Docente

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Born in Recife, Brazil, in 1957 to a family of musicians, Antonio Meneses began his cello studies at the age of ten. When he was sixteen, he met the famous cellist Antonio Janigro who took him to Europe to take his courses in Düsseldorf and Stuttgart.

In 1977 Antonio Meneses won first prize at the ARD International Competition in Munich, and in 1982 he received first prize and a gold medal at the ‘Tchaikovsky’ Competition in Moscow.

Appearing in all the musical capitals of Europe, North and South America and Asia, Antonio Meneses performed regularly with many of the world’s leading orchestras. Among the conductors with whom he has collaborated are Claudio Abbado, Semyon Bychkov, Riccardo Chailly, Charles Dutoit, Daniele Gatti, Neeme Järvi, Mariss Jansons, Herbert von Karajan, Kurt Masur, Riccardo Muti, Kent Nagano, Andre Previn, Mstislav Rostropovich, Kurt Sanderling, Vladimir Spivakov, Yuri Temirkanov, and Christian Thielemann.

Antonio Meneses was also a regular guest at numerous music festivals such as the Salzburg Festival, the Vienna and Berlin Festwochen, La Grange de Meslay, the Prague Spring Festival, the ‘Pablo Casals’ Festival in Puerto Rico, the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York, the Tanglewood and Ravinia Festivals, the Lucerne Festival, the Colmar Festival, and the Jerusalem Chamber Music Festival.

An chamber musician, Antonio Meneses frequently collaborated with the Vermeer Quartet and the Emerson Quartet; every summer he performed in concert in Siena and in duos with such pianists as Gérard Wyss and Menahem Pressler. He also collaborated with the likes of Maria João Pires, Nelson Freire and Cristina Ortiz. In addition, Antonio Meneses was part of the latest lineup of the legendary Beaux Arts Trio together with Daniel Hope and Menahem Pressler.

In the recording field, Antonio Meneses has made two highly successful recordings for Deutsche Grammophon with Herbert von Karajan and the Berliner Philharmoniker: the Brahms Double Concerto for Violin and Cello with Anne-Sophie Mutter and Richard Strauss’s Don Quixote. He then recorded the complete works for cello by Villa-Lobos (Auvidis France and Bis), David Popper and C. P. E. Bach (Pan Records). His last recordings include Bach’s six Suites for solo cello, the complete works for cello and piano by Schubert, Schumann and Mendelssohn performed together with Gérard Wyss on piano, and the complete works for cello and piano by Beethoven together with Menahem Pressler. In addition, Antonio Meneses recorded Clovis Pereira’s Cello Concertos and Concertino with Northern Sinfonia (AVIE Records).