Introduction

Dinis Sousa is Founder and Artistic Director of Orquestra XXI, an award-winning orchestra which brings together some of the best young Portuguese musicians from around Europe. Orquestra XXI has already established itself as one of the leading performing groups in Portugal, appearing regularly in its main concert halls. Recent highlights include opening the Gulbenkian Foundation season and appearing at Centro Cultural de Belém’s festival “Dias da Música” for a televised concert with Orquestra XXI and the Gulbenkian Choir, performing Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri.

Dinis has worked closely with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and his ensembles — the English Baroque Soloists, Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique and the Monteverdi Choir — culminating in his appointment as the Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras’ first-ever Assistant Conductor. He has also assisted Gardiner with other orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, Berliner Philharmoniker and Tonhalle Orchester Zürich. Recent highlights include co-conducting the Monteverdi Choir in Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette at the BBC Proms, and touring with the English Baroque Soloists to Colombia, conducting several concerts of Bach’s orchestral music. Elsewhere, he assisted John Wilson for a production of Cendrillon at Glyndebourne Festival.

As a guest-conductor, recent and forthcoming highlights include projects with the Royal Northern Sinfonia, Aurora Orchestra, Southbank Sinfonia, Portuguese Symphony Orchestra, Madeira Chamber Orchestra and conducting rehearsals with the London Symphony Orchestra. Dinis’ core repertoire is firmly rooted in the Classical to early Romantic eras — with recent performances of Beethoven, Berlioz, Brahms, Schumann, Mozart — but also regularly conducts a wide range of music from Bach and Rameau through to 20th century and new music.

Dinis studied conducting with Sian Edwards and Timothy Redmond and piano with Philip Jenkins and Martin Roscoe at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he was Conducting Fellow. While at Guildhall, he conducted several different projects, including Bach’s St. John Passion at Milton Court and a staged production of Harrison Birtwistle’s Down by the Greenwood Side at the Silk Street Theatre.

In recognition of his work with Orquestra XXI, Dinis was awarded the title of Knight of the Order of Prince Henry, by the President of the Portuguese Republic, Anibal Cavaco Silva.

For further information, please contact Niall Houlihan.