On Gender, Access, and Artistic Formation

“Data reveals a paradox: although women have been a minority in the conducting program at our university (UFMG), those who entered demonstrated higher rates of permanence and completion. This suggests that the central obstacle is not the capacity to complete the training, but rather the symbolic and structural barriers that affect access and long-term legitimacy within the field of conducting.”

— Iara Fricke Matte | Perspectives on the Conducting Degree at UFMG, Conference at the V International Symposium Women Conductors, 2025

On Interpretation and Early Music

“In my view, the musical content of a work is revealed far more effectively when the performer understands the aesthetic principles, interpretative nuances, and sonic parameters of the period in which it was composed.”

On Culture as Ethical and Formative Practice

“What underlies my work is the conviction that culture is a fundamental instrument in the formation of the individual, and that there remains vast space for artistic and cultural practices to contribute to the re-signification of our society.”

— Iara Fricke Matte | The Art of Conducting, Intervied by Roger Canesso, Concertista Magazine, 2018

On Voice, Language, and Historical Sound

“The ideal vocal sound of the late Renaissance and early Baroque was shaped by the natural placement of the mother tongue, and by the expressive use of ornamentation. Timbral differentiation and linguistic inflection played a central role in vocal expression.”

On Listening, Ensemble Practice, and Vocal Balance

“Historical sources reveal that early vocal practice sought pure intonation and a differentiated use of registers and timbre, rather than the homogenisation of sound that would only be theorised centuries later.”

— Iara Fricke Matte | Vocal Aesthetic in the Transition of the Renaissance to the Baroque, Per Musi, 2017

On Text and Natural Imitation

“The text becomes the unifying principle of musical discourse, shaping it on both micro-and macro-structural levels — what Monteverdi terms as a "natural form of imitation.”

— Iara Fricke Matte | Claudio Monteverdi’s Orfeo: An Invitation to Imagination - Trilhas de Orfeo (ed. Rosângela de Tugny), 2003