Emanuel Salvador

Described by the Strad Magazine as “one of the finest Portuguese violinists of his generation”, Emanuel Salvador has already performed as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral leader in the U.K., Kazakhstan, Portugal, Holland, Mexico, Spain, Italy, Germany, Malta and South Korea. He has been awarded top prizes at Isolde Menges and Beckenham Festival competitions; Barbirolli Memorial and Wolfson; Jovens Músicos; Gulbenkian Foundation Scholarship, Instituto Camões Grants. After graduating from Artave (a specialist music school) as the best student of the year he then moved to London, where he got a BMus from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (Professor John Glickman) and a MMus at the Royal College of Music (Dr. Felix Andrievsky). Other professors include Ilya Grubert, David Takeno, Ulf Hoelscher as well as members from Borodin and Takacs Quartets and Peabody and Florestan Piano Trios. As a concerto soloist Emanuel has played with several orchestras including Sinfonica UANL, Rotterdam Ensemble, Newbury Symphony, Norte, Vitalis, Skolia, Nova Amadeus. His festival appearances include Gaia International, Proms in St. Judes and Ampthill and the International String Orchestra Festival in Malta. Since September 2005 Emanuel is the leader of Orquestra do Norte in Portugal. As a guest leader he worked with Seoul Classical Players and Gulbenkian Ensemble.

(text by Emanuel Salvador)

Alexandra Mascolo-David

‘A splendid pianist refined, searching and expressive, and her playing is loaded with insight and interpretative detail’. So wrote The Washington Post, after Alexandra Mascolo-David’s performance at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in the nation’s capital. She has performed and led workshops and master classes in Europe, China, and the Americas, including a New York debut recital at Carnegie Hall in May 2004, which was favorably reviewed in The New York Concert Review. In recent years, she has centered her repertoire around the evocative piano music of Portuguese and Brazilian composers, especially that of Francisco Mignone. She is in the forefront of presenting Mignone’s piano music, and her performances, especially of his ‘Valsas brasileiras’ (Brazilian Waltzes), have been widely acclaimed. She recently received a Research Excellence Grant from Central Michigan University to record Francisco Mignone¹s Fantasias Brasileiras ‘Brazilian Fantasies’ for piano and orchestra with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, under Maestro Raymond Harvey, for the White Pine Music recording label, in a 2010 release. In addition to performing traditional solo and chamber literature, she has also championed works by contemporary American composers Daniel McCarthy, Derek Bermel, David Gillingham, Augusta Read Thomas, and David Maslanka. Noting her performance in David Maslanka’s Piano Concerto No. 1 for Piano, Winds and Percussion, released by Albany Records in 2005, the American Record Guide wrote, ‘Ms. Mascolo-David dispatches the difficult solo part with alarming ease.’ Another CD, featuring music of Latin America for piano and cello with 14 year-old cellist Gabriel Cabezas, winner of the Ninth Sphinx International Competition, was released on the White Pine Music label in February of 2007. Ms. Mascolo-David has recently performed for the Fontana Chamber Arts Summer Festival in Kalamazoo, and for the Irving S. Gilmore Keyboard Festival Summer Camp with Brazilian pianist Rubia Santos, with whom she founded the BelleDonne piano duo. She has taught at the Interlochen Arts camp, at Iowa State University, and currently is Professor of Piano at Central Michigan University. She is also a most sought out and devoted teacher. American and international students attend Central Michigan University, in order to join her studio. Her pupils have won numerous auditions and competitions and they all have achieved much success after graduation. (from text by Alexandra Mascolo-David)

website

Alexandra Mascolo-David plays Francisco Mignone's Waltz 12:

Mário Redondo

Born in Lisbon, in 1971, baritone Mário Redondo has a degree in Law, completed the Course for Actors (ESTC), and attended the Singing Course of Lisbon’s Conservatory. Most important professional opera work: “Il Matrimonio Segreto”, D.Cimarosa - Geronimo (T.N.São Carlos, 2000); “Albert Herring”, B. Britten - Sid (T.Aberto, 2002); “Trouble in Tahiti”, L.Bernstein - Sam (Amiens - France, 2003); “Os Fugitivos”, J.E.Rocha (world premiere - T.Trindade, 2004); “Simon Boccanegra”, Verdi - Pietro (TNSC, 2004); “Beggar’s Opera”, Gay/Britten - Lockit (Teatro Aberto, 2005); “The Nose”, Chostakovitch – Ivan Iakovlevitch (TNSC, 2006); “Le Nozze di Figaro”, Mozart - Count (T.Trindade, 2006); “Tosca”, Pucinni - Angelotti (S.Carlos, 2008); and “Fidelio”, Beethoven – D.Fernando (TNSC, 2008). Soloist in: “The Seven Deadly Sins”, Kurt Weill (T.Camões, OSP, 2000); “Swing, Dig The Rhythm”, with music by L.Bernstein (Royaumont - France, 2003); “Mass in B Minor”, Bach (Belfast, 2006); “Night Waltz – the music of Paul Bowles” (CCB, 2007); and “In Terra Pax”, Frank Martin (TNSC, 2008). Has worked since 1992 as a professional actor. Most important works in this area: the plays “Kvetch” (S.Berkoff - T.Trindade, 2004) and “The Misanthrope” (Molière – Lisbon, 2009); and the movies “Sinais de Fogo” (Luís Filipe Rocha, 1994), “Capitães de Abril” (Maria de Medeiros, 1999), and “Amália” (C.Coelho da Silva, 2008). Lately, he’s engaged in a very successful musical theatre career, of which the best examples are “The Threepenny Opera”, in the role of Mack The Knife (T.Aberto, 2005); the world premiere of “Einstein’s Dreams”, by J.Rosemblum and J.S.Lessner, in the role of Einstein (T.Trindade, 2005/2006); the leading role in “Sweeney Todd” (T.Aberto, 2007); and “Evil Machines”, a musical fantasy by Monty Python's Terry Jones with music by Luís Tinoco (T.S.Luiz, 2008). (text by Mário Redondo)

blog

Sara Braga Simões

Photo: Alfredo Rocha

Soprano Sara Braga Simoes is a winner of several national and international prizes. Operatic Roles include Pamina (Die Zauberflöte - Mozart) Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro – Mozart), Zerlina (Don Giovanni – Mozart), Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel - E. Humperdinck), Despina (Così fan Tutte - W.A. Mozart), The Governess (The Turn of the Screw – B. Britten), Spinalba (La Spinalba - F. António de Almeida), Sleeping Beauty (Sleeping Beauty – O. Respighi), Jenny (Three sisters who are not sisters – N. Rorem), Rowan (The Little Sweep - B. Britten). She sang Ein Deutsches Requiem – Brahms, Des Knabem Wunderhorn – Mahler, E vo - Berio, Trois poèmes de Stephan Mallarmé - M.Ravel, Nuits d’étè - H.Berlioz, Te Deum - Dvorack, Madrigals (Book I) - George Crumb, Shîr - João Pedro Oliveira*, D’une saison… l’autre - A. Lemeland*, Lacrymosa - Yanov-Yanovsky, Magnificat, Dixit Dominus and Gloria - A.Vivaldi, The Devil’s Suite - Peter Maxwell Davies, Christmas Oratorio - Saint-Saëns, Stabat Mater - G.B.Pergolesi and Haddock’s Eyes - David Del Tredici. Sara was directed by Martin André, Cesário Costa, Laurence Cummings, Marc Tardue, Osvaldo Ferreira, Stefan Asbury, Peter Rundell, Ferreira Lobo, Manuel Ivo Cruz, Brad Cohen, Peter Birgamin, Armando Vidal, Jaroslav Mikus, Gunther Arglebe, Yoichi Sugyiana, among others. Engagements for this season include her London debut with the world premier of Pedro Amaral’s opera in London: The Dream, Nino Rota’s Aladin (as The Princess) and George Benjamin’s A Mind of winter in Centro Cultural de Belém (Lisbon). (text by Sara Braga Simões)

blog

Ana Queirós

Award winner in national and international competitions, portuguese pianist Ana Queirós performs regularly in Portugal, Brazil (Portuguese Music tour in São Paulo, Belém and Vitória), Germany (Neckargemund Klavierwoche, Heidelberg and Weissber Festivals), Spain, Italy (Festival Internazionale de Pianoforte Firenze), USA (New York) and Mozambique (Maputo International Music Festival). A graduate from the Manhattan School of Music, she studied with Luis Pipa, J. Alexandre Reis and Pedro Burmester in Portugal and obtained her Master of Music in Piano Performance degree as a scholarhip student of Dr. Solomon Mikovsky. She also studied in Madrid with Galina Egyazarova and attended masterclasses by Paul Badura-Skoda, Vitaly Margulis, Pierre Reach, Vladimir Viardo, Dimitri Bashkirov, Tania Achot, Laszlo Simon and Charles Spencer, among others, in Germany and Spain. With an intense musical activity, Ana performs regularly in both solo, with orchestra and chamber music concerts. Besides Doppio Ensemble, she is also the founder of TriArt with French composer and percussionist Jean-François Lézé and premiered several works by Portuguese and French composers. She is in the faculty of Braga University and Oporto Music Conservatory and also collaborates with Oporto National Orchestra and ESMAE. Her musical studies have been supported by Manhattan School of Music, Centro Nacional de Cultura and Calouste Gulbenkian Foudation. Next engagements include concerts and masterclasses in Spain, Italy, Germany and USA.
(Text by Ana Queirós)

Blog

Evandra de Brito Gonçalves

Evandra de Brito Gonçalves is one of the most talented portuguese violinists of her generation. She received awards in Portugal and USA, both as a soloist and a chamber musician, playing solo with Orquestra Nacional do Porto, Orquestra das Beiras, Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa, Sinfonieta do Porto, Orquestra Clássica do Porto, USC Symphonie Orchestra and Northewstern Symphonie Orchestra. She was a student of Gaio Lima, Zofia Wóycicka, Gerardo Ribeiro ( Northwestern University ) and Robert Lipsett ( University of Southern California ). She has also attended masterclasses with Isaac Stern and Augustin Leon Ara, Zakhar Bron, Gerardo Ribeiro, Almita Vamos , among others. At the age of 13 years old, she was accepted has a member of the European Union Youth Orchestra, where she had the opportunity to work with musicians such as Leonard Slatkin, M. Rostropovich, Sir Colin Davis, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Martha Argerich, Emanuel Ax, Bernard Haitink, Carlo Maria Giulini and perform in all the major orchestra halls in Europe and South America. While attending Northwestern University ( Chicago ) for her Master Degree, she was Mr. Ribeiro´s teaching assistent. Since she came back to Portugal, she became a member of the Orquestra Nacional do Porto and teacher at the Escola Profissional de Música de Viana do Castelo. She performs regularly with the pianist Ana Queirós, the Doppio Ensemble, formed in 2002. In 2010 Doppio Ensemble will release a CD, and has been invited to perform in Portugal, Spain, USA and Italy. Evandra is also the violinist and co-founder of the prestigious chamber music group Camerata Senza Misura. More recent projects include the trio TriArt ( with pianist Ana Queirós and french percussionist and composer Jean-François Lézé) and the violin trio VioNinas ( with Maria Kagan and Ianina Pacheco ). Both groups play different kinds of music, that goes from the Bossa Nova, Jazz, Tangos, Afro-Cubans,tradicional Russian influenced compositions and world music in general.
(text by Evandra de Brito Gonçalves)

Manuel Durão

Born in 1987, Lisbon, composer Manuel Durão studied trumpet and percussion and graduated in Composition by Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa (2008). He attended Conducting Workshops by Jean-Sébastien Béreau. In 2005, he won the competition Jovens Criadores promoted by Clube Português de Artes e Ideias and represented Portugal in the III Bienal Jovens Criadores da CPLP (Community of Portuguese Language Countries). He was selected for the first round of the Opera Competition in the Municipal Theatre in Lisbon. He is studying since 2007 at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” Leipzig (Germany) with Reihard Pfundt (composition), Helgeheide Schmidt (piano) and Michael Schorcht (Improvisation). He received a Scholarship from ERASMUS-Program (2007) and from the DAAD (2009-2010). He is founder of the Nova Orquestra de Lisboa. He became comissions from the RTP - Portuguese Radio and Television, Mikroduo, Lisbon Guitar Quartet, Sinfonietta Lisbon, Ricercare Choir Lisbon, Tatjana Masurenko and Brigitte Fassbaender. In 2010 will be presented the german version of his Diary of a Mad Man at the Opera Leipzig with musicians of the Gewandhaus Orchestra.

(text by Manuel Durão)

Carla Caramujo

Soprano Carla Caramujo completed her Bachelor and Masters in Music Performance, with distinction, at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, having graduated from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama Opera Course. She studied with Laura Sarti and Patricia MacMahon. She was a scholar of the Samling Foundation in the UK. Carla Caramujo won first prizes in a number of competitions including the Luisa Todi National Singing Competition (Lisbon), Chevron Excellence award 2005 and Ye Cronies Award 2006 (UK) and at the Musikförderpreis der Hans-Sachs-Loge (Nürnberg). She made her début at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos (TNSC), Lisbon, as Gilda Rigoletto and in a Concert Gala with Vesselina Kasarova. Carla Caramujo’s operatic roles include Adina L’elisir d’amore (Teatro da Trindade), Violetta La traviata (Sintra’s Festival), Queen of the Night Die Zauberflöte (Trinity theatre, Kent), Madame Herz Die Schauspieldirektor (Teatro das Figuras, Faro), Fiordiligi Cosi fan tutte (Teatro Rivoli, Porto), Valetto L’incoronazione di Poppea (Traverse Theater, Edimbrough), Armida Rinaldo (Festival Theater, Edimbrough), Frasquita Carmen (Teatro Communale, Bologna), Flight Controller Flight (New atheneum theater, Glasgow), She in Douglas Templeton’s Night Square, Usignuolo and Fata Azzurra in Respighi’s La bella dormente nel bosco (Casa das Artes, Famalicão). Her concert performances include Brahms Requiem, Bach Magnificat, Handel Messiah, Mozart C minor Mass, Beethoven Mass in C, Mendelssohn Elijah, Poulenc Gloria, Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, Mozart Concert Arias, in major UK venues and in Germany, the Czech Republic, Mexico and Portugal where she has also performed at entro Cultural de Belém, Gulbenkian and many of the major music festivals. In 2008, Carla has participated on a doccumentary series for RTP (Portuguese Radio and Television), Percursos da Música Portuguesa, with a recital performed at the Teatro Nacional de S. Carlos. Last summer she returned to Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon to sing sang Donna Anna Don Giovanni and recently she sang Nena in Pergolesi’s Lo frate 'nnamorato for CCB (Lisbon) and Vespina in Francisco António de Almeida’s La Spinalba for the festival Are-more of Vigo (Spain). In Spring 2010 she will sing Adele Die Fledermaus, also at Teatro Nacional de São Carlos.


Webpage

Costa Campos

A full, glowing night, of augurious stars, came down upon the blessed and mystical set erected at the ruins of Convento do Carmo, there to witness the premiere of Costa Campos as a lead singer, playing D. Basilio from Il Barbiere di Siviglia, under the direction of Jan Latham König. It was the first peak in the life of this young man graduated in Law, born in Luanda, who quested madly for the Apollonius gesture, the grave sculpture of singing, ever since he emerged from the Escola de Teatro e Cinema do Conservatório Nacional, with Maria Germana Tânger and Águeda Sena, since when he received the teaching of Maria Cristina de Castro, Hugo Casaes, Natália Viana, Elsa Saque and Liliane Bizineche; the conspicuous and detailed perfecting of the art and of the craft with Ivo Vinco, Jeff Lawton, Jonathan Morris and Günther Bauer; and finally the splendid principles of voice and interpretation from the divine Grace Bumbry and that illustrious maestro, Enza Ferrari. There followed the musical-theatrical, multi-disciplinal and various performances: Judas, from O Nazareno (Coliseu de Lisboa), La Diva from Zarzuelas Cabaré e Olé Olé (Municipal de S. Luís), the Marquis of Obigny in the historical production of La Traviata, signed by Pier Luigi Pizzi and directed by Giuliano Carella (Teatro de S. Carlos), the Senator Robert Lyons in Gershwin’s Of Thee I Sing (Festival de Música de Macau), Carumba, from Leal Moreira’s A Vingança da Cigana. In splendid artistic fruits did the year 2009 smile upon Costa Campos when, in the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, exemplarily integrated in the principles and in the most original scenic conceptions of such great men of the Theatre as Peter Konwintschy and Michael Hampe, he achieved authentic creations in the roles of Bénoit, from La Bohème (directed by Julia Jones), and of the Praetorian in Handel’s Agripina. An artist of indefatigable capacity for work and constant perfecting, eternally avid for new challenges, it is in the creation of the role Montesinos in the opera D. Quixote et la Duchesse, by Boismortier, that he reaps abundant triumph by exhibiting the excellence of his bass register, for the first time facing the hardships of a basso profondo tessitura. He is presently the mentor of a cultural project entitled Primo Canto, where the artistic wisdom begotten in his contact with the Grand Masters is passed onto others. Hailed as an aesthete both on- and off-stage, Costa Campos bears a debt of infinite gratitude towards his beloved Mother and the unforgettable Grace Bumbry for his excellence throughout. (text by Costa Campos)

Webpage

Júlio Pereira

In 30 years of a career as multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer, Júlio Pereira has guided his artistic concern by parameters that have the universality of cultural events as reference. This, in no way contradicts the importance of his work in the scope of the traditional Portuguese music and the ethnic consideration of sounds and their roots. His work has always aimed to the incorporation of Portuguese tradition in aesthetic currents that mark the successive "contemporarities". Thus, his ouevre, comprising 17 LPs, after reflecting the importance of the 70s musical innovation, starts to focus in recovering and renovating the sounds of "almost lost" traditional instruments – of that, the most paradigmatic examples are Cavaquinho (1981), Braguesa (1982), and O meu bandolim (1992) – as well, especially since the 90s, the combination of these sounds with (always) new acoustic solutions – as Rituais (2000) documents significantly. All this places him, beyond his key role in the Portuguese music scenario of the 20th century last decades, also as a musician of the new century. Although Júlio Pereira’s work, since the album Cavaquinho (1981), didn’t extend to the composition of music for lyrics, his poetic selectivity led him to produce an album – Faz de conta - which intersects with core Portuguese speaking authors, such as Eugénio de Andrade and Vinicius de Moraes. In Graffiti, his new album, to be heard from the beginning of the new year, the words’ sound is back associating the most significant voices of World Music to his work after Geografias (2007), which definitely marked the composer’s universality and the stage return of the instrumentalist. Julio Pereira’s experience and musical testimony are attested by almost an hundred discs where he performed as an instrumentalist, orchestrator or producer. Mention must be made to the importance of his close ties to the career of José Afonso, since the late 70s, as well as his participation in joint works with Pete Seeger and The Chieftains and also Kepa Junkera, Chico Buarque, Dulce Pontes, Sara Tavares, Carlos do Carmo, etc.

(text by Júlio Pereira)

Website

Ernesto Rodrigues

Performer and composer Ernesto Rodrigues was born in Lisbon 1959. He has been playing the violin for 30 years and in that time has played all genres of music ranging from contemporary music to free jazz and free improvisation, live and in the studio. As an avant-garde violinist/violist his main interest shifted towards contemporary improvised and new music as well as graphic scores by Gerhard Stäbler, Nikolaus Gerszewski and Phil Niblock. Studies with contemporary composers Eurico Carrapatoso, Emmanuel Nunes and Pedro M. Rocha. The relationship with his instruments is focused in sonic and textural elements as well as the use of extended techniques. Electronic music was an early influence on his approach to violin playing, which challenges traditional romantic concepts of the violin and viola through use of preparations and micro tuning. Silence plays an important and determinant role in his music. Has founded and directs Variable Geometry Orchestra since 2000. A large ensemble where the conduction is operated by balancing the sound masses that travel in the acoustic space, dictating the construction of the realtime composition, and thus revealing the organized juxtaposition of specific instruments as mobile sound groups. Has created music for films, dance, performance and video. (text by Ernesto Rodrigues)


Webpage
Contact

Ana Paula Russo

As a soloist, soprano Ana Paula Russo has sung in many Lied and Oratorium concerts, as well as in Opera. Some of her outstanding works were for the Gulbenkian Foundation, RTP (Portuguese Radio and Television), Europalia-91 (in Brussels) and Lisbon 94 – capital of culture.In 1989, she represented Portugal in the “Cardiff Singer of the World” Competition. She took part in some important music festivals, such as Capuchos, Leiria, Estoril, Algarve, P. de Varzim, F. da Foz and the International Festival of Macao. In concert, she sang works as, for instance, “Das Buch der hängenden Gärten” (Schönberg), “Les Noces” (Stravinsky),”Les Illuminations” (Britten), Cantata op, 29 (Webern), works by A. Chagas Rosa, “Carmina Burana” (C. Orff), “Stabat Mater” (Rossini and Dvorak) and many others. The Opera and Scenic music have had a major importance in APRusso’s career. Among many others, we can point out roles as: Rosina (The Barber of Seville), Oscar (Un ballo in maschera), Marie (La fille du regiment), Ninette (The love of the three Oranges),Musetta (La Bohéme), Adele (Der Fledermaus), Clorinda (La Cenerentola), Ernesta (As Damas Trocadas), Hanna (The merry Widow), Najade (Ariadne auf Naxos), Cunegonde (Candide), Vespetta (Pimpinone), Eurydice (Orphé aux Enfers), Nightingale (The Nightingale by Stravinsky), Minette (The English Cat by H.W Henze), D.Anna (D. Giovanni). In April’98 she was one of the singers in the world premiere of the opera “Os Dias Levantados” by António Pinho Vargas – this work was recorded on cd by EMI. In 1998, Ana Paula was chosen to sing the female leading role in the opera “White Raven” (world premiere) by Philip Glass in the Expo’98 in Lisbon. This opera was also sung in Madrid (Teatro Real) and in New York (Lincoln Center/NY State Opera). In the 10th anniversary of Fernando Lopes Graça’s death (2004), she sang the soprano soloist part in the composer’s Requiem – this performance was released on cd in 2006. In 2008 she sang in the world premiere of “Evil Machines”, a musical fantasy by Terry Jones (Monthy Python), with music by Luis Tinoco. Together wih Carlos Gutkin (guitar player), she recorded a very successful cd with ibero-american music, “Melodia Sentimental”. In 2009, she sang the main soloist part in Marcos Portugal’s “Missa Grande”, recorded in cd.

(Text by Ana Paula Russo)