Clarissa Foletto

Clarissa Gomes Foletto is a Portuguese–Brazilian violinist, teacher, and researcher committed to building bridges between research and practice in music education. She is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Communication and Art at the University of Aveiro and an integrated researcher at the Instituto de Etnomusicologia – Centro de Estudos em Música e Dança (INET-md/UA). She holds a European PhD in Instrumental Teaching from the University of Aveiro, including an international research internship at the Institute of Education, University College London.

Her research focuses on innovative approaches to instrumental teaching and learning, digital teaching and learning, teacher–student communication, string pedagogy, early childhood music education, and artistic creation. Her research interests emerge from the challenges she has encountered throughout her career as an instrumental teacher, teaching across diverse educational contexts and levels in both Brazil and Portugal.

Between 2017 and 2019, and from 2019 to 2025, Clarissa received funding from the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), through a postdoctoral fellowship and a CEECIND contract, to investigate pedagogical approaches to instrumental music teaching. During this period as a junior researcher, she contributed to several national and international projects, including the Erasmus+ project REACT – Rethinking Music Performance in European Higher Education Music Institutions. She was institutional coordinator of the Erasmus+ project DigiMusi: Digital Transformation in Elementary Music Education and principal investigator of TD_MUS – Digital Transformation in Conservatories and Music Academies in Portugal: Institutional Perspectives.

Clarissa is co-founder and coordinator of the Laboratory for the Teaching and Learning of Music (Labeamus) at the University of Aveiro, as well as co-founder and board member of European String Teachers Association Portugal (ESTA Portugal). She also serves as Assistant Editor of the Portuguese Journal of Music Education Association. As a violinist and performer, she is a member of the Atma Kirtana collective and the Songs of Seeking Ensemble, where her activities include songwriting, arranging, performance, and public-facing artistic work.