Rui Lopes
The New York Times credits Rui Lopes as the "richly gifted bassoonist".
Gramophone concurs:
"highly musical and virtuoso". Although Rui only began playing the bassoon at eighteen, his musical temperament and virtuosity were quickly recognized and received many awards, including first prize in the prestigious Estoril International Competition.
Rui has appeared as a soloist with English Chamber Orchestra, Basel Symphony Orchestra, Finnish National Opera, Chamber Artists Orchestra, Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra, Cologne Chamber Orchestra, Portuguese Symphony, and other orchestras.
Rui is a member of the Camerata Variabile Basel, Trio Estoril and the Portuguese Chamber Soloists, and has played at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Festival Bohuslav Martinu, SoNoRo Festival, Crusell Festival, Oficina de Música de Curitiba, Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival, Boswiler Sommer, Lucerne, and other festivals and in May 2015, he had his Debut recital at the Carnegie Hall. Rui is professor of Bassoon at the Academy in Strasbourg (HEAR – Haute école des arts du Rhin).
Rui’s first recording, Through Time, with the English Chamber Orchestra, featuring pieces by Vivaldi, Mozart, Elgar, Villa-Lobos, Françaix and including two world premieres, received unanimous international critical acclaim. His latest CD Close Encounters has just been released in collaboration with the Gringolts Quartet. It was received with great enthusiasm by the experts. Both the technical ability, the virtuosity and the musical expression were honoured with a "Supersonic" Award.