BIOGRAPHY
Portuguese
clarinetist, conductor and composer, Luís
Carvalho is one of the most versatile musicians of the younger generation.
He appears in recitals and concerts all over Europe, North Africa, Middle-East
and Asia, many times premiering his own pieces, or by other Portuguese and
foreign composers. Many of those pieces were recorded and Mr. Carvalho appears
on over a dozen CDs, as clarinetist, conductor or composer.
A
native of Oporto he studied clarinet with António
Saiote and composition with Fernando
Lapa, having also attended lectures and workshops by such eminent composers
as Magnus Lindberg (Finland) and Luis de Pablo (Spain).
By
1994 he was awarded the «Prize for the best student of the year», and that was
followed by many other distinctions, namely at the «Estoril Interpretation
Competition» (2001) and the «Póvoa de Varzim Orchestral Composition
International Competition» (2009).
In
St. Petersburg, Milan and Madrid he studied orchestral conducting under Jorma Panula, Leif Segerstam and Jesús López-Cobos,
and furthered his studies in contemporary music conducting under Arturo Tamayo, also in Madrid.
Mr.
Carvalho appeared in several conducting competitions, namely in Trento (Italy)
at the 9 th Antonio Pedrotti International Conducting Competition(2006), ending up in the final ten quarter-finalists, at the 4 th Jorma Panula International Conducting Competition (2009) in Vaasa
(Finland) classifying at the final 20 candidates invited to participate. He
also took part at the 8 th Cadaqués International
Conducting Competition in Spain (2006).
His
debut on the podium happened on 1999 when he led, at short notice, the Filarmonia das Beiras chamber orchestra
(Aveiro-Portugal). Since then he returns regularly to conduct there always to
much appreciation of the audiences, and the high point of this collaboration
was the premiere, in 2004, of the opera «Tale of the Foundation of the City of
Coimbra» by Manuel Faria, a piece that albeit written in the 60’s remained
unheard for over forty years. This production was released on CD, and some of
the finest Portuguese singers joined Mr. Carvalho for this event, namely Elsa
Saque, Carlos Guilherme, Wagner Diniz and Isabel Alcobia.
Other
operatic/scenic highlights of the past seasons include Wolf-Ferrari’s «Il
Secreto di Susanna» and Poulenc’s « La Voix Humaine » at the Museum Lyric Season-2007 ( Oporto ), as well as a national tour with Schoenberg’s
«Pierrot Lunaire» and Joaquina Ly as soloist (2004).
Future
engagements to mention include Stravinsky’s opera «Mavra» with the Aveiro
University Wind Orchestra and Singers class.
On
the concert hall previous events to be mentioned comprise the premiere of Mr.
Carvalho’s own «Fantastic Variations» for symphonic winds by the Portuguese Symphony Band conducted by
the composer himself (2009), Jonathan Harvey’s «Timepieces» for orchestra with
2 conductors (assisting Oporto National
Orchestra‘s principal conductor Christoph
König-2009), the closing concert of the Autumn Festival at Aveiro (2008) with Joly Braga Santos 4 th Symphony, Nielsen’s 4 th Symphony at Casa da
Música in Oporto (2008), Mahler’s 4 th Symphony at the Aveiro University academic year closing concert (2007),
Shostakovich’s 9 th Symphonyat S. Petersburg (2006) and Stravinsky’s Mass(2006).
Mr.
Carvalho has served as assistant conductor to Marko Letonja and the Portuguese Symphony Orchestra and Choir
in Mahler’s «2 nd Symphony» (Lisbon-2001), and the Oporto National Orchestra and Michael
Zilm in Mahler’s «6 th Symphony» (Oporto-2007).
His
own engagements include some of the finest Portuguese orchestras, such as the Oporto National Orchestra, the Algarve Orchestra, the Portuguese Chamber Orchestra, the Aveiro University Academic Symphony
Orchestra and Choir, and the Aveiro
University Wind Orchestra, while elsewhere he appears at St. Petersburg
(Russia) with the State Academic
Symphony Orchestra and the S.
Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic, at Trento (Italy) with the Ensemble Zandonai and the J. Futura Youth Orchestra, at Madrid
with the Orquesta-Escuela
da Sinfónica de Madrid, at Milan with the I Pomeriggi Musicali, at Budapest with the Ungarischen Symphonieorchester Budapest, and at Vaasa (Finland)
with the Sinfonia Finlandia Jyväskylä.
Mr.
Carvalho’s repertoire ranges from Bach to Boulez, and furthermore he has
conducted a great deal of Portuguese music, some of which in premiere
auditions. Major future plans include Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde (several concerts in Portugal and Spain – Summer/2010) with
soloists Dora Rodrigues and Mário Alves, and the premiere of a new version of
Mahler’s 10 th Symphonyfor chamber ensemble by Luís Carvalho himself, as part of the Mahler jubilee
years (Aveiro – Spring/2011). He will also return to most of the Portuguese
orchestras whom he works with regularly, and is preparing the CD recording of
his orchestral piece «Metamorphoses… homage à M. C. Escher» for chamber
orchestra, while another new work for symphony orchestra is scheduled to be
premiered early in 2011. Mr. Carvalho has, furthermore, composed other
orchestral pieces, and chamber music mainly for clarinet ensemble and clarinet
quartet, as well as for saxophone quartet, horn quartet and wind quintet.
Mr.
Carvalho is principal conductor and responsible tutor for the Aveiro University Wind Orchestra since
2006, and presently is working on a PhD dissertation upon Mahler’s 10 th Symphony, on the scope
of which he will realize a new orchestration of the work.