Home / Cover Story / The Grand Pianist Linda Diniz Braganza
The Grand Pianist Linda Diniz Braganza
Comments Off on The Grand Pianist Linda Diniz Braganza

The Grand Pianist Linda Diniz Braganza

Cover Story October 17, 2025 , by

By Praveena Sharma

Goa’s piano Meisterin Linda Diniz Braganza had many odds stacked against her but the winner of the prestigious Goa State Cultural Award faced them all with her music and self-belief

At the age of five, when Goa’s renowned pianist Linda Diniz Braganza felt the world closing in on her because of her muteness and argumentative parents, her tender fingers would start stabbing at the piano keyboards.
It would drown her in a sound that would not only offer solace, but also add a new dimension to her. This became an accoutrement of her musical life. It got her in touch with someone within her she was not aware of.
As time passed, the pianist in her bloomed. And as that happened, she slowly found her voice. From 98.9% syllabus stuttering (SS) at five years, Braganza – now over 60 years – stutters on just five syllabi out of 100 (5% SS).
Today, she is also among the select few Goans to be awarded the Goa State Cultural Award by the State government.
The exquisite musician understood the therapeutic and divine power of music very young; “It’s music which healed me, along with God’s power and grace”.
And, this truth became increasingly evident to her as she gathered accolades, applause and appreciation over the years. And, when she was called in to perform for the late Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II on their Goa visit, this belief was further reinforced.
All of it came to her in plenty as the sensual notes from her piano wafted through the dine-and-dance room at classic Mandovi Hotel and other places.
She became the girl on the piano – in musician Henry Pinhero’s Ecstasy band – who passionately played haunting tunes to her audience. Every applause instilled her with confidence in her talent.
It dissolved the memory of her late father Sebastiana Braganza’s anguish when he watched her struggle with speech and went knocking on doors of doctors.
“My father would be very concerned about me and would take me to doctors to check my tongue. The problem was not in my tongue but in my head (psychological),” she recalls.
Guided by her inner calling, and a steely determination, she graduated from Dempo College and completed piano Grade 8 from Trinity College of Music – affiliated to the London college – in Goa. All along, her father stood by her, steady as rock.
His support was visible in the conversion of his tavern – inn or pub – in the Altinho area into a piano studio, where his children could practice on the musical instrument. Braganza recollects how the hypnotic sound of the piano would compel tourists to stop and listen to it.
“We had a tavern but he (father) converted it into a piano practice parlour, where I used to teach. It became a tourist spot because of our music,” she wistfully remembers.
In the snug interiors of her apartment on the Fr Agnello Road in Althinho, she extracts fond and bitter memories as she walks down the memory lane. One moment, there is a little scared girl bent over a Grand piano, and the next, there is a pretty and self-assured pianist merrily fluttering her fingers on the piano keys at live concerts.
The sound of her mother Mariano Braganza’s mouth organ – from her childhood – fill her mind whenever she hits a milestone in her musical journey.
Her best memories are of playing to the requests of guests at the Mondovi Hotel, which has now been shut down. It is the versatility and the earnestness of her music that appeals to her listeners. But her musical artistry goes deeper than that.
The repertoire of her music is vast and luxurious – from Beatles, Tom Jones, Engelbert Humperdinck to Bollywood numbers and Portuguese songs, Braganza delivers them all with great finesse. Asked which has been the most requested song by her audience, a smile forms around her lips when she reveals it is ‘Spanish Eyes’.
Spurred by old memories, she settles into the piano bench and prods me a make a song request, and then animatedly lets her fingers slide across the keys to create soulful tunes of yesteryears.
Braganza has always leaned on music and self-help books (her favourite is The Power of Positive Thinking by the American author Norman Vincent Peale) to overcome her troubles.
She claims she has the magic fingers to bring the dead back to life with her music and kindness – the two gifts, bestowed on her by her parents, she liberally uses.
“With the kindness I have in me and my music, I can make a dead man alive,” says the music Meisterin of Goa.

No related posts.

Search

Back to Top