Vasco Silva Dantas Rocha

Vasco Silva Dantas Rocha, Portuguese pianist, was born in Porto, Portugal, in 1992, and is currently on 4th year of Bachelor’s degree in Royal College of Music, working with Prof. Dmitri Alexeev and Niel Immelman. http://www.talent-unlimited.com/profile33.html

Vasco was awarded with many prizes in international competitions, standing out the “Esther Fisher Prize” (for the Best Undergraduate of Royal College of Music at Chappell Medal Competition 2013), “Antena 2 Prize” (given by the Portuguese National Radio), “Henry Wood Trust Prize 2011 and 2012”, “Casa da Música Prize 2009”, as well as the following 1st awards at: Piano Competition Ría de Vigo, International Piano Competition of Alto Minho, International Piano Competition of Fundão, Piano International Competition “Florinda Santos”, and Piano Competition of “Santa Cecília”, Competition for chamber music Maestro Ivo Cruz .

With 6 years old he gave his first public appearance at the Porto Tram Museum. He had been chosen, by his virtuosity, among students of Estrelita Yamaha Music School, in Porto, where he started learning the piano at age of 4.

In 2000, he was admitted with distinction at the Porto Music Conservatory, where he has studied with Prof. Rosgard Lingardson. In 2010, he finished his studies achieving the highest mark. He has participated in many piano masterclasses, with many known professors, such as, Paul Badura-Skoda, Peter Donohoe, Boris Berman, Dimitri Alexeev, John Lill, Phillipe Cassard, Álvaro Teixeira Lopes, Luiz de Moura Castro, Yuri Bogdanov, Andrew Ball, Pedro Burmester, Fausto Neves, Ian Jones, Betty Haag-Kuhnke, Cristina Ortiz, Sergei Covalenco, among others.

Since the age of 7, Vasco also has been studying the violin. He worked with professor José Paulo Jesus. He was distinguished as violinist, in the “Momentum Perpetuum” Orchestra, directed by The Famous British conductor Martin André, in the “Oficial Music Conservatoires Youth Orchestra” (OJCOM), in Portugal, and in the Lisbon Metropolitan Young Orchestra, as concertmaster.

In January 2011 Vasco had his piano recital debut in the famous “Sala Suggia” in Casa da Música, in Porto. He has also played solo with orchestras, such as, Porto Symphony Orchestra, and has worked with known conductors such as, Martin André, Günter Neuhold, Nicholas Kok and Pedro Neves.

Vasco has performed in hundreds of musical events, in different renown halls, in Portugal, Spain, France, Greece, Germany and United Kingdom, such as the Theatre of San Agustin (Madrid), Teatro Caixa Nova (Vigo, Spain) the Whiteley Hall (Manchester), Amaryllis Fleming RCM Concert Hall (London), Sala Suggia, the CCB and the Literary Guild in Lisbon, the Casa da Música, Commercial Athenaeum, Helena Sá e Costa Theatre and Romantic Museum, in Porto, among others.

Vasco has performed for the first time, on live, to the Portuguese National Television (RTP1) at the age of 6 years old. He has also performed and has been interviewed on live by the Portuguese National Radio Station (Antena 2) and Porto Channel. He has recorded many times on CD, by invitation, one of them for the Galician Radio.