Manuela Gouveia is a laureate of numerous national and international competitions, among which the Palma de Mallorca International Competition, the “Guilhermina Suggia” Competition of Lisbon, the Luso-Spanish Competition of Oporto and the Luso-Brazilian Competition of Covilhã (Portugal).
She played with orchestra in Portugal and in Europe under the conductors Silva Pereira, Manuel Ivo Cruz, Álvaro Cassuto, Gunther Arglebe, A. Salazar, Ferreira Lobo, Marcel Dautremer, Henri Arends, E. Van Remoortel, Nicholas Harsanyi, Ulisses Waterlot, Jean Marc Burfin and Rudolf Baumgartner. Among those performances, her interpretation of the concerts of Bach and Mozart with the chamber orchestras "Festival Strings" and "Waterloo" under the conductors Rudolf Baumgartner and Ulisses Waterlot deserve a special mention.
She has a very broad repertory as a soloist and with orchestra – consisting of works ranging from the baroque to the contemporary.
She performs regularly with chamber music groupings, having played in duo and trio with, among others, Madalena Costa, Paulo Gaio Lima, Dominique Williencourt, Christoph Henkel, Jan Neven, Márcio Carneiro (violoncello), Gerardo Ribeiro (violine), Oliveira Lopes, Maria Mateu Palau, Margarida Natividade (voice).
In her recitals she regularly performs works of Portuguese composers she has come to know personally, such as Cláudio Carneyro, Macedo Pinto, Jorge Croner of Vasconcellos, Armando Fernandes, Lopes Graça, Luís Costa, Filipe Pires and Cândido Lima. Several of these composers dedicated some of their works for piano to Manuela Gouveia.