Mozart and Lalo
Gulbenkian Orchestra
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Date
- 20:00 / Cancelled 20:00 / Sold out Tuesday, 20:00
Location
Grand Auditorium Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation- Conductor
- Bassoon
- Violin
- Commentary
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Gulbenkian Orchestra
In 1962, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation decided to establish a permanent orchestral ensemble. Originally with only twelve musicians (strings and continuo) it was named “Orquestra de Câmara Gulbenkian”. This collective was successively enlarged and today the “Orquestra Gulbenkian” (the name it has adopted since 1971) has a permanent body of sixty instrumentalists, a number that can be expanded depending on the repertoire.
This structure allows the Gulbenkian Orchestra to interpret works from the Baroque and Classical periods, a significant part of 19th century orchestral literature and much of the music of the 20th century, including works belonging to the current repertoire of the traditional symphonic orchestras. In each season, the orchestra performs on a regular series of concerts at the Gulbenkian Grand Auditorium in Lisbon, where it has had the opportunity of working together with some of leading names of the world of music (conductors and soloists). It has also performed on numerous locations all over Portugal, in an effort to decentralize music and culture.
The orchestra has been constantly expanding its activities in the international level, performing in Europe, Asia Africa, and the Americas. In the recording field, Orquestra Gulbenkian is associated to labels as Philips, Deutsche Grammophon, Hyperion, Teldec, Erato, Adès, Nimbus, Lyrinx, Naïve and Pentatone, among others, and this activity was recognized with several international prizes.
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Miguel Sepúlveda
Conductor
Miguel Sepúlveda begins the 2025/26 season by making his Concertgebouw debut with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra followed by his subscription debut with the Dresdner Philharmonie. Later in the season he makes his LA Philharmonic debut conducting concerts around Los Angeles county and returns to the Gulbenkian Orchestra for their fifth collaboration.
In June 2025 Miguel was named joint-winner of the Grand Prix at the International Conducting Competition Rotterdam. The jury also awarded Miguel the Opera and Contemporary prizes, while the players of the Rotterdam Philharmonic and Orchestra of the 18th Century voted him their preferred candidate in the Symphonic and Classical rounds. He was previously a semi-finalist in the 2024 Malko Conducting Competition.
Born in Lisbon in 1998, Miguel studied under Jean Marc Burfin and finished his Masters at the RNCM. He has since gone on to conduct the BBC Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Manchester Camerata, Münchener Kammerorchester and Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto. In September 2024 he was appointed the Dresdner Philharmonie's inaugural Runnicles Fellow and in March 2025 he was named an LA Phil Dudamel Fellow.
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Vera Dias
Bassoon
Vera Dias was born in Guimarães. She started at the Escola Profissional Artística do Vale do Ave at the age of twelve, where she began her musical studies learning bassoon with Jesus Coelho. Later, she studied with Paulo Martins, with whom she finished the Wind Instrumentalists Course, winning the Dr Manuela Carvalho Prize. At the age of eighteen she was admitted to the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik - Karlsruhe, studying bassoon with Günter Pfitzenmaier. She graduated in 2008 from Escola Superior de Música.
She has played with the Orquestra Portuguesa das Escolas de Música, the Orquestra Aproarte, the Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa, the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik - Karlsruhe Chamber Orchestra, the Pforzheim Chamber Orchestra and the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, and has given concerts throughout Europe and the East.
In 2003 and 2004, she was selected to join the European Union Youth Orchestra summer school, which she attended only in 2004. In 2003 she declined that opportunity to be able to compete for the Young Musicians Prize, in which she received 1st Prize in the Bassoon category. In 2004, she won 2nd Prize in the Landespolizei competition, in Karlsruhe.
She had a scholarship from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation from 2003 to 2006. She has been 1st Assistant Soloist with the Gulbenkian Orchestra since September 2006.
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Bin Chao
Violin
Bin Chao was born into a family of musicians and began playing the violin at the age of six. He studied at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, where he graduated with distinction, and he completed a Masters in Music at the Mannes College of Music in New York, where he studied with the violinist David Nadien.
Henry Roth, the violinist and music critic, praised Bin Chao's musicality and sound technique in his book Great Violinists in Performance, a book that analyses the 100 greatest violinists of the twentieth century, from the author's perspective.
In 1984 he came 2nd in the Second National Violin Competition of China. As a soloist, recitalist and chamber musician, he has performed throughout Europe and North America. He moved to Lisbon in 1991, and he has participated in the major music festivals in Portugal, as well as the Aspen Festival and the Schumann Festival in New York.
In 2001, he was a guest soloist at the prestigious Annual English Handbell Festival in New York. Between 1999 and 2001, he taught violin in New York, part of the Midori Foundation's initiative to bring music to public schools. He has taught at the University of Évora and, since 2007, has taught violin, viola and chamber music at the Piaget Institute. He has collaborated with the Conservatory of Music at the University of Lawrence in Appleton, Wisconsin, USA since 2010. Bin Chao plays a violin made by Carlo Giuseppe Testore in 1715.
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Martin Henneken
Cello
Martin Henneken received his first cello lessons at the age of six. He studied at the Musikhochschule Lübeck (Germany) with Troels Svane. He later studied with Reinhard Latzko at the Vienna University of Music (Austria) where he completed his Master’s degree with distinction. Musicians such as cellist Lynn Harrell and violinist Walter Levin (LaSalle Quartet) complemented his training. He has won awards several times at the German National Young Musicians Competition. He was a student of the Live Music Now Foundation created by Yehudi Menuhin.
During his studies, he played regularly with various orchestras, such as the Lübeck Philharmonic, the Volksoper Wien Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and the Symphony Orchestra of India, Mumbai. In 2009 and 2010, he was a member of the Wiener Staatsoper (Vienna Philharmonic) with which he had the opportunity to participate in recordings, international tours and festivals (Salzburg, Lucerne, BBC Proms). Since 2010, he has been 2nd Cello Soloist of the Gulbenkian Orchestra.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Le nozze di Figaro: Overture
Bassoon Concerto in B-flat major, K. 191
Édouard Lalo
Symphonie espagnole in D minor, op. 21
Winner of the Young Musicians Prize 2022, Miguel Sepúlveda conducted for the first time in the Grand Auditorium on the occasion of the announcement of the distinction that consecrates the talents that will mark the future of music in Portugal. In his debut at Gulbenkian Música, the young conductor will put his signature on the direction of two Mozart masterpieces, as well as Édouard Lalo’s Spanish Symphony, for which the French composer was inspired by the vivacity of Iberian melodies and rhythms. As soloists, two of the Gulbenkian Orchestra’s excellent musicians, Vera Dias and Bin Chao, stand out.
Sponsor Gulbenkian Music
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