Fados

This programme is inspired by Vasco Dantas's album Scènes poétiques.

Vasco Dantas Vasco Dantas, a Portuguese pianist born in Porto, is the artistic director of the Music Series Festivals, the Algarve Music Series, and the Piano Concerto Festival.

He has won over 50 prizes and distinctions in international competitions, including: the Grand Prix of the Valletta International Piano Competition (Malta), the Special Prize of the SAR Princess Lalla Meryem International Piano Competition (Morocco), the GianClaudio Chiais International Prize (Rome), the Münster Steinway & Sons Piano Competition, the Cidade de Vigo International Piano Competition (Spain), as well as the Porto Santa Cecília and Estoril Lisbon competitions.

His performances have regularly led him to prestigious venues across five continents.

After his notable appearances at Hong Kong City Hall and the Grand Hall of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, Vasco recently performed for the first time at Carnegie Hall in New York, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris.

He has also played as a soloist with several orchestras, including the Kremlin Chamber Orchestra (Moscow), the Hong Kong Symphonia, the Südwestdeutsches Kammerorchester Pforzheim (Germany), the Gulbenkian Orchestra (Lisbon), the Porto Symphony Orchestra, the Filarmónica Portuguesa, and the Orquestra Sinfónica Espírito Santo (Brazil).

These collaborations have given him the opportunity to work with many renowned conductors, including Baldur Brönnimann, Choi Sown Le, Daniel Cohen, Dinis Sousa, Douglas Bostock, Günter Neuhold, Jan Wierzba, Joshua dos Santos, Martim Sousa Tavares, Martin André, Misha Rachlevsky, Nicholas Kok, Nikolay Lalov, Nuno Coelho, Osvaldo Ferreira, Pedro Carneiro, Pedro Neves, Peter Sauerwein, Rui Pinheiro, Vassily Sinaisky, and Victor Hugo Toro.

Vasco Dantas performed live on Portuguese national television for the first time at the age of six, having started learning piano at the age of