Priscila Ferreira Coelho

1976 -

Priscila Coelho, a pianist, singer, and choir conductor, has been teaching for fourteen years in both Seventh-day Adventist and public schools. She has also given piano recitals in Brazil, Mexico, and the U.S.

Priscila was born in Belem, Para, Brazil, and spent her childhood in Manaus, Amazonas. Her mother enjoyed music and played records and CDs for the family Sunday mornings.

At age seven Priscila started music study and began singing in a children’s choir a year later. For lack of a piano in the home she was unable to practice until she was twelve but from that time on, she practiced incessantly. At age fourteen she started conducting the children’s chorus in her church.

She was inspired by music teacher Iara Reis and continued her study through an extension course for children at the Amazonas Federal University and later while attending Instituto Adventista Paranaese, one of several boarding Adventist boarding academies in Brazil.

She attended Andrews University, completing a B.Mus. in 1999, with piano as her performance area, studying with Peter Cooper. While at AU, Coelho regularly performed piano in the Whitcomb Towers Series in St. Joseph, Michigan, sang in the Women’s Chorus and University Singers under Steve Zork, an experience she found inspiring, and played percussion in the AU Wind Symphony under Alan Mitchell. While a member of Singers and Wind Symphony she participated in recording sessions which led to the release of CDs for each group.

After teaching for two years at North Shore SDA Junior Academy in Chicago, she moved to Connecticut where she completed a master’s degree in music education at the University of Bridgeport in 2005 and received Connecticut teaching certification. She taught classroom music, grades 1-4, and directed the middle school choir in the Easton, Connecticut, public school system.

From 2006 to 2008, Coelho lived in Brazil where she taught piano pedagogy to future teachers at Amazonas State University.  She then accepted teaching positions in music studios in the Greater Toronto area in Canada, where some of her voice students, ages ten to fourteen, won at regional vocal competitions in that city.

Coelho then accepted an invitation to be head of the music department and teach at Greaves Adventist Academy in Montreal, Quebec.  She teaches music in grades K-9 and conducts the elementary choir. She has formed the Greaves Select Choir which performs in churches in the area.  

She recently participated as a member of the Vocal Chamber Ensemble Gloria in a recording of Christmas music from around the world, Un Nuit Luminese, featuring songs in English, French, Russian, Romanian, and Ukrainian.  It was released in both CD and DVD formats in December 2013.

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Sources: Information provided by Priscila Coelho, 2013; 2003 AU Alumni Directory, 88; online information.