Bernardo Ferreira

Bernardo Ferreira is a Portuguese cellist from Covilhã and the winner of the 2026 Prémio Maestro Silva Pereira / Young Musician of the Year, awarded in conjunctionwith the Prémio Jovens Músicos – RTP Antena 2 in the senior category and the Richard Wagner Circle Prize.

A scholarship holder of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, he is also the recipient of the Paulo Gaio Lima Prize (2023) and the Helena Sá e Costa Prize (2022). He is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Performance at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste (ZHdK), Switzerland, under the guidance of Thomas Grossenbacher. He previously completed both his Bachelor’s degree and his Master’s degree in ArtisticPerformance at ESMAE – Escola Superior de Música e Artes do Espetáculo, graduatingwith the highest marks in both under the guidance of Filipe Quaresma. Bernardo is a member of the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester and BEYRA Laboratório Artístico, as well as a founding member of the Cecilia Quartet.

His musical education began at the Conservatório Regional de Música da Covilhã, where he studied with Joana Almeida, before continuing with Liliana Vianez. In 2015, he entered the Escola Profissional de Artes da Beira Interior (EPABI) in Covilhã, studying with Rogério Peixinho and graduating with the highest marks.

He has attended masterclasses and advanced courses in modern and Baroque cello with Ana Raquel Pinheiro, Bruno Borralhinho, Carlos Leal Cardín, Elisabeth Fürniss, Frans Helmerson, Filipe Quaresma, Fernando Santiago, Konstantin Heidrich, Levon Mouradian, Márcio Carneiro, Martti Rousi, Ophélie Gaillard, Olaf Reimers, Pieter Wispelwey, Ricardo Mota, Rogério Peixinho and Varoujan Bartikian. He has workedwith conductors including Ajtony Csaba, Bruno Borralhinho, Cesário Costa, Gustavo Delgado, Jan Wierzba, Javier Viceiro-Felgueira, José Eduardo Gomes, Martim Sousa Tavares, Osvaldo Ferreira, Pablo Urbina, Peter Askim and Peter Rundel. In collaboration with the latter, he worked with the renowned Remix Ensemble Casa da Música and took part in the Remix Academy Special Edition.

He has performed at some of Europe’s leading concert venues, including Casa da Música in Porto, Teatro São Luiz in Lisbon, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Kulturpalast in Dresden, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and the Berliner Philharmonie in Berlin.

In 2017 and 2018, he participated in the Fundão International Competition, receivingthe Best Candidate from Beira Interior Award in 2017 and Second Prize in 2018.

As a soloist, he made his debut with the Orquestra Nacional de Jovens (ONJ) in 2021, under the direction of Jan Wierzba. In May 2023, as a winner of the Helena Sá e Costa Prize, he performed Dvořák’s Cello Concerto with the Orquestra Sinfónica da ESMAE. In March 2025, following his success in the Paulo Gaio Lima Prize, he performedShostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1 with the Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa.

In December 2025, he gave a solo recital on the Domenico Montagnana cello formerlyowned by Guilhermina Suggia, as part of a concert series dedicated to the celebratedPortuguese cellist.