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Portuguese cellist and conductor Vasco Ferrão was born in 2002 and started studying the cello at the age of 6 with Marília Peixoto. Throughout his studies he benefitted from lessons with distinguished artists such as Paulo Gaio Lima, Adrian Brendel, Robert Levin, Roberto Gonzalez-Monjas, Pieter Wispelwey, Xavier Gagnepain, Xenia Jankovic, Peter Bruns, Michel Strauss. Vasco has also studied chamber music with distinguished artists Adrian Brendel, Robert Levin, Johannes Meissl, Paulo Gaio Lima, Pedro Carneiro, Roberto Gonzalez-Monjas, Alisdair Beatson, Xavier Gagnepain, Anna Tomasik, Paul Wakabayashi, Boglárka Pecze, Eva Boesch, Sun-Young Nam, Emilia Sitarz and Bartłomiej Wąsik, The Heath Quartet, The Endellion Quartet, Sarah-Jane Bradley, Ursula Smith, Caroline Palmer, Carole Presland, Gary Pomeroy, Tim Lowe, and Oscar Perks.

In 2015 he co-founded Da Caprio, a piano trio which has been awarded 1st prize in several competitions in Portugal, ​ including the prestigious Prémio Jovens Músicos 2018 of Radio Antena 2. This has given him the opportunity to perform at the Gulbenkian Hall. This group also toured in Germany in 2019, having performed at the Dusseldörf Tonhalle, as part of the Schumannfest.

Vasco did his concerto debut with the Portuguese Youth Orchestra (of which he was a member from 2017 until 2022) –  with this orchestra, he ​has performed in venues across Europe, such as the Centro Cultural de Belém (Portugal), the Gulbenkian Foundation (Portugal), the Ateneul Român (Romania) and the Konzerthaus Berlin (Germany) as part of the Young Euro Classic festival (2019, 2022). He’s also done programmes with the Portuguese Chamber Orchestra, the Australian Chamber Orchestra (led by Richard Tognetti), and the London Symphony Orchestra in various workshops. In other groups, he’s also had the opportunity to work with renowned conductors and leaders such as Takuo Yuasa, Lionel Bringuier, Roberto González-Monjas, András Keller, Jonathan Morton, Marius Stravinsky, Richard Farnes, Toby Thatcher, Frank Zielhorst with regular appearances at the Barbican Centre and Milton Court Concert Hall. In jazz, he’s also worked with pianist and arranger Malcolm Edmonstone.

Vasco likes to explore many interests he found in university. He was privileged to learn classical improvisation with David Dolan, jazz (vibraphone and piano) with Barry Green and Kate Williams. He carried on with his interest in conducting and is currently studying with David Corkhill and Tim Redmond. As a young conductor, he’s performed various settings in workshops and concerts, with repertoire spanning from the 18th to the 21st century.  As an assistant conductor with JOP, he had his Portuguese and German debuts at Centro Cultural de Belém and  Konzerthaus Berlin. In 2025 he was appointed assistant conductor with both Portuguese Youth and Chamber Orchestras.

Vasco was recently asked by Robert Levin to collaborate in his lecture “Bach’s Tonal Universe".

He is currently ​pursuing his studies at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London with Adrian Brendel and Louise Hopkins and is a Guildhall Music Trust scholarship holder.



Highlights for the current and next seasons include a debut recital at Milton Court Concert Hall, the world premiere and recording of Tiago Ribeiro’s cello concerto “It’s Hard to Slow Down” conducted by Jack Sheen (at Milton Court) and the appointment as assistant conductor for the summer tour with the Portuguese Youth Orchestra.