André Fonseca

He studied at the National Conservatory in Lisbon where he completed a degree in violin with full marks and got a scholarship from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation to study in the class of Abraham Jaffée in Berlin, Germany, where he remained for three years. He participated in master classes with Gerardo Ribeiro, Anatoly Bajenov, Pierre Amoyal, Ifrah Neaman, among others. He was a private pupil of Max Rabinowitsj. He won several prizes in Portugal and has played concerts through all Europe. In duo with piano has given concerts in several music festivals having collaborated with pianists such as Maria Emilia Leite Velho, Nancy Lee Harper, João Miguel Crisóstomo, Eduardo Resende, Grigory Gritsiouk, João Bettencourt, among others. He plays regularly as soloist with orchestra, having played with the Orchestra of the RDP, Orchestra Collegium Musicum, Filarmonia das Beiras, Cascais and Oeiras Chamber Orchestra, among others. In this context he has played violin concerts of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Max Bruch, Tchaikovsky, Sibelius, Brahms and others. Given the nature of his artistic personality and character is often invited to join various chamber music groups. He founded the Luís de Freitas Branco String Trio and the Aveiro String Quartet, having given concerts in different parts of the country, and which gives particular attention to Portuguese music. He is the concertmaster of Filarmonia das Beiras Orchestra since 1998 having played more than 1000 concerts in these functions in Portugal, Spain and France. He is frequently invited to be part of competition jury’s and to give master classes. He is violin teacher Aveiro Conservatory of Music. And since 2015 he is professor of violin, chamber music at the University of Aveiro, where he is also responsible for the String Orchestra. He has recorded for RDP and RTP.