St. John's Passion
Gulbenkian Orchestra and Choir
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Date
- 20:00 / Cancelled 20:00 / Sold out Tuesday, 20:00
- 20:00 / Cancelled 20:00 / Sold out Wednesday, 20:00
- 20:00 / Cancelled 20:00 / Sold out Thursday, 20:00
Location
Grand Auditorium Calouste Gulbenkian FoundationPricing
25% – Under 30
10% – Over 65
Cartão Gulbenkian:
50% – Under 30
15% – Over 65
- Conductor
- Soprano
- Countertenor
- Tenor
- Marco Alves dos Santos Tenor
- Hugo Oliveira Baritone
- Baritone
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Gulbenkian Choir
Coro Gulbenkian was founded in 1964 by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation as a full symphonic body of around 100 singers. The choir joins the Orquestra Gulbenkian and other orchestras to perform Classical, Romantic and Contemporary choral-symphonic repertoire, but can also perform a cappella. It has performed – and often premiered – many 20th century works by Portuguese and international composers.
Coro Gulbenkian has been invited to collaborate with major international orchestras, under the direction of conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Colin Davis, John Nelson, Emmanuel Krivine, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Frans Brüggen, Franz Welser-Möst, Gerd Albrecht, Michael Gielen, Michael Tilson Thomas, Rafael Frübeck de Burgos, René Jacobs and Leonard Slatkin, among others.
Besides its regular season of concerts in Lisbon and frequent national tours, Coro Gulbenkian has repeatedly toured Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Japan, Macao, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Uruguay.
Coro Gulbenkian has recorded extensively for Philips, Deutsche Grammophon, Erato, Cascavelle, Musifrance, as well as FNAC-Music, performing a wide range of repertoire, from Early-Renaissance polyphony to Xenakis. Several of these albums received international awards.
Michel Corboz was the Principal Conductor between 1969 and 2019. Jorge Matta and Inês Tavares Lopes are currently the Associate and Assistant conductors, respectively.
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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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Risto Joost
Conductor
The young Estonian conductor Risto Joost excels by his specialized versatility and has gained widespread recognition for his work both in the opera pit and on concert stage. The trained singer and Conductor in Residence of the Estonian National Opera has already held major artistic positions, such as Chief Conductor of the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra and Artistic Director of the MDR Leipzig Radio Choir from 2015 to 2019. He succeeded at important competitions and conducted some of the world’s most distinguished orchestras. Since 2020/21 Risto Joost is Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of Theatre Vanemuine Tartu.
Risto Joost is in demand as a guest conductor with orchestras such as Helsinki Philharmonic, Bergen Philharmonic, Norwegian Opera Orchestra, Tampere Philharmonic, Tapiola Sinfonietta,Trondheim Symphony, Netherlands Philharmonic, Noord Nederlands Orkest, Dortmund Philharmonic, Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn, Gulbenkian Orchestra & Choir, Prague Radio Symphony, Janacek Philharmonic, Brno Philharmonic, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra Teatro la Fenice, Latvian National Symphony, Liepaja Symphony, Estonian National Symphony among others.
In addition he collaborated with the RIAS Kammerchor, SWR Vokalensemble, Rundfunkchor Berlin, Swedish Radio Choir, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir to name a few.
At the Estonian National Opera Risto Joost has led more than 20 premieres. His repertoire ranges from Baroque to the most challenging works of contemporary composers. At the Birgitta Festival Tallinn he led La Bohème in 2018.
Forthcoming highlights are his debuts with Bavarian State Opera Orchestra Munich, Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen, Philharmonie Zuidnederland, Kristiansand Symphony (Don Giovanni) and engagements to Slovenian Philharmonic & Choir, Gulbenkian Orchestra & Choir, WKO Heilbronn, Jyväskylä Sinfonia, Liepaja Symphony, Janacek Philharmonic etc.
At Theatre Vanemuine he conducts the premiere of Tonis Kaumann: The Mall as well as revivals of Tristan und Isolde, Don Giovanni, Madame Butterfly, Donizetti: Linda di Chamounix among others.
Risto Joost’s discography includes three albums by Tõnu Korvits: You are Light and Morning (Sei la luce e il mattino) with Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Hymns to the Nordic Lights with Estonian National Symphony as well as Moorland Elegies (all Ondine).
Furthermore it contains works by Haydn with Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Peeter Vähi with Latvian National Symphony, Arvo Pärt with Netherlands Chamber Orchestra & Netherlands Chamber Choir.
For his artistic activities in Estonia and abroad, Risto Joost received the music award of the Cultural Foundation in Estonia in 2016 and was awarded the Young Cultural Figure Award of the Estonian Republic in 2011. He was Prizewinner of the Malko Conducting Competition 2015 and Jorma Panula Conducting Competition 2012.
Risto Joost has studied at the Estonian Academy of Music and received further training at the University for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. In 2008, Risto Joost graduated from the Royal College of Music in Stockholm with a Masters Degree, majoring in orchestral conducting with Jorma Panula.
He founded the chamber choir Voces Musicales/Voces Tallinn in Estonia in 1999 and has been Artistic Director of the Birgitta Festival Tallinn in 2017 and 2018.
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Sandrine Piau
Soprano
A renowned figure in the world of Baroque music, French soprano Sandrine Piau regularly performs with celebrated conductors such as William Christie, Philippe Herreweghe, Christophe Rousset, Gustav Lleonhardt, Ivor Bolton, Ton Koopman, René Jacobs, Marc Minkowski and Nikolaus Harnoncourt.
Ms. Piau embraces both lyric and Baroque repertoires. The roles she has performed include Cleopatra (Giulio Cesare) at the Opéra national de Paris, Mélisande in Nice and at la Monnaie, Ännchen (Der Freischütz), Pamina (Die Zauberflôte) and her debut as Donna Anna (Don Giovanni) at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées; the title role of L’Incoronazione di Poppea in Cologne; Sandrina in a new production of La Finta Giardiniera at La Monnaie, Ismène (Mitridate, Re di Ponto) at the Grand Théâtre de Genève and Sophie in Massenet’s Werther at both the Capitole de Toulouse and the Théâtre du Châtelet.
Sandrine Piau regularly appears in concert. In recent years she has performed at the Salzburg Festival, Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Covent Garden Festival, Musikverein, Paris’ Salle Pleyel, Festival de Saint Denis, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Teatro Communale in both Florence and Bologna and with the world’s most prestigious orchestras including Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris and Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Ms. Piau takes great pleasure in the art of recital. As a singer of both French and German repertoire, she has performed with many renowned accompanists including Jos van Immerseel, Roger Vignoles Corine Durous and Susan Manoff.
Sandrine Piau was given the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres in 2006 and was named “Lyrical Artist of the Year” in the Victoires de la Musique Classique award ceremony in 2009.
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Martin Karu
Contratenor
Estonian countertenor Martin Karu is an exciting young musician whose artistry can be seen and heard on many international stages.
Even though currently studying at the Guildhall School Of Music and Drama in London he is already an active member of the Estonian music society. Since 2020, when Karu started at the GSMD his teacher has been countertenor Andrew Watts. Karu began taking opera singing lessons in Estonia at the Georg Ots Tallinn Music College in 2015. His teachers were conductor Risto Joost and soprano Eha Pärg.
Karu is an emerging artist whose list of repertoire expands every day. Starting with the compositions of the Early Renaissance era and ending with contemporary, experimental classical music, he has done everything in-between. Baroque operas, oratorios, songs, music from the 19th-21st century are all in his portfolio.
Karu's first solo concert happened in 2018 at the Viljandi Early Music Festival with viola da gamba consort väikerinG. At the end of the year, Karu debuted as a soloist in G. F. Handel's oratorio Messiah. Since then Martin has participated numeral times at the Early Music Festival Tallinn feat Reval and has performed on several occasions with the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Tallinn Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra and Tallinn Baroque Orchestra conducted by Tõnu Kaljuste. In 2021 countertenor Martin Karu shared the stage with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Risto Joost. The same year Karu made his first public appearance in England at the JAM on the Marsh multi-art festival in Kent, where he performed Chichester Psalms by Leonard Bernstein. The following year he sang the role of Hamor in G. F. Händel's oratorio Jephtha with the Dorking Choral Society and took part in the Music at Oxford festival's concert called Da Pacem Domine where Karu performed "My Heart's in the Highlands" by Arvo Pärt.
Karu is the semi-finalist in the Handel Singing Competition (2022, London).
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Conny Thimander
Tenor
Conny Thimander is a Swedish tenor specializing in the creation of eccentric characters on stage. He received his Master of Arts degree from the Opera Academy in Stockholm and was awarded second prize in the Gösta Winbergh Award competition as well as the Bayreuth Scholarship from the Swedish Wagner Society.
The 2025/2026 season opened with a revival of Rufus Wainwright’s nostalgic and hypnotic opera Prima Donna at the Royal Swedish Opera, where Conny returned as the journalist André, a character with ambiguous motives. At the same house he also appeared in the celebration concert Nicolai Gedda 100 år, marking the centenary of the legendary Swedish tenor.
Conny was then reinvited to the Finnish National Opera to sing the role of Lars in Marc-Anthony Turnage and Lee Hall’s adaptation of Thomas Vinterberg’s haunting, Oscar-winning film Festen. The season concludes with an opera adaptation of the Challenger catastrophe by composer Joel Thoor Engström and librettist Sigrid Herrault, in which he portrays the troubled manager of the rocket company Thiokol. The summer will be spent as Spoletta in Tosca at the enormous outdoor stage of Hedeland, south of Copenhagen.
His unusual scenic presence has lent itself to characters such as Flute in Peter Hall’s legendary production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Malmö Opera (2021); the Police Inspector, the extreme role in Shostakovich’s The Nose at the Royal Danish Opera (2022); Orfeo in a performance version of Orfeo, Lollike’s final production as director of Sort/Hvid (2023); Pong in Turandot at Malmö Opera (2024) and the Royal Swedish Opera (2013); Mercury in Orpheus in the Underworld at Malmö Opera (2020); Philipp von Hessen in the Luther opera Schlagt sie tot! at Malmö Opera (2019); the Holy Fool in Boris Godunov, directed by Peter Konwitschny at Gothenburg Opera (2018); Tanzmeister and Scaramuccio in Ariadne auf Naxos at Gothenburg Opera (2018); Remendado in Carmen at Malmö Opera (2018) and the Royal Swedish Opera (2012); Sandon in the Swedish national opera Aniara at Malmö Opera (2017); Trotteltroll in Die Schneekönigin at Deutsche Oper am Rhein (2016); Niko and Hüseyin in Gegen die Wand at Deutsche Oper am Rhein (2014); Mond in Vom Mädchen, das nicht schlafen wollte at Deutsche Oper am Rhein (2014) and later again at Theater Bonn (2016); and Demo – the stuttering hunchback – in Il Giasone at Drottningholm Palace Theatre (2012).
The lyrical quality of his voice and his exquisite musicality have shaped roles such as Tamino in The Magic Flute at the Royal Swedish Opera (2013–2014) and Piccolo Regio (2010); Ferrando in Così fan tutte at Jyske Opera (2015); Lindoro in a youth adaptation of L’italiana in Algeri at the Baden-Baden Festspielhaus (2017); André in Rufus Wainwright’s opera Prima Donna at the Royal Swedish Opera (2021); and Ramiro in La Cenerentola at Folkoperan (2024) and Opera Hedeland (2024).
On the concert stage he has performed most of the major oratorios, with the role of the Evangelist in the Passions by J.S. Bach becoming one of his specialties. He has appeared at the Berliner Philharmonie, Royal Albert Hall, Tokyo Bunka Kaikan and the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, together with Staatskapelle Berlin, the Swedish Radio Choir and Orchestra, the Orchestra and Choir of the Gulbenkian Foundation, Aalborg Symphony Orchestra, Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, Copenhagen Phil, Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Baroque Orchestra, Eric Ericson Chamber Choir and the Copenhagen Boys Choir.
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André Baleiro
Baritone
André Baleiro is the winner of the 17th International Robert Schumann Competition (Zwickau, 2016), the 9th Portuguese Rotary Foundation Vocal Competition (Lisbon, 2016), and the Most Promising Talent Prize at the prestigious International DAS LIED Competition (Heidelberg, 2017), as well as the SWR Young Opera Stars Competition (Kaiserslautern, 2019). He was awarded Second Prize at both the Helmut Deutsch International Lied Competition (Vienna, 2021) and the Schubert and Modern Music International Chamber Music Competition (Graz, 2022).
On the operatic stage, he has stood out with his interpretations of PELLÉAS (Pelléas et Mélisande, Debussy), VALENTIN (Faust, Gounod), FORD (Falstaff, Verdi), ORPHÉE (Philip Glass), TARQUINIUS (The Rape of Lucretia) and NED KEEN (Peter Grimes, Britten), as well as FIGARO (Il barbiere di Siviglia, Rossini), performing in venues such as the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, the Gulbenkian Foundation, and the Centro Cultural de Belém in Lisbon, the Munich Kammeroper, the Teatro Pérez Galdós in Las Palmas, Theater Trier in Germany, and the Wrocław Opera in Poland.
His broad concert repertoire includes Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine, J. S. Bach’s Passions, Handel’s oratorios, Mozart and Dvořák Masses, Berlioz’s L’enfance du Christ, Vaughan Williams’s Dona nobis pacem, the Requiems of Fauré, Duruflé and Brahms, Ravel’s Don Quichotte à Dulcinée, Schönberg’s Gurrelieder, Orff’s Carmina Burana, and Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen.
He has collaborated with conductors such as Michel Corboz, Stefan Blunier, Frédéric Chaslin, Graeme Jenkins, Antonio Pirolli, Joana Carneiro, Nabil Shehata, Lorenzo Viotti, Dinis Sousa, Nuno Coelho, Peter Dijkstra, and Jonathan Bloxham.
He regularly performs in recital with various pianists, presenting a repertoire spanning a wide range of languages, styles, and periods. Notable among these are his long-standing collaborations with João Paulo Santos and David Santos. He also has a strong focus on modern and contemporary vocal music, having worked on several occasions with the Liederwerkstatt project led by Axel Bauni at the Kissinger Sommer Festival in Germany, where he premiered new works for voice and piano by composers such as Steffen Schleiermacher, Manfred Trojahn, and Luca Lombardi.
André Baleiro studied Voice at the University of the Arts (UdK) Berlin under baritone Siegfried Lorenz, and deepened his Lied repertoire with Eric Schneider. He has attended masterclasses with renowned singers such as Tom Krause, Ian Bostridge, Lorenzo Regazzo, and José van Dam.
He is currently continuing his technical and artistic development with Snežana Stamenković. In 2025, André Baleiro performed the baritone part in Britten’s War Requiem and the role of Faust in Schumann’s Szenen aus Goethes Faust at Teatro Camões in Lisbon. He also portrayed Miller in Verdi’s Luisa Miller at the Luzern Theatre (Switzerland).
Upcoming engagements include song recitals at the Espinho Auditorium, the Centro Cultural de Belém, the Marvão International Music Festival, and the Alcobaça Festival, featuring Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn.
Johann Sebastian Bach
St John Passion, BWV 245
In July 2022, the Estonian conductor Risto Joost conducted the Gulbenkian Choir and Orchestra in the Mass in B Minorby J. S. Bach at the end of the celebrations of the 3rd anniversary of the inscription of the Royal Building of Mafra on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. In March 2003 he had his premiere in the Gulbenkian Grand Auditorium, conducting Mozart’s Requiem. Recognised for his versatility, he has built a fruitful relationship with the baroque and classical repertoire, returning in 2024 to conduct one of J. S. Bach’s greatest choral works, the St John Passion.
Sponsor Gulbenkian Music
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