Gulbenkian Orchestra Soloists
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Date
- 20:00 / Cancelled 20:00 / Sold out Monday, 20:00
Location
Grand Auditorium Calouste Gulbenkian FoundationPricing
- Free admission
Ticket collection, subject to room capacity (max. 2 per person):
In-person – 2 hours before
Online – 2 days before (Cartão Gulbenkian Mais) and 1 day before (Cartão Gulbenkian), from 10:00.
- Flute
- Oboe
- Clarinet
- Bassoon
- French horn
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Amalia Tortajada
Flute
Born in Valencia in 1986, Amalia Tortajada has recently received the Rising Star Award by Sir James Galway at 2015 Galway Flute Festival in Weggis, Switzerland.
She began playing the flute at the age of 6. Graduated from the “Conservatorio Superior de Musica Joaquin Rodrigo de Valencia” with Mª Dolores Tomas and awarded with the prize from the conservatory to the most outstanding student in 2008. Amália continued her postgraduate studies at Royal College of Music of London, with teachers Jaime Martin, Sue Thomas and picolo with Stewart McIlwham., thanks to a scholarship from “Instituto Valenciano de la Música” and the support of “St. Marylebone Educational Foundation”. During this year she was the principal flute of the Royal College Symphony Orchestra, playing with conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen. And she was member of other youth orchestras as “Joven orquesta Nacional de España” and ”the World Orchestra of Jeunesses Musicales”.
In 2007, she won the First Prize at the “Competition of Young Performers of Comunidad Valenciana”, playing recitals in Tennessee (USA), and Herzogenrath (Germany) as guest artist at the “World Music Contest of Kerkrade”.
She has been invited as guest artist, to do recitals and master class, at many internationals music festivals as “James Galway Flute Festival” in Switzerland, “IV convencion de Flautistas España” of Bilbao, “II Encontro de flautistas de Portugal”, “World Muisc Contest” of Kerkrade and “III Curso de Flautas de Bauru” of Brasil.
During 2009-2010 season, when she was only 23, she was the second flute of the Orchestra of the Opera “Palau de les Arts” of Valencia, with Lorin Maazel and Zubin Mehta as principal conductors, also playing with Valery Gergiev and Gianandrea Noseda.
Amalia has also performed as guest principal with other professional orchestras, including “Orquesta de Valencia”, “Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla” or “Orquesta Sinfónica de Bilbao”, and as principal flute at “Orquesta del Gran teatro del Liceo de Barcelona” and “Orquestra Sinfonica de Barcelona OBC”.
In January of 2012, Amália won the flute audition at Gulbenkian Orchestra of Lisbon, position that holds to the present. Since 2018 she is flute teacher at “Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa”.
Amalia plays on a 14k Brannen Cooper flute.
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Alice Caplow-Sparks
Oboe / Cor anglais
Alice Caplow-Sparks began playing oboe at the age of twelve in her hometown of Seattle. She continued her studies in Mexico City for a year, then returning to Seattle where she was a student of the oboist Alex Klein. At the age of eighteen, she left Seattle to pursue her studies at the Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio with James Caldwell. During her time there, she was actively involved with the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, as well as other chamber music ensembles and orchestras. Her keen interest in chamber music first developed during a tour of Paris with the Oberlin Woodwind Quintet. After completing her degree, she entered the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, where she attended classes and completed her Masters with Richard Killmer. While at Eastman, she commissioned an original work for oboe and string trio from the composer Gregory Mertl, which she premièred in her graduation recital. She then travelled to Paris, where she studied with David Walter at the Conservatoire. In 2004, she joined the Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa and she is currently a member of the Gulbenkian Orchestra, where she has played oboe and English horn since 2006.
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Telmo Costa
Clarinet
Telmo began his musical studies when he was 7 years old with José Américo Belinha in Tuna Musical de São Paio de Oleiros. Then, he started studying with Hélder Tavares in Academia de Música de Paços de Brandão, where he finished highschool with distinction. He attended several masterclasses with António Saiote, Nuno Pinto, Florent Héau, François Benda, Kilian Herold, Harri Mäki, among others.
He was awarded with many prizes in national and international competitions, such as 1st Prize in “Concurso Luso-espanhol” (Fafe), 1st Prize in International Clarinet Competition APC, Golden Prize in Vienna International Music Competition, 1st Prize in North International Music Competition and 1st Prize in “Prémio Jovens Músicos”. In this very competition, he was awarded with three more prizes, the Young Musician of the Year (“Maestro Silva Pereira Prize”), European Union of Music Competitions for Youth Prize, and “Prémio Círculo Richard Wagner”.
As far as his orchestral experience is concerned, he took part in Jovem Orquestra Portuguesa (2013-2017), Estágio Gulbenkian para Orquestra (2017 and 2018), Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester (2016 and 2018), Neue Philhamornie München (2018) and Schweizer Jugendsinfonieorchester (2018). He also collaborated with Orquestra Filarmónica Portuguesa, Luzerner Sinfonieorchester and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. In 2019 he won the academy position in Luzerner Sinfonieorchester and 1st Soloist co-principal in Orquestra Gulbenkian. He is currently studying in Hochschule für Musik Basel in Switzerland with François Benda.
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Ricardo Ramos
Bassoon
Ricardo Ramos began his musical training at the ARTAVE School in 1997. He continued his studies at the Escola Superior de Música e Artes do Espetáculo do Porto, under Hugues Kesteman. He also studied at Musikhochschule Lübeck, in Germany, with Pierre Martens. He was a member of several youth and professional orchestras: Orquestra Portuguesa das Escolas de Música, Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, European Youth Orchestra, Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Hansestadt Lübeck Philharmonic Orchestra, Orquestra Nacional do Porto, REMIX Orquestra, Orquestra das Beiras and Orquestra do Norte. He has played under the baton of such important masters as Herbert Blomstedt, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Kirill Petrenko, Michael Boder, Lawrence Foster, Michel Corboz, Ton Koopman and Bertrand de Billy, among others
As a soloist, he has played with the Kiel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Gulbenkian Orchestra, the Orquestra da Escola Superior de Música e Artes do Espetáculo and the Norddeutsche Sinfonietta.
He won the Estoril Competition (2011) and the RDP Young Musicians Prize (2003 and 2008), the Helena Sá e Costa Competition (2005), the Possehl Wettbewerb Music Prize (2008) and the Porto Rotary Club Competition (2007). A prize from the Solti Foundation enabled him to participate in several events organised by the foundation in England.
Ricardo Ramos is a bassoon teacher on the Music Degree Programme at the Piaget Institute/ISEIT, in Almada. He has been leader of the bassoon section of the Gulbenkian Orchestra since 2009.
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Antonia Chandler
French horn
Antonia Chandler began playing the horn at the age of 11 in her hometown of Seattle, Washington, USA, where she studied with Bob DeCou and Mike Hettwer. When she was 18 years old she moved to Ohio to study with Roland Pandolfi at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where she earned a Bachelor of Music degree with Kappa Lambda Honors. She then moved to Connecticut to study with Bill Purvis at the Yale School of Music, where she earned the degrees of Master of Music and Master of Musical Arts. During her studies, she performed with the New World Symphony, the New Haven Symphony, and the Princeton Symphony, as well as attended many summer music festivals including Music Academy of the West, Round Top Festival Institute, Atlantic Music Festival, and Lake George Music Festival.
After graduating from Yale, Antonia moved to London where was a horn fellow with the chamber orchestra Southbank Sinfonia, and for the 2021-2022 season she also performed with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra as 2nd horn trialist.
An avid chamber musician, she has toured with the Frisson Ensemble, a nine-piece chamber ensemble based in New York City and performed as a soloist with the Silver Bay String Quartet (NY) and the Oberlin Sinfonietta. She also enjoys historical performance on baroque and classical horns and was recently the baroque horn soloist in a performance of Bach B Minor Mass with the Parliament Choir in London. She has performed in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Vienna Musikverein, the Philharmonie de Paris and the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona.
Antonia won the audition for low horn soloist in Orquestra Gulbenkian in September 2021, and moved to Lisbon later that year. She has been a permanent member of the orchestra since November 2022.
Giuseppe Cambini
Darius Milhaud
Franz Danzi
The Gulbenkian Orchestra consists of musicians of great technical and artistic quality. Throughout the season, they also perform in free chamber music concerts, thus emerging from the anonymity of their roles within the orchestra. While making themselves much more visible, they also make a considerable contribution to a greater appreciation of chamber music as a whole, from the standard repertoire to the premieres of new works.
Sponsor Gulbenkian Music
The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation reserves the right to collect and keep records of images, sounds and voice for the diffusion and preservation of the memory of its cultural and artistic activity. For further information, please contact us through the Information Request form.