Page 476 - Guildhall Coverage Book 2020-21

when he moved to London to study, it was as a film-maker, he never thought of music as a career
path. He liked it, but not as a career. But just before he left Portugal, he had won a prize in an
international piano competition which gave him a complete public recital, which was a terrifying and
daunting prospect.

Dinis Sousa (Photo Sim Canetty-Clarke)

So, Dinis set about practising the piano in London whilst pursuing his film studies and tried to find a
teacher. Eventually, he came across a wonderful Russian teacher, she heard him and must have seen
something as she took him under her wing. The weekly lessons with her would become the highlight
of his week. And she started to encourage him to think seriously about music.

He took a Summer conducting course and that shook his ground, it was scary because he loved it so
much. During the course the students stayed up till the early hours of the morning talking about
music, something Dinis had not experienced before, and he loved it. He was pulled between Film
and Music, and his Russian teacher told him he needed to decide. He went for an audition at
the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the end result of which was that he studied there.

His experience of film making has given him an awareness of film and the overall theatricality of the
genre. Whilst he is not interested in film music, specifically, he is keen on putting music together
with other art forms, so that whilst he was studying at the Guildhall School he did projects with the
drama department. This experience means that he would be able to work with a film-maker and to
understand the process. Dinis feels that it is only a matter of time before he comes to a project
working with film and music.