Cesário Costa

Cesário Costa has distinguished himself as one of the most active Portuguese conductors of his generation. After completing his Piano studies, in Paris, decided to take an Orchestral Conducting Course and a Master’s degree at the Würzburg University of Music.Recently, he took a PhD at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, with a thesis “Noble et Sentimental: Pedro de Freitas Branco and the question of interpretation in the orchestral music of Maurice Ravel”. In 1997, he was holder of the Bayreuther Festspielen scholarship and he won the III Fundação Oriente International Competition for Young Conductors and has been invited to conduct countless national and international orchestras. His repertoire spans from the Baroque to Contemporary, including over one-hundred and thirty pieces which have been performed for the first time. However, as well as an orchestra conductor, he has carried out other teaching and music programming roles at different institutions. He was President of the Metropolitana/Association of Music, Education and Culture, an institution which is managed by the Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa (where he was also the Artistic Director), Academia Nacional Superior de Orquestra, Escola Profissional Metropolitana and Conservatório da Metropolitana. He was the Artistic Director and Chief Conductor for the Orquestra do Algarve, Orquestra Clássica do Sul, Orquestra Clássica de Espinho, Orquestra de Câmara Musicare, Artistic Director of the Coliseu do Porto’s Promenade Concerts and chief conductor of OrchestrUtópica. At the same time, he has held teaching roles at different schools and was a professor at the Universidade Católica Portuguesa. He is currently a integrated reseacher at CESEM (Centre for Study of Sociology and Aesthetics of Music), Artistic Director of In Spiritum – Porto’s Music Festival, Director and Chief Conductor of the Orquestra Sinfónica Ensemble and Director and Chief Conductor of the Orquestra Bomtempo.In the last few years, Cesário Costa has conducted, to name a few, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Berliner Symphoniker, Nürnberger Symphoniker, Göteborg Opera Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa and Gulbenkian Orchestra. In the field of contemporary music, he has performed with different groups, such as the Remix Orquestra, Ensemble für Neue Musik, Arhus Sinfonietta, the Plural Ensemble and the Barcelona Modern Project. He has performed in Spain, France, Andorra, Germany, Scotland, Belgium, the UK, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Macedonia, Poland, Latvia, Romania, Albania, Malaysia, Brazil, Mexico, Cabo Verde, Mozambique, China, Turkey, Serbia, Russia, Argentina and Canada, his main concern always being to publicize national pieces in the programmes he performs.