{"id":8513,"date":"2014-09-30T09:06:27","date_gmt":"2014-09-30T09:06:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress72\/?page_id=12254"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:22:27","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:22:27","slug":"i-love-to-have-an-impact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2014\/09\/30\/i-love-to-have-an-impact\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I love to have an impact’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018I love to have an impact\u2019<\/h2>\n

Portugese Master student Sara Alves (23) is quite a Jack of all trades, but singing is her true passion. Right now, she\u2019s into the more funky and jazzy stuff, but there were times she was involved in totally different kinds of music.<\/p>\n

text <\/b>Gert van der Ende photography <\/b>Michel de Groot A couple of months before she left Lisbon for Rotterdam, Sara \u2018Maggie\u2019 Alves met Fred, a fairly good guitar player. They made plans to sing in the bars of Lisbon together. Writing their own songs, they rehearsed at the miradors <\/em>\u2013 viewing points \u2013 of Lisbon. Their rehearsals already drew rather big audiences, whose reaction to the songs about love, break-ups and other saudade <\/em>was enthusiastic. But then Alves left. \u201cFred will have to wait and he will. There\u2019s a great dynamic between us as musicians.\u201d<\/p>\n

Born and raised in Lisbon, Sara Alves moved to Luxembourg as a twelve-year old, when dad got a job at NATO. Three years later she moved back to Portugal, to Cascais. After finishing secondary school and a Bachelor\u2019s degree, she intended to do a Master\u2019s in cinema or music in England, but the exorbitant tuition fees scared her off. Instead, she went to Rotterdam to do a Master\u2019s in Communication and Culture. But to her, studying is only plan B, because what Alves wants is to be a performer \u2013 she\u2019s pretty sure about that. \u201cMaking music is my biggest goal in life and has been since I was seven. It doesn\u2019t keep me from studying seriously though.\u201d<\/p>\n

At that age, little Sara listened to her grandmother singing old-school fado, say Am\u00e1lia Rodrigues-style. \u201cShe had a great voice and I so much liked to sing along with her.\u201d All the women in the Alves household seem to have an artistic side: mum paints, sister is into amateur dramatics. \u201cBut to them, it\u2019s a hobby. I wanted to change that and become a professional musician.\u201d So little Sara took up playing instruments \u2013 first the piano, not much later the cello \u2013 although that was short-lived, because moving to Luxemburg threw grit in the works.<\/p>\n

Her first public appearance as a singer was at a school event when she was fourteen and sang some songs in Italian. The audience was actually appreciative and \u2013 more importantly \u2013 Alves discovered that she wasn\u2019t shy at all on stage. She didn\u2019t so much as tremble. Somehow, she felt immediately at home in the spotlights, a feeling that has stayed with her until today.<\/p>\n

Back in Portugal, she started to organize her own events \u2013 one of these being Loudspeakers<\/em>, an ensemble of singers covering musical songs. She also joined some bands, one of which was a \u2013 rather remarkable \u2013 hard-rock band consisting of old guys with the rather terrifying name Phalik Johnson and the P Magnets. \u201cHa, ha, that band was actually quite funny. It had a concept like Kiss, with a lot of sexual innuendo. I even had a nickname: Satcha Ness, to be pronounced as \u2018such an ass\u2019.\u201d At the same time, she started singing in hotels. Here she did the more jazzy stuff, covers from the grand ladies of jazz: Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone and Peggy Lee.<\/p>\n

Now she\u2019s making music with The Smokin\u2019 Aces<\/em>, a rather funky experience. A recurrent theme in all her musical activities is her passion for playing with others. \u201cI have my own ideas but I like to share them. And to do projects with others, the bigger the better really. Because I like having an impact, love the interaction. My goal is to push on. I don\u2019t need to be famous, but just being able to live from my music would in itself be amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the time being, she\u2019s intending to find a job in Holland after finishing her Master\u2019s later this year. Poor Fred. Because in that case, he will have to wait just a little longer.<\/p>\n

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