Concert Antena 2 | Raquel Saraiva and Carlota Amado

Raquel Saraiva | Bassoon

Born in Coimbra, he began his musical education at the age of 5 with Professor Virgílio Caseiro. At the age of 9, he entered the Conservatory of Music of Coimbra in the bassoon class of Professor José Pedro Figueiredo, where he completed his complementary course in 2007. He then goes to Escola Superior de Música e Artes do Espetáculo do Porto (ESMAE) where he studies with Professors Hugues Kesteman and Pedro Silva, finishing his degree in 2011. Under the Erasmus program, he attends one year at Lübeck Musikhochschule (Germany), studying with Prof. Pierre Martens, where he is currently pursuing his Master studies. In the academic year 2013/2014, also under the Erasmus program, he attended the Norwegian Academy of Music, in Oslo, where he studied with Prof. Dag Jensen.

He has attended several master classes with teachers such as Richard Galler, Roberto Giaccaglia, Gustavo Nuñez, Pascal Gallois, Carlo Colombo, Marc Trennel, Klaus Thunemann, Dag Jensen, and Sergio Azzolini.

He dedicates his musical activity mainly in the orchestral variant, having played with numerous orchestras, national and international, such as Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, Young Artists Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, Schleswig Holstein Musik Festival Orchestra Academy, European Union Youth Orchestra (EUYO), Gustav Mahler Jugend Orchester (GMJO), Bamberg Symphoniker, Philharmonisches Orchester der Hansestadt Lübeck, Orquestra XXI, Orquestra de Câmara Portuguesa, Orquestra Calouste Gulbenkian. In 2014 she was an academician with the SWR Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra. She has been awarded in competitions such as Young Musicians Prize 2012, International Academic Competition Oboe and Bassoon in Lodz (Poland) and Terras de la Saltette Wind Instruments Competition 2009, 2010 and 2014. She has been a grantee of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation since 2012.

Since September 2014 he has held the position of 2nd Bassoon and Contrabassoon in the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz Orchestra in Munich.

Carlota Amado | Piano

Born in 1988 in S. João da Madeira, Carlota Amado began her musical studies at the age of 6. In Portugal she had as teachers Teresa Brandão and Álvaro Teixeira Lopes. Since 2008 in Germany, she has been studying under the guidance of Professors Markus Stange and Michael Uhde in Karlsruhe. He is currently attending the "Solistenexam" diploma. He has attended master-classes with several pianists such as Fausto Neves, Helena Sá e Costa, Miguel Borges Coelho, Aquiles Delle Vigne, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Sequeira Costa, Jorge Moyano, Leonel Morales, Peter Lang, Paul Badura-Skoda, Vitaly Margulis, Lilya Zilberstein, Eldar Nebolsin, Frank - Immo Zichner, Bruno Canino - Pierre Amoyal (Piano/Violin duo) and Arie Vardi.

He was Soloist with Orchestras such as EPMVC Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of the North, Orchestra of the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe under the direction of Miguel del Castillo, José Ferreira Lobo, José Manuel Pinheiro, Mario Venzago, Nachum Erlich. He was a member of the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival (2012), Gustav Mahler Jugendorcheste (2013) playing at the BBC Proms, London, the Concertgebouw - Amsterdam, Sempeoper - Dresden and Salzburg - Felsenreitschule. In October 2013 he was Soloist with the Karlsruhe Chamber Orchestra - Brazil Tour - Rio de Janeiro, Recife, Belem, Natal, João Pessoa. In March 2015, together with members of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, he played a recital on board the luxury ship MS Europa. He has performed in countries such as Portugal, Switzerland, Germany, Greece and Brazil and recorded for Swr Baden Baden and Radio Télévision Suisse-Espace 2.

Among the various prizes he has won, the following stand out: "Concorso Internazionale di Esecuzione Pianisti" in Salerno, Italy (2005), Scholarship from the "Yamaha Music Foundation of Europe" (2008), DAAD Prize (2010), "Concorso Internazionale di Esecuzione Musicale Giovani Musicisti" Città di Treviso, Italy (2012), "Concours International de Piano Alexandre Scriabine", Paris (2012), "Kulturfonds Baden" Competition - Russian Music for Piano (2013).