Collection: Samartim, Isabel Rei

Isabel Rei Samartim (1973) was born in Estrada (Galiza), where she started music studies within her family and later at the local Conservatory. She got a degree at the Conservatory of Music in Corunha, specializing in Guitar, with Professor Antonio Rocha Álvarez. Later, she studied with David Russell in Masterclasses, Thomas Müller-Pering at the Hochschule für Musik «Franz Liszt» in Weimar (Germany) and other great interpreters. 

Samartim won prizes in several competitions in Spain and Italy as a guitarist. She has been invited to festivals in Italy, Galiza, and Portugal. She has premiered works by several composers and performed concerts in several European countries and Brazil. Among her publications is the Cancioneiro de Marcial Valladares "Ayes de mi País" together with J. L. do Pico Orjais (Dos Acordes, 2010); Suite Rianjeira (Barbantia, 2010); Proel e o Galo. Complete Galizan Poetry and Prose by Luís G. Amado Carvalho (Edições da Galiza, 2012). In 2014, she released the album The Viola in the 19th Century: Hall Music in Madeira, sponsored by the Regional Government of Madeira. 

Since 2005, Samartim has worked at the Professional Conservatory of Music in Santiago de Compostela. In September 2020, she earned her PhD in Art History from the University of Santiago de Compostela with the thesis A Guitarra na Galiza. During the 1st semester of 2020-21, she was a Professor in the Music Department at the University of Minho (Braga, Portugal). In 2021, she released the book Guitarra galega. Breve história da viola (violão) na Galiza (Através Editora) and the CD Guitarra Galega Vol. 1 (Air Classical). In Mars 2022, she published Caderno de guitarra and Caderno de canto e guitarra (Editorial Viso). In November 2022, she published the first Álbum de guitarra galega. Nível básico (Dos Acordes) and in May 2023 the same publisher releases the second Álbum de guitarra galega, medium level. Currently, she plays the music of female Galizan guitarists and Galizan guitar archives and collaborates in the digital music magazine Mundo Clásico with a bimonthly section on the Galizan guitar. 

As a reintegrationist and social activist, Isabel Rei Samartim joined the Sociedade Cultural Marcial Valadares (Estrada), the Astronomical Society of Estrada and the collective Assembly of the Language. She is a founding academic of the Galizan Academy of the Portuguese Language (2008) and a member of the Patronage of the AGLP Foundation (2011). She is a member of the International Association 'Colóquios da Lusofonia' (AICL). She participated in the approval process of the Law for using the Portuguese language and links with Lusophony (Santiago de Compostela, 2014). Between 2012 and 2016, she coordinated the Galizan Language Stimulation Team at the Santiago de Compostela Conservatory, which opened new perspectives for standardization following the international model of the common language (Portuguese).