Meet Pianist and Parishioner Enóe Ferrão

“It was my mother who first said I had a pianist’s hands … when I turned two years old, she made me a cake in the shape of a piano! I played from when I was six years old, and I have never stopped since.

“I also contracted polio at the age of two. But I thank my father and mother, very

special people, who never said that there was anything I couldn’t do. As for me, it was my way of being, that everything was possible. There was no wall, there were no limits in my mind, no fight. It was very simple.

“Growing up in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, I was a pupil at the Conservatório Brasileiro

de Música, then went to the Escola de Música da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro

at aged 18, where I studied Piano for five years. I am also a postgraduate in Music from the same university. I became a teacher of Piano, Musical Theory, and History of Music.

“I have a son and two daughters, now all grown up and living in England, Belgium,

and Sweden. I myself was invited to come to Portugal to teach Piano and History of Music in schools, first in Fundão, then, since 2001, in the Porto region.

“For a long time, I have been an accompanist pianist in churches. I was a Baptist all

my life until I became very good friends with another pianist from Brazil who was an

Anglican. I love the Anglican music that came out of the Protestant Reformation after the English King Henry VIII. The music changed in the sixteenth century and was sung in

English which everyone understood and could join in. Composers like Thomas Tallis, and his pupil William Byrd, who was privately Catholic, but a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I and wrote beautiful anthems for the Church of England.

“St James I first saw featured on a TV show; then when I came to the church in

person, I found the people sympathetic. I like the liturgy, the beauty of the service, the Bible readings, the singing, the good organists.

“I’m also pleased I’ve been able to perform here and use my experience to organise a

concert with Tjakko de Jonge and, along with the other musical members of the congregation, to raise funds for the church.

“I just feel comfortable. Everything about St James feels right for my spirituality.”