Francisca Bastos

Francisca Bastos was born on 13 June 1991 in Oliveira de Azeméis, Portugal. Her musical career began in 1997 at the Escola da Banda de Música de Loureiro, where she first started playing the violin, but after two years changed to the bassoon with José Pedro Figueiredo.

Since 2006 she is taught by Prof. Pedro Silva at the Escola Profissional de Música de Viana do Castelo, where she also played in the Big Band and the Philharmonic Orchestra. After graduating from the Music High School in 2009 ("Curso de Instrumentista de Sopros"), she began her studies at the Escola Superior de Música, Artes e Espectáculo (ESMAE - Porto,Portugal) with both Hugues Kesteman and Pedro Silva, where she was a member of the university orchestra ("Sinfonietta ESMAE") conducted by António Saiote.

After an Erasmus year, which she completed in Vienna at the Private University Conservatory of Vienna under the wings of Prof. Marcelo Padilla, she completed her Bachelor's degree in 2013 and passed the entrance examination in the same year at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), where she completed her Master's degree with a focus on orchestra under Prof. Giorgio Mandolesi in June 2015.

In addition to a 2nd prize at the "Concurso Internacional de Música - Terras de La- Salette" (Portugal, 2010), Ana Francisca also received scholarships from the Lyra Foundation (2013 and 2016) and the Elsy Meyer Foundation (2014).

In addition to her training at music institutes, she has taken part in master classes with Sergio Azzolini, Pierre Olivier Martens, Roberto Giaccaglia, Carlo Colombro, Gavin Hill, Luc Loubry, Giorgio Mandolesi, Pascal Gallois and Olga Prats.

She already gained orchestral experience in 2005-2009 at the Wind Orchestra Summer Courses with Erik Jansen, Paulo Martins and Javier Viceiro. In 2009 she took part in the APROARTE Orchestra under Ernst Schelle. She has also played in numerous student and professional orchestras under Pedro Neves, Vasco Pearce de Azevedo and Julian Lombana. Francisca has been a member of international youth orchestras such as the European Union Youth Wind Orchestra (2011, under Jan Cober) or the Bayreuth Young Artists Festival (2012, under Karl Anton Rickenbacher) as well as the Portuguese Orquestra XXI (2013) and in 2012 she had the pleasure of performing in two opera premieres with the Vienna Ensemble Modern.

In January 2015 Francisca appeared for the first time as a soloist in "Mozart + Projekt 2015" of the Chamber Orchestra of the Bavarian Philharmonic. There she had the opportunity to play the "Variations on an Arietta by Pergolesi" by Otmar Nussio 8 times in concert (Wiener Konzerthaus, Cuvilliés-Theatre Munich, etc...)

In 2015 the young bassoonist has completed an internship at the Philharmonia Zurich (Opera). She was allowed to play with the Orchestre de Paris as a temp and has been playing regularly at the Zurich Opera House since 2015/2016.

Francisca Bastos was born on 13 June 1991 in Oliveira de Azeméis, Portugal. Her musical career began in 1997 at the Escola da Banda de Música de Loureiro, where she first started playing the violin, but after two years changed to the bassoon with José Pedro Figueiredo.

Since 2006 she is taught by Prof. Pedro Silva at the Escola Profissional de Música de Viana do Castelo, where she also played in the Big Band and the Philharmonic ...