A Jewish-descendent singer, composer, and actress, Fortuna was raised in São Paulo always connected to music, dance, and theater. During the 80’s, while staging her first plays, she wrote a set of songs with the poet from Curitiba, Paulo Leminski (1944 – 1989). The determinant chapter of her career, however, was yet to start after a trip to Israel, in 1991. There, Fortuna’s art grew an innovative orientation: While listening to a song from the Ladino collection, she realized she had found the source for a unique aesthetic approach, where music, dance, and dramaturgy converge to recreate a rich cultural legacy. Ladino, the Judeo-Spanish dialect, is the language of the Sephardim, the Jews from Sepharad, the Hebrew name for the Iberian Peninsula.

The contact with Ladin music tradition changed Fortuna’s life and set a new course to her work. There, she started a work of research and redemption from the near oblivion the medieval songs seemed to rest on. The result of such quest brightened her trajectory. During the following years, she recorded her seven CDs on an independent label: La Prima Vez, Cantigas, Mediterrâneo, Mazal, Cælestia, Encontros, and Novo Mundo. Distributed in Argentina, Spain, Israel, and the US, Fortuna’s discography has sold almost 100,000 copies. The recordings were acclaimed by critics and brought to light by important awards. Mediterrâneo won the 10th Sharp Music Award, for best record produced in a foreign language; and US label Putumayo, specialized on world-music compilations, included five songs recorded by Fortuna in its latest releases.

The series of release shows for each CD took Fortuna to successfully perform in many Brazilian capitals, such as Recife, Porto Alegre, João Pessoa, Manaus, Belo Horizonte, Curitiba, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, besides the international tours, in Paris, New York (for an acclaimed performance at UN headquarters), Miami, Amsterdam, Haia, Antwerp, Évora, Buenos Aires, Santiago, Caracas, and for the celebration of Jerusalem’s 3000th year.

Besides supplying her with the substance for the development of her music career, the historic research work aiming to restore forgotten musical tradition enabled Fortuna to a concurrent activity: Art director for the Festival “Todos os Cantos do Mundo” [All corners and songs of the world]. With seven editions held at SESC – Serviço Social do Comércio [Social Service for the Commerce Sector] in São Paulo, the event showed the talent of many artists, whose music is not played on radios and who would hardly perform on other stages in Brazil.

Leading the Festival, Fortuna maintains a permanent connection with the most diverse forms of musical expression. This type of interchange brought a new consistency to her work – which reflected in voice evolution, music arrangement sophistication, and in the choice of her staff. The greatest examples of her wider horizons are found in the CDs: Cælestia, recorded with the Benedictine Monks Choir of São Bento Monastery in São Paulo, SP; Encontros, which, besides the Benedictine Monks, also includes the participation of Projeto Guri Choir, formed by children and adolescents from Osasco, SP; and Novo Mundo, with Antônio Nóbrega, from the State of Pernambuco, as guest artist. With the guest artists contribution, the works bring tradition a new meaning, besides restoring it.

Her on-line show “Todos os Cantos do Mundo” has been prospecting the precious sounds of the planet, is broadcasted by Rádio Cultura UOL and accessed by internauts from countless regions. The show is a true landmark in streaming radio history.

As an actress, Fortuna took part of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, directed by awarded Iacov Hillel. The success of the presentation, which is also meant for children and adolescents, has awakened in the artist the desire of converging her focus on children audiences. That is how two new projects were born.

In October, the singer opens a new show that flags the release of a new CD. The song list brings poems of author Ruth Rocha, with music by Helio Ziskind (Rumo group). Some of the tracks were composed with Fortuna. The show will be directed by Naum Alves de Souza.

The CD is a SESC label production.