Priscila Santana is a conductor, educator, researcher, and administrator with more than 10 years of experience working and advocating for music as a tool for social change in the favelas of Brazil. She has a master’s degree in Music Education from the Federal University of Paraiba and currently works as the Executive Assistant/Project Manager at Kaufman Music Center in New York City. In Brazil, Priscila was the artistic/ pedagogical director and conductor of Prima, a governmental arts program for low-income youth and communities, with more than 1500 students from 24 cities in the state of Paraiba. She has recorded and performed with important artists worldwide such as Carlinhos Brown, Daniela Mercury, Maria Rita, Mercedes Sosa, Suzana Bacca, Margareth Menezes, Rumpilezz Orchestra, etc. and has performed on three continents with the Bahia Youth Symphony Orchestra on critically acclaimed tours in several countries accompanying big names in classical music including Lang-Lang, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Shlomo Mintz, and others. Priscila is co-founder of the Som das Binha Movement, the first jam session in Brazil formed only by women with a female repertoire, and coordinates Kilomba, a collective of black Brazilian women in the United States. She was born and raised in Salvador, Bahia.
