Jovem Orquestra Portuguesa

The direction he would go in was clear even before he began his studies – literally: definitely south! He began with a year of community service in Bolivia. Then Andreas Wunn studied political sciences in Berlin and – hungry to see the world – in Tokyo. Full of these impressions, he began his ZDF career in 2002, working as a reporter in the foreign policy department, then moderating the show heute in Europa and, as a substitute, the auslandsjournal. After five years, he became managing editor of the main editorial office, and thus took on the management of all the ZDF information shows. In the meantime, he has been Managing Editor of the ZDF Morgenmagazin since the end of 2016. Before that happened, however, he had to give in to his longing for faraway places one more time: for six years, he was the South American correspondent, heading the ZDF studio in Rio de Janeiro. There he reported on the saving of 33 Chilean mine workers in the Atacama dessert, the football World Cup in Brazil in 2014 and the Olympic Games in 2016. His book Brasilien für Insider became a SPIEGEL bestseller, which is hardly a surprise, given his conviction that “Despite its many social problems – Rio de Janeiro is the most beautiful city in the world to me.” So it all works out: his wife, after all, is Brazilian.

© Patricia Andrade

The Portuguese conductor Pedro Carneiro, born in the capital of Lisbon in 1975, has pursued a double career in music. On the one hand, he is an internationally celebrated percussionist who performs at all the major concert halls between the USA, Japan and Australia. More than 100 world premieres demonstrate his special position as a member of the musical avant-garde, as do his collaborations with the Arditti Quartet, the Tokyo String Quartet and the Chilingirian Quartet. The percussionist has a special love for improvisation, often in combination with live electronics or other innovative technologies. On the other hand, Carneiro has launched a career as a conductor during recent years. The Portuguese Chamber Orchestra (Orquestra de Câmara Portuguesa) was founded at his initiative and has its own concert series at the Centro Cultural de Belém in Lisbon. Not least, the Portuguese multi-talent composes orchestral and chamber music and directs the percussion festival “Bang Crash Splash!” in Lisbon.

www.pedrocarneiro.com

Born in 1999 in Coimbra, Maria Diz began her oboe lessons at the age of eight at the Coimbra Conservatory, where she is still a student today. She has been a member of the Portuguese Youth Orchestra since 2014.

© Paula Silva

The clarinettist Telmo Costa is a student at the Music Academy of Paços de Brandão and has also been a member of the Portuguese Youth Orchestra since 2014. Costa has won several international awards; a scholarship has taken him to the Guildhall School of Music in London. In 2016 he was also a member of the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester.

© Florival Semedo

Aged 20, Rúben Valério began taking tuba lessons at the age of 14 in his hometown of Covilhã. Today he studies at the Lisbon Music Academy with Adélio Carneiro. Since 2014 Rúben Valério has been a member of the Portuguese Youth Orchestra.

Originally from Coimbra, the harpist Beatriz Cortesão is currently in the last year of studies at the Conservatory of her hometown. She joined the Portuguese Youth Orchestra in 2014. Beatriz Cortesão also works with professional orchestras, such as the Orquestra Filarmonia das Beiras, the Orquestra do Norte and the Orquestra Clássica do Centro.

The double bass player José Trigo began taking lessons in Vale do Ave at the age of eleven; today he studies at the Mannheim Music Academy. In 2015 he won the Vasco Barbosa Competition in Lisbon, followed by the first prize at the Sergey Koussevitzky Competition in St. Petersburg in 2016. José Trigo has already been a member of numerous national youth orchestras; he also performs regularly with the Portuguese Chamber Orchestra and the Georgian Chamber Orchestra Ingolstadt.