The Lark Ascending
Symphonic Music in England
Event Slider
Date
- 19:00 / Cancelled 19:00 / Sold out Friday, 19:00
Location
Grand Auditorium Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation- Conductor
- Violin
- Ana Vasconcelos Presenter
-
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.
-
Pedro Neves
Conductor
Pedro Neves is Principal Conductor of the Espinho Classic Orchestra, and was invited conductor of the Gulbenkian Orchestra. Currently he is pursuing a doctoral degree at the University of Évora, researching the symphonic works of Portuguese composer Joly Braga Santos.
Pedro Neves was Principal Conductor of the Algarve Orchestra between 2011 and 2013 an is a regular guest conductor with the Gulbenkian Orchestra, in Lisbon, the Porto Symphony Orchestra of the Casa da Música, the Portuguese National Symphony, the Metropolitan Orchestra of Lisbon, the Beiras Philharmonic and the Joensuu City Orchestra (Finland).
In the contemporary music field has collaborated with Sondarte Electric Ensemble, premiering various works of both Portuguese and foreign composers, and toured Japan and South Korea with Remix, the resident new music ensemble of the Casa da Música, and with Grupo de Música Contemporânea de Lisboa.
He is the founder of Camerata Alma Mater, a string chamber orchestra based in Lisbon whose concerts have been very well received by the audience and critics.
Pedro Neves studied cello with Isabel Boiça, Paulo Gaio Lima and Marçal Cervera, respectively, at the Aveiro Music Conservatory, Lisbon National Superior Academy for Orchestra and Escuela de Música Juan Pedro Carrero in Barcelona, with the support of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. He studied conducting with Jean Marc Burfin, obtaining his degree in the Lisbon National Superior Academy for Orchestra, and with Emilio Pomàrico and Michael Zilm, of whom he was assistant. This path makes that his artistic personality is marked by a profound, consistent and serious musical interpretation.
-
Francisco Lima Santos
Violin
Born in Lisbon, he began his musical studies at the age of nine at the Fundação Musical dos Amigos das Crianças, under Ana Margarida Sanmarful. He finished his degree in violin at Lisbon Conservatory, where he studied with Khachatour Amirkhanian. He continued his studies at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in Brussels, under Yuzuko Horigome, first prize winner in the Queen Elizabeth Music Competition. He finished his studies in 2016 at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid, where he was a student of Ana Chumachenko and Zograb Tatevosyan. During his studies, he took masterclasses by Mauricio Fuks, Liviu Prunaru, Antje Weithaas, Veronika Hagen, Heime Muller, Pavel Gomziakov, Francesca Vicari and Krzysztof Wegrzyn. He was a member and scholarship holder of the Orquestra Sinfónica Juvenil, of which he was a soloist, having also performed solo in various concert halls throughout Portugal. He has been a member of Orquestra XXI since its beginning. He was a member of the European Union Youth Orchestra, with whom he played in various important European venues.
He has won prizes in the violin category in various competitions during his studies, such as the Fundão International Competition, the José Augusto Alegria Prize and the Young Musicians Prize. In 2016, he won the Vasco Barbosa Prize and in that same year he performed solo with the Portuguese Symphony Orchestra at São Carlos National Theatre. He is a member of the Artium trio, the ensemble that won the Young Musicians Prize in 2016, in the Chamber Music category.
He has played with a number of orchestras in Europe, including the Euskadi Symphony, the Belgian National Orchestra and the Munich Philharmonic. He has regularly performed in the Cantabile Festival in chamber music concerts alongside soloists such as Diemut Poppen, Ivan Monigetti, Christel Lee and Barnabas Kelemen. He has been 1st Auxiliary Soloist of the Gulbenkian Orchestra since 2017.
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Egon Wellesz
As part of the parallel programme to the exhibition British Art – Convergence, this concert brings together a native British composer, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and a composer of Austrian origin, Egon Wellesz, who emigrated to the United Kingdom in 1938.
Through the performance of significant works by both composers, the concert seeks to highlight the shared spirit of creative freedom and mutual respect fostered by life in the UK. Despite the many challenges faced by migrant and displaced artists, and much like the visual arts evoked by some of the works featured in the exhibition, the United Kingdom served as a safe haven and a secure place of work for many.
After the concert, at 20:30, there will be a guided tour of the British Art – Convergence exhibition, led by curator Ana Vasconcelos. Tickets for the tour are free and can be collected on the day, from 17:00, together with the concert ticket(s) (maximum 2 per person). Capacity: 28
Image: John Singer Sargent, «Lady and child asleep in a punt under the willows», 1887
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.