da Rocha for children’s choir, piano and orchestra. She has been a member of the Camerata Vocal de Lisboa and the Coro Feminino Cantata. She has founded and directed several amateur choirs.

At the end of 2020, she founded the ALMA Ensemble, a mixed-voice group of 8 to 16 singers whose repertoire focuses mainly on a cappella music, ranging from early music to the 21st century, with particular attention to Portuguese repertoire. With this ensemble, she has performed in major concert venues and festivals in Portugal.

She has prepared choirs for leading Portuguese orchestras, notably the participatory Gulbenkian Choir in 2019 for the performance of Missa by Leonard Bernstein at the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, as well as various symphonic-choral works and operas with the Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa and the Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa, among others.

In the field of opera, she has collaborated as a chorister and choir conductor in several productions, including with the Festival de Ópera de Óbidos and Operafest Lisboa. In May of this year, she participated in the premiere of the Portuguese opera Felizmente Há Luar by Alexandre Delgado.