The mezzo-soprano Maria Alves, born in Portugal on the island of San Miguel, who during her whole youth loved to sing with her group of scouts "Guias de Carcavelos", who sang light, folk, pop and religious songs every Sunday morning at the Sunday mass in the church Igreja de Carcavelos, started her music and singing studies at the Instituto Gregoriano de Lisboa, where she studied Gregorian chant with Helena Pires de Matos and Singing with Manuela Canas, while she was still studying mathematics at Lisbon University, graduating in 1984.

She continued her singing studies at the Conservatório de Música de Lisboa, with Wagner Dinis. After that, she entered the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa with Luis Madureira, where she graduated in Singing in 1995. During these years, she also sang in the ensemble "Camerata Vocal de Lisboa", directed by João Valeriano, and in the ensemble "Coro Feminino Cantata", directed by Christopher Bochmann, where she sang several solo parts, as well as in the choir "Coro da Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian" in Lisbon. 

Later she was a singer in the Lisbon Opera choir "Coro do Teatro Nacional de San Carlos".

When she moved to the Netherlands in 1995, she continued her singing studies at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Hague, with Rita Dams and Lenie van den Heuvel, and graduated in 2000.

She participated in several master classes in Portugal, Spain, England and France with Marius van Altena, Max van Egmond, Jill Feldman, Helmut Lips, Loraine Nubar, Dalton Baldwin, Diane Forlano, Barbara Pearson, Christian Papis, Rudolf Knoll, and Teresa Berganza. In the Netherlands, she has worked with Paula de Wit, Gemma Visser, James McCray, and is presently working with Ronald Kleekamp.

She sang for some years in the well known Bach Koor Holland and the Liszt Koor in Amsterdam, where she also sang as a soloist. She has also sung in the choir of the operas Othello and Nabucco (Verdi), which were productions of the "Viable Entertainment en RAI Theater". She regularly sings with the Nederlands Concertkoor as a reinforcing singer.

At the opera, Maria performed Susanna in Mozart's "Le Nozze di Figaro" and she sang Orfeo in Gluck's Orfeo et Euridice. She also did some of the solo parts of Purcell's "Dido and Aeneas".

As a concert soloist, Maria has given several recitals in Portugal and in the Netherlands with the pianist Maarten Hillenius, with whom she works regularly. 

She also performs regularly with the soprano Persephone Abbot with whom she has built up a vast repertoire of opera and songs: baroque, classic, romantic and modern. She is member of “As Divas Portuguesas”, a group of Portuguese singers living in the Netherlands, a group which was set up to present the Portuguese classical music repertoire

Maria enjoys every day of her singing career since she finds music and singing very fulfilling.