Bruno Monteiro & João Paulo Santos - Szymanowski / Bloch / Korngold: 20th Century Expressions (2023)

×

Bruno Monteiro & João Paulo Santos - Szymanowski / Bloch / Korngold: 20th Century Expressions (2023)

Close

One of Portugal´s leading classical musicians, Bruno Monteiro is herald by Opus Klassiek as a “top violinist” and by Musical Opinion as an “admirable artist”.

For more than 25 years he has been leading an intense concertizing career as recitalist, concerto soloist and chamber musician. He has performed in the most important music festivals and concert halls of Portugal. Internationally, he has appeared in Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, UK, Austria, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Israel, Denmark, the Philippines, Malaysia, South Korea and the USA. In many of these countries, Monteiro performed in prestigious venues such as the Palácio Cibeles and Casa de America in Madrid, Vienna´s Musikverein, Bucharest´s Cultural Center, Sofia´s Bulgaria Hall and Pancho Vladigerov´s Great Hall, Kiev´s Philharmonic Hall, the Felicja Blumenthal International Music Festival in Tel Aviv, Washington´s D.C Kennedy Center and Embassy Series and New York´s Carnegie Hall, among many others. In recital, he has been performing with João Paulo Santos for more than 20 years. He has also been a guest soloist with numerous orchestras, including the English Chamber Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfónica de Palma de Mallorca, Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa, Orquestra Clássica da Madeira, Orquestra do Norte and Orquestra Filarmonia das Beiras.

Bruno Monteiro´s discography includes more than a dozen albums, all of which have been praised and awarded distinctions from the international press. Recent releases include the Complete Music for Violin and Piano and Solo Violin by Fernando Lopes-Graça for Naxos, a CD that reached top sales in Portugal and was selected for the Critics Choice List – November 2014 – of the label, the Complete Music for Violin and Piano by Karol Szymanowski for Brilliant Classics (Editor's Choice and one of the Top 10 CDs worldwide in Madrid´s Revista Ritmo and CD of the Week (March 2018) in Forbes), the Complete Music for Violin and Piano by Erwin Schulhoff, also for Brilliant Classics (Editor's Choice and one of the Top 10 CDs worldwide in Revista Ritmo and chosen album on Classical Candor (USA) for the Favourite Recordings 2016 List). For the same label, the CD Guillaume Lekeu – Music for Violin, Cello and Piano was published in 2018 and broadcasted by Radio France/France Musique in Paris.

Between 2020 and 2022, Etcetera Records produced 3 new CD´s by Bruno Monteiro: the first with Music for Violin and Piano by Igor Stravinsky, the second dedicated to the Violin Sonatas by Luis de Freitas Branco, Maurice Ravel and Heitor Villa- Lobos (Editor's Choice on Luister Magazine and chosen album on Classical Candor for the Favourite Recordings 2022 List) and another entitled Ernest Chausson/Eugène Ysaÿe – Music for Violin, Cello and Piano (CD highlighted (October 2022) at Radio France/France Musique and awarded Paris´s Classique News Magazine Le Clic).

Bruno Monteiro played his first recitals at S. Luis and Rivoli Theaters at the age of 13 and at 14 made his solo orchestral debut at Teatro Nacional de São Carlos (The Lisbon Opera House). Described by Gerardo Ribeiro as "the most deserving young violinist", Monteiro attended the Manhattan School of Music in New York as a scholar of the Gulbenkian Foundation and Centro Nacional de Cultura and later completed his training in Chicago under the celebreted Israeli violinist Shmuel Ashkenasi with funding from the Ministério da Cultura and the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia.