The pianist Manuela Araújo with the Symphony Orchestra of the Conservatory of Music of Porto under the direction of maestro Pedro de Freitas Branco at Cinema Trindade (Porto)

A disciple of Vianna da Mota at the National Conservatory (and particularly until her death), studied with Marie Levêque de Freitas Branco and later as a scholarship holder of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, with Géza Anda, at the Conservatory of Lucerne. In 1945 won the "Vianna da Motta Prize" promoted by the National Broadcaster. She was active in the founding of the Portuguese Musical Youth in 194, along with Pedro de Freitas Branco and Marie Levêque, Maria Elvira Barroso, Nuno Barreiros, Filipe de Sousa, Humberto d'Ávila, João de Freitas Branco and Joly Braga Santos. In Portugal she regularly performed solo, chamber music with Jack Glatzer, Millet, Haydn Beck, Ramon Miraval, Carlos Fontes, Gaio Lima, and Orchestra under the direction of Pedro de Freitas Branco, Frederico de Freitas, Silva Pereira, Álvaro Cassuto, Günther Arglebe, José Atalaya and Piero Bellugi. She toured Europe (Italy, Switzerland, Germany and Austria) and was invited to participate in the 7th International Congress of Music in Moscow, as representative of Portugal. Still in the USSR, she studied piano concertos by Schostakovich and Katchaturian with the composers of whom she became personal friends. The concerts of Schostakovich and Katchaturian in the Palace of Congresses of Moscow (the latter under the direction of the composer himself), at the invitation of the Ministry of Culture of the USSR in 1974, stand out. In 1965 she joined the teaching staff of the Conservatory of Music of Porto as a piano teacher, a position she held until 1995. At the Conservatorio de Música do Porto she promoted the celebration of the tricentenary of JS Bach, GF Häendel, with exhibition and documentaries, lecture by João de Freitas Branco (1985), in 1989 the "Mussorgsky Year" and "Concerto Non Stop" of teachers and students with wide adhesion of the city.