Janet Mascarenhas
Marta Pereira da Costa, born and brought up in Lisbon, is widely celebrated as the feminine soul of the Portuguese Guitar. With its distinctive shape and ringing, clear sound, the Portuguese guitar is the soul of the Fado. Marta, however, has made the instrument her own and stepped beyond, taking her guitar to the world of Jazz, Brazilian Chorinho, Cape Verdean Morna, and further into World Music. A world-renowned instrumentalist, she has performed around the Globe.
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STEPPING INTO A MALE DOMINATED FIELD
There is something very inspiring about the journey of Marta Pereira da Costa’s journey with the Portuguese guitar. She stepped into a space where only men played the Portuguese guitar. “I was not aware that it was traditionally played by men. I was discovering the instrument. When I started playing the instrument, I came to know there were no women playing the instrument, and I tried not to focus on that and learn as much as I could,” shares Marta. She has inspired many other young women to take up the Portuguese guitar, supporting them in their journey. She is very happy about this possibility of inspiring women and wishes to see more women break traditionally set boundaries.
THE BEGINNING OF MARTA’S MUSICAL JOURNEY
Marta began her musical journey at the age of four with the piano, and later at the age of eight, she began learning the classical guitar. At 18, however, prompted by her father and his love for fado music, she went for a lesson with Carlos Gonçalves, the guitarist for Amália Rodrigues. It was here that she first encountered the Portuguese guitar. At this time, she was also pursuing a degree in civil engineering while simultaneously making time to be at the Fado houses, particularly the Clube de Fado in Lisbon. She shares, “I started playing, not knowing that I would do this at large. I just wanted to learn and gain more experience, and I think later things happened naturally. I almost had the dream to live for the music.” After completing her degree in civil engineering and working for eight years in the field, she left to focus on and pursue the Portuguese guitar professionally in 2012. Fado has a long history in Portugal and Goa. In Portugal she says, “when I started the fado houses had older people now the fado houses are full of young people singing, playing, learning, and it is very live.
THE BOND ACROSS THE OCEANS
Once a Portuguese colony, Goa still shares a unique bond with Portugal. Marta believes that music always brings people together, adding that it is an occasion to “connect once again with the purpose of being together and creating beautiful moments, I think from all my heart to bring Portugal music and concerts to bring everyone together. She finds it is a very meaningful cause to help to support, “I think all musicians have that mission to use our gifts for human service. It is beautiful that it is involving so many projects,” she shares. Viewers can expect a musical voyage where she will bring her Portuguese background into the performance
MARTA’S PERFORMANCE IN GOA
This is Marta’s first time in Goa. She is excited to be here in Goa and looks forward to her performance with Ustad Chhote Rahimat Khan. The performance has been organised as a fundraiser for Communicare Trust, with proceeds supporting five ongoing community programmes namely ‘Stories from Here and Beyond IV, an India-Portugal-Brazil children’s storytelling collaboration’, ‘Kalakriti II, a book-making initiative with Bookworm libraries’, ‘From Seed to Grain, a farming skills programme for differently abled youth at Little Angels home’, the ‘Little Angels Bakery’, a livelihood project under construction in Chorao and ‘Cantaram for the Community’, reviving classic Konkani music for the Goan youth. This is Marta’s first time where she will be sharing the stage and blending her music directly with Indian classical instrumentalists. Taking on this interesting collaboration after a proposal. Following further discussion, she says she challenged Ustadji to play a Fado and he challenged her to play a Raaga. Accepting spontaneously, Marta has rehearsed the set she will be playing in Goa from a distance, with audios and feedback shared by Ustadji. She is looking forward to what he is going to play and is very excited for the same. Marta and Ustadji will have a rehearsal before the concert, where they will meet for the first time and perform together.
The concert will be held at Ravindra Bhavan, Margao, today, September 24, where Marta Pereira da Costa will perform with Goa’s Sitar maestro Ustad Chhote Rahimat Khan, a sixth-generation exponent of the Dharwad Gharana, celebrating the musical traditions of Portugal and India. While Marta will be playing the Portuguese Guitar, she will be accompanied by João José Pita Junior on a seven-string guitar and Carlos Miguel Antunes on percussion. The performance offers a mesmerizing contemporary reimagining of Fado fusion, pushing boundaries and seamlessly weaving the traditional genre with Jazz, Cape Verdean Morna, Brazilian Choro and World Music. The concert will take place in two parts with Ustad Chhote Rahimat Khan opening the evening with part one ‘The Raga’ where he will showcase the Indian traditional string instruments. Following this will be the main performance on ‘The Fado’.
They will be improvising and exploring their music and the concert will then culminate into a joint performance between Marta and Ustadji, performing together with their own unique elements. “Music has always been a bridge between people, and this concert is exactly that. Two extraordinary traditions, the Portuguese Fado and Indian Classical Strings, coming together on one stage in Goa,” says Nalini Elvino de Sousa, the founder, of the Communicare Trust. Further adding on that every donation pass bought is also a contribution to a child’s storybook, a young farmer’s future, or a family’s bakery dream.
Marta loves her guitar and believes in adding more colour to her music by learning different forms of music. “I would like to try and play the Indian Sitar, its beautiful and so complex and both instruments have their own melodies, their own languages,” she expresses adding on that she tries to connect the music universally with the voice of the Portuguese guitar. As a composer, she won the 2024 Composition Award from ‘Voz do Operário’. Her accolades also include the Instrumentalist Award from the Amália Rodrigues Foundation, and the Best Instrumental Award at the 2025 IPMA Awards. Additionally, she has to her name a Warner Music Portugal album, performances at the Kennedy Center and Lincoln Center, an NPR Tiny Desk feature with over a million views.
