Manuel De Almeida-Ferrer

started his violin studies with Marylin Brito. In 2005 he joined Gareguin Aroutiounian’s violin class, with whom he studied until 2014 when he entered the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp in Alissa Marguils’ class.

Having had his solo debut in 2007 with Orquestra Gulbenkian (not as a violinist, but as a young boy-soprano) under the baton of Michael Zilm in Mahler’s Das Klagende Lied, Manuel has performed in numerous concerts, operas and recitals. At the age of eleven, Manuel participated in his first violin competition, receiving an honourable-mention. He has been, meanwhile, a laureate in several other competitions, namely Concurso Vasco Barbosa, Prémio José Augusto Alegria, Concurso Internacional “Cidade do Fundão” and Prémio Elisa de Sousa Pedroso; last year, he received the second prize in the Portuguese National Radio and Television Prémio Jovens Músicos – RTP Antena 2 while holding a scholarship for music perfection by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.Together with Wouter Valvekens, with whom he formed a violin-piano duo for over three years, performing regularly in Portugal, Belgium and the UK, he was recently granted the first prize in the Triomphe de l’Art International Competition. Since 2017, Manuel has studied with Jack Liebeck in the Royal Academy of Music, being also inscribed in the Corso di Perfezionamento Musicale from the Fondazione Santa Cecilia with Ilya Grubert.