Bernardo Santos

Biography

Bernardo Santos is currently taking part of the Doctoral Programme in Music – Performance (PhD) at the University of Aveiro. Bernardo graduated from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London, Conservatori del Liceu in Barcelona and from the University of Aveiro (Aveiro City Prize), having studied with Deniz Gelenbe, Josep Colom, Álvaro Teixeira Lopes and Klara Dolynay. During his studies, Bernardo Santos was a Trinity College London Scholar and a recipient of scholarships from Fundação GDA and Fundação Dionísio Pinheiro e Alice Cardoso Pinheiro.

His academic interests include research on famed Portuguese composers Berta Alves de Sousa and Frederico de Freitas, being responsible for the critical edition and publishing of works of both composers. He was responsible for teaching masterclasses in several music schools and universities in Portugal and Brazil.

Bernardo has performed recitals in over four continents and more than ten countries, in venues such as the Casa da Música, Convento de São Francisco, Teatro Rivoli in Portugal; Sala Cecília Meireles, Amazon Theatre and Palácio das Artes in Brazil; Farfield Halls, Royal Albert Hall and St. James Piccadilly Church in London, National Concert Hall and the Tonhalle Düsseldorf. Bernardo also had the opportunity to play with the Minas Gerais Symphony Orchestra, Amazon Chamber Orchestra, Vidin State Philarmonic Orchestra, Orquestra Clássica do Centro and Orquestra Filarmonia das Beiras, having played under the baton of Antonio Vassalo Lourenco, Artur Pinho Maria, Bruno Martins, Charles Gambetta, David Wyn Lloyd, Hilo Carriel, Kira Omelchenko, Marcelo de Jesus, Miguel Campos Neto and Silvio Viegas. Bernardo Santos has been invited as a guest artist in festivals in Europe, Asia and South America and invited as the Artist in Residence 2017 of the Dionisio Pinheiro Foundation, in Agueda, Portugal.

Bernardo Santos also participated in the project “Curtas” of the composer and guitarist Israel Costa Pereira, having recorded a CD of this project.

Doctoral Project

Title
“Impressionista, nacionalista, neoclássico, expressionista” Styles and contexts in Ruy Coelho’s works for piano and piano concertante

Advisor
Helena Marinho

Abstract
This research project seeks to understand how the political, aesthetic and interpretative contexts relating to Ruy Coelho influenced the creation of a specific piano writing style by the composer and what reflections the characterization and contextualization of the repertoire in question have for a performative approach to Ruy Coelho’s work. No study still analyzes, catalogs and draws conclusions about Ruy Coelho’s piano work, whether it is solo, chamber music, or concertante, or analyzes his work from a performative perspective. The lack of knowledge and difficult access to this composer’s piano work, with few works for piano and chamber music with piano published, and a single CD dedicated to his piano work, is also one of the issues, among others, that this research aims to resolve. Some of the objectives of this project include understanding the total dimension of the universe of study and its characteristics; assessing the relationship between the musical discourse of the works in the universe of study and the different aesthetic currents identified by the composer and their performative implications and, starting from the performance, highlighting the characteristics of Ruy Coelho’s compositional thinking in his piano work and its differences and similarities throughout the various compositional periods.

Funding
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (UI/BD/08275/2021)