"Ambassador of Portuguese music"

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Biography

Portuguese conductor and cellist Bruno Borralhinho is Artistic Director of the Ensemble Mediterrain, Music Director of the Beyra - Ensemble Orquestral and a member of the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra. Since 2024 he is the Artistic Director of the Júlio Cardona International Music Competition.

Along with regular appearances leading his Ensemble Mediterain (DE), he conducted for example the Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa (PT), the Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música (PT), the Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa (PT), the Orquestra do Algarve (PT), the Orquestra Filarmónica Portuguesa (PT), the Orquestra Clássica da Madeira (PT), the Orquestra de Câmara Portuguesa (PT), the Filharmonie Bohuslava Martinu (CZ), the Orchestra de Camera Radio of Bucharest (RO), the Filarmonica Bacau (RO), the Orquesta de Cámara de Bellas Artes (MX), the Orquestra Sinfônica do Paraná (BR), the Orquestra Sinfônica de Campinas (BR), the Guiyang Symphony Orchestra (CN), the Deutsches Kammerorchester Berlin (DE), the Berliner Symphoniker (DE) and the Dresdner Philharmonie (DE), and worked along with internationally renowned soloists such as Camilla Nylund, Sarah Maria Sun, Karolina Gumos, Adriane Queiroz, Lothar Odinius, Li Jian, Peter Bruns and Javier Perianes.

Opera is one of his great passions: he conducted new productions of Donizetti (L'elisir d'amore, 2025), Mozart (Don Giovanni, 2023), Ravel (L'heure espagnole, 2022) and Puccini (Gianni Schicchi, 2018) and worked as an assistant in new productions of Wagner (The Flying Dutchman, 2022) and Beethoven (Fidelio, 2020).

In 2022, the label NAXOS released a CD exclusively dedicated to the composer Fernando Lopes-Graça, performed by the Portuguese Symphony Orchestra conducted by Bruno Borralhinho, receiving excellent reviews from the international press and the general audience. Musicweb (USA): "This fine release is a must for anyone interested in Lopes-Graça’s music but others will also find much to enjoy and admire"; Das Orchester (DE): "Under the direction of conductor Bruno Borralhinho the Portuguese Symphony Orchestra blossoms passionately"; Da Capo (PT): "Bruno Borralhinho knew how to promote, with artistic depth, editorial sensitivity and clear conducting, the forgotten creative production of one of the greatest Portuguese composers of the 20th century".

Bruno Borralhinho holds a Master's Degree in Culture Management from the UOC - Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Barcelona). In October 2011 he was one of the participants of the Atelier for Young Festival Managers in Izmir (Turkey), organized by the EFA - European Festivals Association). Bruno Borralhinho received his PhD in Humanities - History, Geography and Art - from the Universidad Carlos III (Madrid) in 2020. His research and thesis focused on the relations between power and the field of classical music in Portugal throughout the 20th century.

He was born in 1982 in Covilhã and began his music studies at the age of 12 years old in his hometown, where he studied with prof. Luis Sá Pessoa. Between 2000-2006, he studied with prof. Markus Nyikos at the Universität der Künste in Berlin, concluding the Graduate and Postgraduate studies with the highest distinctions. Afterwards, he also studied with the prestigious Norwegian cellist Truls Mørk. He attended several Masterclasses with Natalia Gutman, Antonio Meneses, Pieter Wispelwey, Anner Bylsma, Jian Wang, Martin Ostertag, Martin Löhr, Márcio Carneiro and Thomas Demenga, among others.

Bruno Borralhinho appears regularly as a soloist with orchestra or in recitals with piano in Portugal, Spain, Germany and Brazil. Among his highlights are the unanimously acclaimed interpretations of Bach's 6 Suites with the Montagnana Suggia (2008), Beethoven's complete works for cello and piano with the Stradivari King of Portugal (2012) and Haydn's complete cello concertos (2014, soloist and conductor). Borralhinho led until now Masterclasses in Brazil, Portugal, Spain and Romania.

In 2018 Borralhinho recorded the sonatas of R. Strauss and Zemlinsky as well as Mahler's songs with pianist Christoph Berner for the German record label ARS and in 2016 NAXOS released a CD dedicated to Portuguese music for cello and orchestra, with Bruno Borralhinho accompanying as a soloist by the Orquestra Gulbenkian. This album was ranked as the best of 2016 by voters from over 65 countries on the 5 continents of the planet, following an international public vote sponsored by The Violoncello Foundation (New York/USA). In 2009 Bruno Borralhinho released the double CD "Pagina Esquecida" (Forgotten Page), also dedicated entirely to Portuguese music, and received enthusiastic reviews in the national and international press.

He won the 1. Prize in the competitions Julio Cardona (1999) and Prémio Jovens Músicos (2001), this last organized by RDP (Portuguese National Radio). As a soloist, he performed with the Gulbenkian Orchestra Lisbon (PT), Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa (PT), Orquestra do Norte (PT), Orquestra Clássica da Madeira (PT), Orquestra XXI (PT), Orquestra Clássica do Sul (PT), Orquestra de Câmara Portuguesa (PT), Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa (PT), Orquestra Sinfônica de Campinas (BR) and Orquestra Sinfônica do Teatro Nacional Cláudio Santoro de Brasília (BR).

Bruno Borralhinho has been a member of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra and Solo-Cellist of the Jeunesses Musicales World Orchestra. He was also a member of the Academy of the Staatskapelle Berlin, resident orchestra of the Berlin State Opera, and of the DSO - Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin.

During all these years he performed in leading concert halls throughout all Europe, Asia, USA, Canada, Russia and South America and worked with important conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Kurt Masur, Christian Thielemann, Marek Janowski, Kent Nagano, Franz Welser-Möst, Herbert Blomstedt, Paavo Järvi or Andris Nelsons.

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Agenda

Concert schedule as a soloist, conductor and chamber musician. The concert agenda of the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra can be followed HERE.