Percussionist, orchestra leader, composer and pedagogue. He is co-founder and artistic director of the Orquestra de Câmara Portuguesa (OCP), the inclusive ensemble Notas de Contacto, the Jovem Orquestra Portuguesa (JOP) and various social projects.

He has played and conducted more than a hundred new works and collaborates with prestigious musicians such as the Tokyo and Arditti quartets, Sofia Gubaidulina and Gustavo Dudamel, among many others. Pedro Carneiro plays and records as a guest soloist with various orchestras: Los Angeles Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, MDR-Sinfonieorchester, SWR Symphonieorchester, English Chamber Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, among others.

He performs regularly as a conductor and soloist/director, conducting concert works on the marimba. He has received the Gulbenkian Art Prize and the Medal of Honour of the City of Setúbal, among other distinctions. His extensive discography (which includes solo recordings, chamber music, concertante works and improvisation) is available on various record labels, such as ECM Records, Clean Feed and Rattle Records.

Teresa Simas is a dancer and choreographer with a diploma in advanced dance studies from the University of Lisbon (FMH). For 22 years she danced in countries such as Ukraine, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, the United States, Brazil and Portugal. She began creating at Dança Grupo as a co-creative performer in 1986.

Her work has been presented at GITIS – Moscow Institute of Dramatic Arts, where she studied; at the Purcell Room in London; at the Saaremaa Festival in Estonia; at the Belém Cultural Centre in Lisbon, and at other festivals and events. She is the author of the radio programme ‘Dança Falada, Ouvir a Dança’, broadcast by Antena 2 in 2012. She is co-founder of the Orquestra de Câmara Portuguesa, where she created the Body Awareness programme for musicians, an initiative that has been broadcast at various orchestras and international festivals.

She has been staging and choreographing OCP programmes since 2011. She has been OCP’s Executive Director of Projects and Innovation since 2007.

She founded Dança Grupo Plus in 2020.

He is co-founder and executive director of the Orquestra de Câmara Portuguesa – Associação Musical (OCP-AM).

After graduating in Philosophy from the Portuguese Catholic University, he completed postgraduate programmes at the Technical University of Lisbon in International Relations (ISCSP) and Economics and Management in Non-Profit Institutions (IDEFE/ISEG).

At OCP, he is responsible for day-to-day and strategic management tasks, such as drawing up and implementing fundraising plans, developing artistic and corporate products, approaching companies and taking commercial action, as part of the Orchestra’s support model.

He also takes part in the production of artistic activities, as well as managing and coordinating activities with musicians, promoters and other suppliers. He is involved in coordinating the OCPsolidária, Jovem Orquestra Portuguesa (JOP), OCP and OCPdois projects.

He performed with the S. Carlos National Theatre Orchestra and the R.D.P. Symphony Orchestra, where he held the position of solo trumpet from 1985 until its extinction. He collaborated regularly with the Gulbenkian Orchestra.

In Portugal, he was taught by Santiago Kastner, Elisa Lamas, Emídio Coutinho and Marcos Romão. As a scholarship holder from the Directorate-General for Cultural Affairs, he studied in Switzerland with Prof Helmut Hunger and, in the field of Early Music, with Edward Tarr.

As a soloist, he has performed with the Banda da Armada and the Pró-Música, Lisbon Chamber, R.D.P. Symphony, Sousa Carvalho, Youth Symphony and Macau Orchestras.

He taught trumpet and chamber music at the National Conservatoire, as well as at the Luísa Todi Academy and the Setúbal Regional Conservatoire.

Paulo Silva demonstrates a strong dedication to multidisciplinary knowledge, as evidenced by his academic background, having completed Civil Engineering and a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from Universidade Cruzeiro do Sul (UCS) in Brazil. He played an important role as a university monitor, assisting in the academic preparation of students, contributing to the creation of a collaborative and productive environment. In order to continue his professional development, he also obtained postgraduate degrees in Electrical Engineering, Production Engineering with an emphasis on Management, and an MBA in Logistics, consolidating a solid foundation in both the technical and administrative areas. His professional career is marked by extensive experience in the areas of Administration and Finance, working competently in process management, budget control, strategic planning and support for corporate operations. He adopts a stance based on ethics, responsibility and the continuous search for sustainable results, standing out as a well-rounded professional and citizen committed to the social and economic development of the communities in which he operates.

Nuno Zou is a young man passionate about creativity and innovation. He studied Equipment Design at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Lisbon, where he deepened his knowledge of industrial production, visual communication, and technology. Throughout his training and professional experience, he has participated in several projects that have helped him develop skills in digital illustration, 3D modelling and graphic design. He considers himself a curious, resilient person who is always willing to learn something new.

Daniela Rodrigues began her career as a dancer, studying at the National Conservatory’s Artistic Dance School, followed by a degree in dance from the Higher School of Dance in Lisbon. Enriching her artistic career with an international dimension, she undertook internships at institutions such as the Székesfehérvár Balett Színház Company (Hungary), The Royal Ballet School (London) and the Princess Grace Academy (Monaco). Alongside her artistic practice, she developed communication skills, with experience in digital marketing, social media management, event planning and public relations. She has collaborated with NiT magazine and has been part of several artistic structures as a Classical Dance Teacher in Specialised Artistic Education, as well as in Professional Education.

She is currently completing a Master’s Degree in Cultural Studies and Management at ISCTE – Lisbon University Institute and is part of the team at the Orquestra de Câmara Portuguesa – Associação Musical, where she works in the area of Communication and Public Relations, contributing to strengthening the orchestra’s institutional presence, its relationship with its audiences and the promotion of its artistic mission.

Madalena Branco, who obtained her PhD in Biology in 2001, was a post-doctoral researcher at the Biodiversity and Genetic Resources Research Centre at the University of Porto for 14 years. At the same time, she dedicated herself to photography and music has always been a great interest of hers.

Born in Lisbon but living in Porto since childhood, her collaboration with OCP began in December 2010 with the organisation of the first ‘My friend from OCP’ event – ‘Madeira that sings: the marimba’, at the OSMOPE nursery and kindergarten in Porto.

The collaboration with OCP initially developed with the recording of ‘pixels’ of OCP rehearsals, concerts and events, and evolved into a broader production collaboration. Between 2011 and 2019, she was responsible for the production of OCPsolidária at APAC in Barcelos and in 2016 she took on the great challenge of producing JOP.

Alongside organising JOP’s auditions, meetings and events, she is dedicated to following the evolution and growth of this project through statistical analysis of its composition from its inception to the present day.

Between July 2018 and December 2019, she collaborated on the production of all OCP projects, including the professional orchestra. She is currently dedicated exclusively to the JOP and the new challenges posed by its growth.

Luísa Semedo (2000) began her musical studies at the age of 9 in the Orquestra Geração project. Between 2010 and 2016, she took part in various orchestral internships, where she played as a bandleader and concertmaster. In 2015 and 2017, she took part in the Sistema Europe Youth Orchestra internship, held in Milan and Athens respectively, a project inspired by El Sistema, which brings together young musicians from various European delegations.

In 2016, she joined the professional course for string and keyboard players at the Escola Artística de Música do Conservatório Nacional, where she studied violin with professors Anne Victorino d’Almeida and Sofia Grilo. At the same institution, she studied piano with Professor Cristina Cardoso and viola d’arco with Professor Ricardo Mateus. In 2023 he completed her degree at the National Superior Academy of Orchestra, in the class of Professor José Pereira.

She has collaborated with various orchestras, including the Orquestra Metropolitana, Orquestra Gulbenkian, Orquestra Sinfonietta de Lisboa, Orquestra Municipal de Sintra, Orquestra Filarmónica Portuguesa, Grupo de Música Contemporânea de Lisboa, Orquestra Regina Coeli, Orquestra Pop Portuguesa, among others.

She has had the opportunity to work with renowned conductors such as Gustavo Dudamel, Pedro Neves, José Eduardo Gomes, Ulyses Ascanio, Filipe Coelho, António Saiote, Emilio Pomàrico, Jean-Marc Burfin, Osvaldo Ferreira, Cesário Costa, Bruno Campo, Etienne Abelin and José Olivetti, among others.

She is currently in the second year of her master’s programme in Violin and Ensemble Class Teaching at the Castelo Branco School of Applied Arts. At the same time, she teaches violin at Arca das Artes, the Crescendo Oeiras Music School and the Orquestra dos Navegadores.

Ana Maria Santos has a PhD with Distinction and Honours from Universidade de Évora. She worked with Etienne Lamaison, Harry Sparnaay at Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya and Michel Arrignon at Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofia with scholarships from Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian and Fundación Carolina. 

At the present, Ana is an invited Assistant teacher at Universidade de Évora, collaborate at Orquestra de Câmara Portuguesa under the direction of Pedro Carneiro and she works at the social and educational projects that belong to the referred Orchestra, such as, Notas de Contacto – a OCPsolidária na CerciOeiras, Novos Horizontes – a OCPsolidária no Município de Oeiras and Jovem Orquestra Portuguesa. 

In 2021 and 2022, Ana collaborated in some musical theater projects led by the violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaia and she was also invited to integrate the first Lucerne Festival Forward. Since 2017, she is invited to collaborate with the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra and, in 2016, she was invited to become a Buffet Crampon artist. Ana performed in many cities from Europe, Brasil, China, South Korea and USA that gave her the opportunity to work with Pierre Boulez, Zubin Metha, Peter Eötvos, Mathias Pintscher, Alan Gilbert, Beat Furrer, Tito Muñoz, David Robertson, Pablo Heras-Casado, Zolst Nagy, Peter Rundel ou Pascal Rophé. 

The award that Ana is more proud of is the distinction she received from Her Majesty The Queen Sofia of Spain, when she was distinguished, by Michel Arrignon, as the best student of the clarinet class, in 2012.

Born in Bahia, Brazil, he began his musical studies in 2009 at the Alto da Colina Institute in Conceição do Coité. He graduated in Music Education from the University Centre for Culture and Arts of Bahia and, in 2015, he joined the Baccarelli Institute, one of the most prestigious music schools in Brazil, where he studied with André Micheletti.

He also graduated from the Yamaha Musical programme in Music Education and holds an international certification in Cello Teaching through the Suzuki Method.

He continued his training in Portugal, studying at the Conservatório Metropolitano and the Academia Nacional Superior de Orquestra, where he obtained a degree in Orchestral Practice under the guidance of Paulo Gaio Lima and Marco Pereira.

He has performed as a soloist with several renowned orchestras, including the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra. He was a finalist in the World Music Competition Vienna 2020 and, in 2023, was distinguished by Brasa Black as one of the five young personalities with the greatest potential to transform education through music. In 2025, he was selected for a specialisation scholarship in Music Teaching by Firebird AIM.

He has collaborated with several professional orchestras, such as the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra, the Algarve Symphony Orchestra, the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra and the Heliópolis Orchestra. He has also participated in masterclasses with internationally renowned cellists such as Hans Jørgen Jensen, Pieter Wispelwey, Helga Winold, Denis Parker and Márcio Carneiro.

Carolina Godinho began her musical studies at the Baixo Alentejo Regional Conservatory in 2013. In 2021 she completed the 8th grade of her music studies at the same institution and then began her degree at the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa in the class of professors Stephen Mason and David Burt. Since then she has played in academic orchestras under the direction of conductors José Eduardo Gomes, Jean-Marc Burfin, Maxine Aulio and Vasco Azevedo. She has also developed various chamber music projects.

In 2023 she studied for a semester at the Malmö Academy of Music in Sweden. She has played in various chamber music projects under the guidance of Professor Gustav Carlsson and, also in the academic sphere, has played in orchestras with conductors Samuli Örnstrommer, Giordani Bellincampi and Matts Paulson.

Throughout her training, she took part in several masterclasses where she received guidance from renowned trumpeters and teachers such as Matthias Höfs, Phil Cobb, Paul Merkelo, Guido Segers, Stephen Schultz, Alan Thomas and Carlos Leite.

In 2023, she won a permanent position in the Jovem Orquestra Portuguesa. Since 2024, she has been teaching trumpet in the Orquestra dos Navegadores.

Frederico Lourenço graduated from ESART and was tutored by Augusto Trindade in violin and by António Carrilho and Paulo Álvares in chamber music. He has received further training in violin and chamber music masterclasses from musicians such as Olga Prats, Andrey Baranov, Tai Murray and Aníbal Lima, and has taken part in orchestral education projects developed by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the Fundación Orquesta de Extremadura (Spain), such as the Gulbenkian Internship for Orchestra and Orquesta Joven de Extremadura.

In Portugal, he performs in symphonic and chamber orchestras as tutti, bandleader or concertmaster, and in ensembles he regularly performs as first or second violin. Examples include the Orquestra de Câmara Portuguesa, Orquestra Sem Fronteiras, Orquestra do Norte, Ensemble MPMP, Coral Sinfónico de Portugal, Orquestra Bomtempo, Orquestra Sinfónica de Thomar, Lisbon Film Orchestra, Orquestra de Almada, Orquestra Promenade, La Nave Va and in ensemble in the Música de Hogwarts projects (2019-2022 Coliseu do Porto, Europarque, Altice Fórum Braga, Teatro das Figuras, C. C. Olga Cadaval, Teatro das Figuras). C. Olga Cadaval, Teatro José Lúcio da Silva, A.M. Pombal) or in the Penal Colony (2023 Teatro São Luiz, Coliseu do Porto; 2024 C.C Olga Cadaval and Almada).

Abroad, he has performed as an orchestral instrumentalist at various international festivals such as Euregio Musik Festival 2018 (Holland and Germany), Osterfestival 2017 (Germany), Al Bustan Festival 2017 (Lebanon) and Premios Fundación Princesa de Girona 2018 (Spain).

He has also been involved in social intervention through music in the special project of the National Conservatoire Orquestra Geração as a violin, violin section and orchestra teacher since 2021.

Ivan Rafael Farmhouse Branco (b. 29 March 2003, Lisbon) began his musical studies in 2010 at the Orquestra de Vialonga, a school associated with the Orquestra Geração, with Professor Rodrigo Carreira as his first teacher and later Professor Francisco Ferreira. In 2018, he joined Professor Armando Martins’ class at the Escola Profissional Metropolitana. He completed his degree at the Academia Nacional Superior de Orquestra, where he worked with professors Nuno Vaz, Daniel Canas and Luís Duarte Moreira.

He has collaborated with various Portuguese orchestras, such as Orquestra Geração, Jovem Orquestra Portuguesa, where he performed at the Young Euro Classic festival in 2022, Orquestra Sinfónica Juvenil, Orquestra Académica Metropolitana, Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa and Orquestra de Câmara de Cascais e Oeiras, and as an Academist with the Remix Ensemble in 2023 and 2024.

He has also had the opportunity to play with great conductors such as Emilio Pomàrico, Pedro Neves, Pedro Carneiro, Peter Rundell, Gustavo Dudamel, José Eduardo Gomes, Jean-Marc Burfin, Paul Daniel and Clark Rundell, among others.

He has also taken part in masterclasses with teachers such as Abel Pereira, Paulo Guerreiro, Stefan Dohr, Ignácio Garcia, Ádrian Martinez and Martin Van de Merwe.

Mariana Moita began her musical studies at the Aveiro Conservatory of Music, in the violin class of Professor Ana Sofia Mota. In 2020, she completed her undergraduate degree in Music at the Utrecht Conservatory (Netherlands) in the violin class of Professor Elisabeth Perry. In her final year of her undergraduate degree, she took part in the Erasmus program, having studied for a semester with Wibert Aerts at the Royal Conservatory of Ghent (Belgium). In 2022, she completed her master’s degree in Music Teaching at the University of Aveiro. In the 2023-24 season, she completed an internship/postgraduate degree in Advanced Orchestral Performance with the Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa, where she was temporarily integrated for the following season. She has given masterclasses with teachers such as Hagai Shaham, Erik Sluys, Alissa Margulis, Eszter Haffner, Sebastian Mueller, Eliot Lawson and Ilya Grubert. Currently, she divides her professional career between teaching music and performing in orchestras and chamber music ensembles.

Miguel José Ricardo Pires, born in Silves, began his musical studies at the age of seven at the music school of the Sociedade Filarmónica Silvense, specialising in percussion, and two years later joined its band. He later enrolled at the Lagos Music Academy, in the class of Professor Vasco Ramalho, where he completed his eighth grade in 2018. At the Espinho Music Academy, he worked for a year with Professor André Dias, before moving on to the University of Évora, where he studied with Professor Marco Fernandes. In the 2022/2023 academic year, he attended private lessons (timpani and orchestral repertoire) with Professor Miguel Herrera. He is currently studying for a Master’s Degree in Music Teaching at the School of Applied Arts (Castelo Branco), under André Dias and Bruno Costa.

In addition to participating in masterclasses and solo performances, notably John Psathas’ concert for marimba and string orchestra Djinn with the Castelo Branco Sinfonietta, he has also collaborated with the following orchestras: Algarve Wind Orchestra (OSA), Algarve Symphony Orchestra (SOA), Academy Classical Orchestra (OCDA), Southern Symphonic Band (BSS), Portuguese Symphonic Band (BSP), Conductors’ Training Course with the Nossa Senhora das Neves Philharmonic (Azores), Summer Academy – Santa Maria da Feira Youth Symphonic Band (conducted by Miguel Etchegoncelay) and the Beja Instrumentalists Course (Orchestra Internship) where he worked with conductors Fernando Marinho, Jorge Salgueiro, Henrie Adams, Paulo Martins, among others.

He is currently a percussionist with the Sociedade Musical e Recreio Popular de Paderne and a member of the KODU Percussion Group. In 2025, he won 1st place in the Young Musicians Award and 2nd place in the “Síntese Música Contemporânea” competition.

He also collaborates with the Filarmónica Nossa Senhora das Neves (Azores) and the Sociedade Filarmónica Recreio Alverquense (Alverca), where in 2014 he won 1st prize in the third category and in 2016 won 2nd prize in the second category in the Zamora International Philharmonic Band Competition (Spain).

Student of Jacques Zoon at Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofia (2008-2013) with scholarships from Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian and Fundación Carolina. In 2009 and 2010, he received the prize as the most outstanding student of the flute class from the hands of Your Majesty The Queen Sofia of Spain.

Rui is a member of the Orquestra de Câmara Portuguesa, under the direction of Pedro Carneiro and he also collaborated in the social projects led by the referred orchestra such as Notas de Contacto: a OCPsolidária na CERCIOEIRAS and Novos Horizontes: a OCPsolidária no Município de Oeiras.

Rui played in Orquestra de Câmara de Cascais e Oeiras (2003-2006), in Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa (2011) and in Plural Ensemble (2013-2019). 

Member of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra (Switzerland), under the direction of Cláudio Abbado, Bernard Haitink, Andris Nelsons, Riccardo Chailly, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Jakub Hrusa and Paavo Järvi.

As a freelancer he collaborated with several orchestras such as, Saito Kinen Orchestra (Japan), Norwegian Radio Orchestra (Norway), Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra Mozart (Italy) Orquestra Gulbenkian, Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa, Orquesta Cadaqués, Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid (Spain), Ensemble MidVest (Denmark) and Ensemble Perspektive (Germany) that gave him the opportunity to play with prestigious conductors like Seiji Ozawa, Zubin Mehta, Peter Eötvos, Fabio Luisi, Zsolt Nagy, Pablo Heras-Casado, Zoltan Kocsis or Peter Rundel.

Sofia Franco Ruivo (1998) is a young violinist fascinated by the orchestral and chamber music repertoire.

She is a member of the Portuguese Chamber Orchestra and collaborates in several of the association’s projects, as a coach for the social project “Orquestra dos Navegadores” and “Sementes”, and for thePortuguese Youth Orchestra (JOP).

As a member of the Portuguese Youth Orchestra, she performed at various festivals such as the Young Euro Classic at the Kozerthaus in Berlin, the Vara Magica International Festival at the Romanian Athenaeum in Bucharest and the Kultur Sommer Nord Hesse at the Kongress Palais Kassel. Throughout her career, she has also had the opportunity to work with such conducters as Gustavo Dudamel (Orquestra del Encuentro 2021), Gábor Takács-Nagy (Orchestre de la HEM), Cristian Mandeal (Orchestra Română de Tineret) and Marc Piollet (Wiener Jeunesse Orchester). 

In 2022, she completed her Master’s degree at the Haute école de Musique de Genève, where she studied with Sasha Rozhdestvensky and had the opportunity to study baroque violin with Florence Malgoire. Throughout her training, she was a member of Quatuor Niji, in the classes of Gabor Takács-Nagy and Quatuor Voce, and Trio Hodler, studying with Diana Ketler, Noémie Bialobroda and Nina Uhari. As a member of both groups, she had the opportunity to benefit from the advice of musicians such as Ophélie Gaillard, Claire Désert, Luc-Marie Aguera and Bruno Giuranna.

Vasco Ferrão (b. 2002) performs regularly as a soloist, chamber musician and recitalist in venues such as the Grand Auditorium of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Casa da Música, C.C. Olga Cadaval, Dusseldörf Tonhalle and Milton Court Concert Hall. With Da Caprio, a piano trio of which he is co-founder, he has won several competitions, including the Antena 2 Young Musicians Award. In its first international appearance, the group was invited to perform at the Schumannfest festival.

He began learning the cello with Marília Peixoto and had the opportunity to take lessons with Paulo Gaio Lima, Xavier Gagnepain, Pieter Wispelwey, among others. He learned chamber music with Anna Tomasik, Pedro Carneiro, the groups Trio Catch, Lutosławski Duo, Endellion Quartet, among others. He has had the opportunity to work closely with musicians such as András Keller, Richard Tognetti (with the Australian Chamber Orchestra), Emilio Pomàrico, and Alfred Brendel. In 2020, he settled in London to study cello with Adrian Brendel and Louise Hopkins, and orchestral conducting with David Corkhill and Tim Redmond at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, kindly supported by the Guildhall School Trust. He also studied vibraphone and jazz piano with pianists Kate Williams and Barry Green. In 2023, he was invited by Robert Levin to participate in his class ‘Bach’s Tonal Universe’.

As a young conductor, he has conducted concerts in Portugal, the United Kingdom and Germany. He currently works as assistant conductor of the Portuguese Chamber Orchestra and the Portuguese Youth Orchestra, having made his debut with the latter at the Grand Auditorium of the Belém Cultural Centre, the Konzerthaus in Berlin and the Kultursommer Nordhessen festival
in Kassel. He was a member of the JOP between 2017 and 2022.