Luís Carvalho

Portuguese conductor, composer, and clarinetist, Luís Carvalho is one of the most versatile musicians of his generation. He has performed numerous concerts and recitals around the world, often premiering his own pieces and those of leading contemporary Portuguese and international composers, including several which have been dedicated to him.

Carvalho holds a PhD in Music from the University of Aveiro (Portugal/2015) and is the recipient of many accolades. Notable awards include the Prize for the best student of the year (ESMAE/Porto/1994) and the Prestige Trophy (2013), granted by the regional newspaper Audiência for his career devoted to music. A prizewinner at several competitions, including the Estoril Interpretation Competition (2001 – as clarinettist), the 4th Póvoa de Varzim International Composition Competition (2009), the inaugural edition of the Francisco Martins Composition Competition (Coimbra/2017), and the Winds Composition Contest Saxony (Dresden, Germany/2023), he was also a finalist nominee for the Portuguese Society of Authors’ (SPA) national Authors Prize 2012, in association with the Portuguese Television Broadcast Corporation [RTP]. Winner of the Audition for Young Conductors held by the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra in 2010, most recently he was a finalist in the Hans von Bülow International Conducting Competition (Italy/2021).

As a conductor, his repertoire is wide and eclectic, spanning from the baroque to contemporary, and includes several world premieres. He has directed most of the leading Portuguese orchestras, and abroad has performed in Russia, Slovakia, Hungary, Italy, Spain, and Finland. He is the founder and artistic/music director of Camerata Nov’Arte, an ensemble based in Porto that, in addition to a steady national career, has made two acclaimed international tours, to Brazil (Espírito Santo) in 2013 and to Slovakia in 2019. Carvalho has performed in many of the most important festivals in Portugal, including Estoril, Alcobaça (Cistermúsica), Póvoa de Varzim, Espinho, Algarve, Paços de Brandão, Guimarães, Autumn Festival (Aveiro), Marvão, CCB Music Days (Lisbon), and the RTP/Antena 2 PJM Festival (Portuguese Broadcasting Corporation), and abroad he has taken part in the Macao Festival, Domingos Martins Winter Festival (Brazil), ClarinetFest–Madrid (Spain), Festival Musica (Strasbourg/France), and Musique en Guyenne (Monflanquin/France).

Equally recognised as a composer, Carvalho’s catalogue includes works for orchestra, band, chamber music, solos, and many arrangements, orchestrations, and revisions. Published by AVA-editions (Portugal), Universal Edition (Austria) and Molenaar (Netherlands), most of his works are as a result of commissions from various leading institutions, groups, or soloists, and have been performed across Europe and the Americas (USA, Brazil, Venezuela). Within the scope of his doctoral research, Carvalho created a reinvention of the draft for large ensemble for Gustav Mahler’s last and unfinished Symphony No.10 in F# major, which he premiered in 2014, conducting Camerata Nov’Arte.

Carvalho has featured on nearly two dozen CDs, either as a clarinettist, conductor, or composer, for labels such as NUMÉRICA, CASA DA MÚSICA, AFINAUDIO, AVA, PUBLIC-ART, and MOLENAAR.

He is a Professor at the University of Aveiro and researcher at INET-md.

www.luiscarvalho.com