Ana Schurmann

Biography

Ana Schurmann is a Brazilian singer, composer, multi-instrumentalist, model, designer and researcher from Florianópolis. She gained international attention in 2020 when her song "Tell Me" was played on BBC Radio 1, composed the soundtrack for the Max Mara show at Milan Fashion Week in 2021, and was included in the Forbes 30 Under 30 Brazil list in 2023. Her research applies sonification to natural and astrophysical data; she has been described as the first composer to translate gravitational wave detections from the LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA collaboration into music.

== Early life and modelling == Schurmann has credited her grandfather, the writer and philosopher José Curi, with encouraging her studies and prompting her to begin composing. She began working as a model in her early teens and later settled in Europe, living in Milan. Her modelling career spans more than 157 publications and covers, including Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, and work for designers including Dior and Calvin Klein. Her credits also include Cartier, Moncler, Max Mara and Osklen.

== Music == Schurmann's song "Tell Me", produced by Riccardo Onori, was first broadcast on BBC Radio 1 in September 2020 and was later added to the BBC playlist, where a reviewer compared her to Patti Smith. In 2021 she composed the soundtrack for the Max Mara Spring/Summer 2022 show at Milan Fashion Week, at the invitation of creative director Ian Griffiths. In 2023 she was included in the Forbes 30 Under 30 Brazil list. She plays several instruments, among them piano, guitar and violin, and designed an instrument of her own, the Neck Lyre. In May 2026 she performed at the centenary celebrations of the Hercílio Luz Bridge in Florianópolis. In August 2026 she released the single "Peacemakers", a self-produced track featuring the Neck Lyre.

=== Languages === Schurmann is a polyglot. Vogue reported that she speaks nine languages: Portuguese, English, Italian, French, Spanish, German, Chinese, Japanese and Hindi, and in 2021 a promotional video for "Tell Me" in which she spoke eight of them went viral. She began songwriting in English and has since written in several languages.

== Neck Lyre == In March 2026 Schurmann presented the Neck Lyre, a wearable multi-instrument made of gold and diamonds, described as a contemporary reinterpretation of the classical lyre. It took three years and several prototypes to develop, in collaboration with researchers in physics and biology. Worn around the neck, it combines string and percussion elements and is tuned to the Schumann resonance of 7.83 Hz, a range corresponding to alpha and theta brainwave frequencies, emitting vibrations patterned after heartbeat rhythms. Clash described it as the world's first multi-instrument that doubles as scientific haute jewellery. Forbes Brasil reported that it was to be sold for R$400,000. The project is accompanied by the single "The Neck Lyre Haute Jewelry Instrument".

== Science and research ==

=== Sonus Naturae === Schurmann's research concerns the translation of natural forms and recordings into musical language. The project began after she observed that the markings on a seashell resembled a spectrogram. In collaboration with the researcher Roger Hale, she studies ways of transforming natural elements such as shell recordings, environmental noise and spectrograms into music; the work was published as Sonus Naturae 0. In 2022 she completed a 386-page study of geometric patterns in seashells.

=== The Harmonic Universe === In 2025 Schurmann developed a method for composing directly from gravitational wave detections, which she used to produce a musical series titled The Harmonic Universe (Chirp Symphony), also referred to as Sinfonia do Universo (Symphony of the Universe). Working from the open-access database of the LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA collaboration, she converted the strain-versus-time data of detected events into spectrograms and then, through sonification, into chords, applying harmonic field theory to complete the harmonisation and give the series its orchestral form. The work was developed in collaboration with scientists from the Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica (ITA), who handled the analysis and processing of the astrophysical data. The piece was released on 11 November 2025 and performed at the XIX EFITA physics event at ITA.