Artist of the Month: September 2026
Musician
Based in Calgary, Alberta
Artist Bio
Juliana Jorge started her studies at the age of 6 at her birth city, São Pedro, in Brazil. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music – Piano, from the State University of Campinas – UNICAMP, and a Master’s in Music degree, focusing on both Collaborative and Solo Piano from The University of New Mexico in the USA. In 2016, Juliana deepened her studies at the Bard College in NY, where she attended the Advanced Performance Studies program specializing in collaborative piano.
She was the staff pianist for many music festivals, and collaborated with renowned artists, both on and backstage. She has an album with the Brazilian brass group Metallumfonia and performed in many stages throughout the world in Brazil, USA, Peru, Argentina, Italy and Spain.
Juliana currently resides in Calgary, where she is a piano faculty at the Mount Royal University Conservatory, and is a very active pianist in the music community.
Artist Background
I’m a pianist specialized in collaborative work. I began my studies in Brazil as a child and further deepened it in the United States. I moved recently to Calgary, AB, in Canada, where I’ve been developing my teaching skills, collaborating with many fellow musicians and working on always improving myself as an independent artist.
Throughout my life I’ve done lots of artistic work, both as a performer and as a producer. As a pianist, I served as a solo artist, orchestra, choir and ballet pianist, opera and musical theatre repetiteur, partnered on stage and studio with many colleagues. As a producer, besides many musical events, I’m particularly proud of multi-disciplinary art shows around the world, mixing dance (eurythmy), music, visual arts and poetry. I strongly believe music should build community and bring people together, so this has always been paramount in all the projects I chose to be on board.
You began studying piano at age six in Brazil. What first drew you to the instrument, and when did you realize music could become your profession?
I was listening to piano music from my conception! My older sister, 15 years my elder, used to play the piano, it was actually placed up against my crib wall. My mom played a bit too and was always very artistic and creative, always trying to insert some music into her elementary teacher career, bringing the guitar and composing songs for her classes, conducting the school choir, etc. Long story short, I was born in a musical family. And from there, it was just a matter of starting to take actual lessons.
As for when I realized I’d like to do that for a living, in Brazil, you have to pick your major before you get to the university at the age of 17! I was torn between Statistics (math geek here!) and music, and I realized a career in the later would be much more exciting. I was definitely not wrong!
How have your experiences studying and performing in Brazil, the United States, Canada, and Europe shaped your identity as a musician?
I think getting outside of my bubble and seeing people making art in different ways, with different backgrounds, with different resources, opened my mind in a way that’s not the same as just witnessing it from a distance, usually through a screen. I had the opportunity to meet great people along the way, not only artists but the whole supporting community as well, and see how art is actually nurturing and community building. Also, a sense of humbleness, on how we are in constant development as human beings on everything we do, that’s one of the biggest contributions I believe I took from being in different places.
Collaborative piano is central to your artistic practice. What do you enjoy most about creating music with other performers?
The reason why piano is my instrument of choice is because it was the one I dominated the most, and therefore would be able to contribute better towards my goal of making music. Piano, per definition, is a very lonesome instrument, and this doesn’t match my personality. I like to have my solo moments, but more often than not I do better if I’m surrounded by people, I need community to thrive. And sharing the stage with people is what brings me the most joy when I perform! There is more creative exchanges and different learning growth opportunities in the process and that makes everything much more interesting than doing everything by myself.
You have worked in opera, ballet, musical theatre, choirs, orchestras, and recording studios. Which collaboration or performance has had the greatest impact on you, and why?
They all had a great impact and contributed to shape me as an artist, but if I had to pick one, I’d say working as a staff pianist at a Waldorf school. I learned so much in the years I was employed in that environment that was different from everything I had experienced before. The school environment, for starters, focused on human development, and recognizing art as a quintessential human expression, and not something that you do on the side for fun. Basically, if you’re human, you make art, it’s what identifies us as humans, so I felt what I did was very valued there, and I felt that very deeply in my core. And also, being a multifaceted collaborative person in a deeply communal structure that is a Waldorf school, I was interested in inserting myself in every single artistic opportunity there was, so I ended up playing and rehearsing the school choir, producing and playing for theatre, playing for and producing the extracurricular eurythmy group, asides from playing for all 12 grades of eurythmy lessons, that was my actual function at the school.
You believe music can build community and bring people together. Can you share a moment when you witnessed music create a meaningful connection between people?
When I was producing the eurythmy group, we were taking part in a worldwide Youth Conference in Switzerland, there were more than 2000 teenagers attending from Waldorf schools all around the globe. And at the end of the day, they’d get together to socialize. There was no set programming, all was supposed to happen very spontaneously. Every single night, at some point, they would all gather and do one song, all of them that were attending the soiree, all from their volition, their choice, the adults were merely witnesses. And they would take turns choosing songs from different countries that were attending the conference every day. Someone would bring a guitar, or a flute, or whatever portable instrument they knew how to play, the others would sing or dance. It was very interesting to see someone from Brazil try to learn some lyrics in Tagalog just to sing that song from the Philippines they chose that night. And music was always the thread that bound everything together.
What inspired you to produce multidisciplinary performances combining music, dance, visual art, and poetry?
I believe my inspiration actually came from a necessity. Eurythmy, that anthroposophic movement art, defines itself on how the sounds manifest themselves in the space, to make the sounds visible. An artistic eurythmic production englobes music and speech - the sounds being made visible - and a whole background scene that goes along with what is being presented on stage. The colour atmosphere and art depictions complement what’s on the foreview.
As a newcomer to Calgary, what helped you begin building relationships and finding your place within Alberta’s arts community?
Networking was definitely the most important part of building relationships and starting to be seen. At first I relied on a few friends that were in the city, but what was most effective was actually my own boldness to apply to jobs without knowing anyone, or just go and introduce myself in situations where I didn’t know anyone as well. This was how I ended up knowing about ICAI, I think the algorithm delivered something about it and I looked into it and decided to apply for the NAPP mentorship program. Long story short, here I am with a very broad network that I’d never be able to develop myself, as it’s very difficult to break the barrier of the arts metier you’re already inserted.
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