Vasco Silva Dantas Rocha

Vasco Silva Dantas Rocha, Portuguese pianist, was born in Porto, Portugal, in 1992. In 2014 he has concluded his studies at the London Royal College of Music Prof. Dmitri Alexeev and Niel Immelman, obtaining the bachelor's degree in Music with "1st Class Distinction". He is currently studying a master's degree in Performance under the guidance of Professor Heribert Koch at University of Munster, in Germany, after a successful "Zertifikatsstudienjahr" achieved with maximal mark "1.0". http://www.talent-unlimited.com/profile33.html

Vasco has won over 50 prizes in international competitions, including the 3rd Prize at Munster Steinway & Sons Piano Competition, the Golden Medal of Merit by the city of Matosinhos (Portugal), the "Best Portuguese Prize" at Viseu International Competition, "Esther Fisher Prize" (for the 2013 Best Undergraduate of the Royal College of Music at Chappell Medal Competition 2013), "Antena 2 Prize" (awarded by Portuguese National Radio), the "Henry Wood Trust Prize 2011 & 2012", the "Casa da Musica Prize 2009", and the following First Prizes: Porto International Competition "Santa Cecilia", Estoril Lisbon Competition, Ria de Vigo International Piano Competition, Alto Minho International Piano Competition, International Piano Competition of Fundao, the "Florinda Santos" International Piano Competition, as well as the Maestro Ivo Cruz Chamber Music Competition.

In November 2015 Vasco made his Asia debut, playing with Hong Kong Symphonia at Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall the Franz Liszt Concerto no.1. In August 2014 Vasco made his American debut playing with "Orquestra Sinfonica Espirito Santo" in Vitoria - Brazil, the D. Shostakovich Piano Concerto no.2. In January 2011 Vasco made his piano recital debut in the renowned "Sala Suggia" at Porto Casa da Musica. He has also performed solo with orchestras including Hong Kong Symphonia (China), Orquestra Sinfonica do Espirito Santo (Brazil) Porto Symphony Orchestra, Orquestra do Norte and Orquestra Classica do Sul (Portugal) and has worked with well-known conductors such as Martin Andre, Gunter Neuhold, Choi Swon Le, Nicholas Kok, Pedro Neves, Victor Toro and Nuno Corte-Real.

With 6 years old he gave his first public appearance at the Porto Tram Museum. He had been chosen, by his virtuosity, among students of Estrelita Yamaha Music School, in Porto, where he started learning the piano at age of 4.

In 2000, he was admitted with distinction at the Porto Music Conservatory, where he has studied with Prof. Rosgard Lingardson. In 2010, he finished his studies achieving the highest mark. He has participated in many piano masterclasses, with many known professors, such as, Paul Badura-Skoda, Peter Donohoe, Boris Berman, Dimitri Alexeev, John Lill, Phillipe Cassard, Alvaro Teixeira Lopes, Luiz de Moura Castro, Yuri Bogdanov, Andrew Ball, Pedro Burmester, Fausto Neves, Ian Jones, Betty Haag-Kuhnke, Cristina Ortiz, Sergei Covalenco, among others.

Since the age of 7, Vasco also has been studying the violin. He worked with professor Jose Paulo Jesus. He achieved distinction as a violinist, in the "Momentum Perpetuum" Orchestra, directed by the famous British conductor Martin Andre, in the "Oficial Music Conservatoires Youth Orchestra" (OJCOM), in Portugal, and in the Lisbon Metropolitan Young Orchestra, as concertmaster.

Vasco has performed in hundreds of musical events in a series of renowned auditoriums in Portugal, Spain, Brazil, France, Greece, Germany and United Kingdom, such as the Theatre of San Agustin (Madrid), Teatro Caixa Nova (Vigo, Spain) the Whiteley Hall (Manchester), Amaryllis Fleming RCM Concert Hall (London), Sala Suggia, the CCB and the Literary Guild in Lisbon, the Casa da Musica, Commercial Athenaeum, Helena Sa e Costa Theatre and Romantic Museum, in Porto, among others.

Vasco has performed for the first time, on live, to the Portuguese National Television (RTP1) at the age of 6 years old. He has also performed and has been interviewed on live by the Portuguese National Radio Station (Antena 2) and Porto Channel. He has recorded many times on CD, by invitation, one of them for the Galician Radio.