Born in Porto da Cruz, Laura Silva Mendes began her musical studies at the Associação Grupo Cultural Flores de Maio at the age of six. Two years later, she began studying piano at the Eng.° Luiz Peter Clode Conservatoire-School of Arts in Machico, Madeira, with Emesse Szepesi and later with Iryna Kózina, and organ with Halyna Stetsenko on the Professional Music Instrumentalist Course in Funchal. In 2013 she began her degree in piano at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp, Belgium, with Polina Leschenko. She has performed frequently as soloist and in chamber music ensembles in the Main Hall of the Conservatory of Madeira, the Baltazar Dias Municipal Theatre, Funchal, and the Witte Zaal and Blauwe Zaal at de Singel Antwerp. In 2015 she began her masters degree in piano with Polina Leschenko and Eliane Rodrigues and her bachelor’s degree in organ with Joris Verdin at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp. During these period, she attended organ master classes with João Vaz, Benjamin Righetti, Maurizio Crossi, Ludger Lohmann, Esteban Landart and others. She has appeared as organist in Portugal, France, Germany, Belgium, Holland and Great Britain. In February 2019 she was selected to participate in the ECHO Academy in Brussels. In July she attended the 55th International Estoril Music Course in Lisbon Cathedral with Michel Bouvard. She applied successfully to the Royal College of Music in London, where she will continue her organ studies.
