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Nuno Coelho

About this Artist

Nuno Coelho was awarded First Prize at the Cadaqués International Conducting Competition in December 2017, winning him engagements with over 30 major orchestras in Europe, Asia and South America over the next three seasons. Other accolades include First Prize at the Portuguese Radio Conducting Competition, Finalist at the Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Competition, and the Neeme Järvi Prize at the Gstaad Menuhin Festival.

As Assistant Conductor of the Netherlands Philharmonic from 2015-17, Coelho conducted the orchestra on numerous occasions, in addition to working with Marc Albrecht on symphonic projects and a production of Parsifal at Dutch National Opera. He returns to the Netherlands Philharmonic in July 2018 for a concert at the Concertgebouw as part of Robeco SummerNights.

Coelho has also collaborated extensively with the Orquestra Gulbenkian, and the 2018/19 season will see him further develop this relationship as the orchestra’s Guest Conductor, leading subscription concerts and tours. Other forthcoming highlights include a return to the Orchester Musikkollegium Winterthur, and debuts with the Ulster Orchestra, Beethoven Orchester Bonn, Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León, and Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia.

In June 2018 Coelho will conduct the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra as part of the prestigious Daniele Gatti Masterclass, having previously participated in masterclasses with Esa-Pekka Salonen, Neeme Järvi and Bernard Haitink. As a former Tanglewood Fellow, Coelho also assisted Andris Nelsons, Christoph von Dohnányi, Thomas Adès, and Stéphane Denève, and conducted a staging of Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins. Opera projects elsewhere include La traviata, Cavalleria rusticana, and Rusalka.

Born in Porto in 1989, Coelho studied violin in Klagenfurt and Brussels and conducting with Johannes Schaefli at the Zurich University of the Arts. He has since gone on to conduct Kammerorchester Basel, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa, and Basel Sinfonieorchester, among other ensembles. In 2014 he received a scholarship from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and in 2015 he was admitted into the German Music Council’s Dirigentenforum. He currently resides in Zurich.