Gulbenkian Orchestra Soloists
Mozart / Poulenc
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Date
- 20:00 / Cancelled 20:00 / Sold out Monday, 20:00
Location
Grand Auditorium Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation- Flute
- Oboe
- Clarinet
- Bassoon
- French horn
- Paulo Oliveira Piano
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Sónia Pais
Flute
Sónia Oliveira Pais (b. 1998) is the Gulbenkian Orchestra’s co-principal flute soloist. She is also currently pursuing a master’s degree at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich (HMTM) under Andrea Lieberknecht and is a member of the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, a German youth orchestra.
She studied at the Mendelssohn-Orchesterakademie, the academy of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig (2021/22), during which she recorded a CD for Deutsche Grammophon of Schubert’s Symphonies No. 8 and 9 under the direction of Herbert Blomstedt.
Throughout her career, she has played for orchestras such as the Gustav Mahler Academy (2019 and 2020) and the Orquesta Joven de la Sinfonica de Galicia (2016). She was invited to play with the Dresdner Philharmonie, Tchaikovsky International Orchester Ekaterinburg, Orquestra Clássica de Espinho and the Orchester der Russisch-Deutsche MusikAkademie – a project led by Valery Gergiev in collaboration with the Mariinsky Orchestra.
Of the Portuguese and international competitions she has taken part in, she won 1st Prize and the prize for “Excellence” – category A at the Gondomar International Music Competition and 3rd Prize at Finland’s Tampere Flute Fest – Piccolo Orchestral Competition.
She began studying music at the age of 7 at the Sociedade Filarmónica Fraternidade de São João de Areias in Santa Comba Dão in Portugal. Two years later, she entered the Conservatório de Música e Artes do Dão and later enrolled at the Escola Profissional de Música de Espinho under Paulo Barros. In 2017, she was admitted into the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin, in the class of Benoît Fromanger, where she graduated with a first class degree. During this period, she received a scholarship for artistic merit from the Lucia-Loeser Stipendium.
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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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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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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.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Quintet for Piano and Winds in E-flat major, K. 452
Francis Poulenc
Sextet for Piano and Winds, FP 100
VIDEO
The Gulbenkian Orchestra consists of professional 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
Sponsor Gulbenkian Orchestra
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