Mariá Portugal has been active in the Brazilian musical scene since 16 years old, recording, performing and touring throughout South America, Europe, Asia and Oceania with artists like Arrigo Barnabé, Elza Soares, Metá Metá, Maggie Nicols, Angelika Niescier, Fred Frith, Joe Mcphee, Nick Dunston and Tomeka Reid.
Among her main projects is the Brazilian instrumental group Quartabê, which is currently promoting their third album. The band has already performed in festivals such as Festival Jazz & The City, in Salzburg, Austria (2017), Moers Festival, in Moers, Germany (2018), Nijmegen Music Meeting, in Nijmegen, Netherlands (2018), Frue Festival in Japan and Festival Internacional de Jazz de Buenos Aires, Argentina (2019).
As a composer, she has been performing and composing original music for dance, theatre and cinema. Among her work on this field is her score for the feature film "1976", by Manuela Martelli, which was premiered at Quinzaine des Réalisateurs in Cannes 2022 and received great critical acclaim.
In 2020, Mariá lived in Moers, Germany. as the 13th Improviser in Residence of the Moers Festival, where she played with Angelika Niescier, Gerald Cleaver, Burkhard Beins, among others. She is currently living in Köln.
She was the curator for the city of Duisburg for the Soundtrips-NRW, a project that seeks to promote and connect free improvisers from Nordrhein-Westphalia.
Mariá holds a degree in Composition from UNESP (São Paulo State University) and a M.A. in Communication and Semiotics, from PUC-SP (Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo).