Romeu Santos

Romeu Santos was born in 1978, in Paul (Covilhã). In 1994, he began his musical studies at the Escola Profissional de Artes da Beira Interior, in the Double Bass class of Professor João Panta Nunes, completing the course at the Escola Profissional de Música de Almada in 2000 with the highest grade. He earned his degree at the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa under the guidance of the renowned Professor Iury Axenov and completed his Master’s in Music Education at the same school.

He has collaborated with several orchestras, including the Orquestra do Algarve, the Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa, the Lisbon Film Orchestra, and the Orquestra da Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian. He served as Principal A with the Orquestra Internacional do Luxemburgo between 1996 and 1998, and with the Orquestra das Escolas de Música Particulares in 1998. In 1999, he appeared as a soloist with the Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa. That same year, he auditioned for the European Union Youth Orchestra, being selected as National Finalist and awarded an Honorable Mention. He won 1st Prize at the Prémio Jovens Músicos competition and received a scholarship from the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian. In 2001, he was awarded the Best Local Contestant prize at the 3rd Júlio Cardona String Instruments Competition. He has worked with distinguished conductors such as Cesário Costa, Christopher Bochmann, Richard Hortien, Ion Marin, Michael Zilm, Muhai Tang, Gunther Herbig, Leonard Slatkin, Péter Eötvös, Lowrence Foster, and Paavo Järvi, among others, and has performed alongside soloists such as Radu Lupu, Daniel Barenboim, Maria Guleghina, Barbara Hendricks, Håkan Hardenberger, Ivan Monighetti, and Michel Camilo.

Currently, he teaches Double Bass at the Escola Profissional Metropolitana and is a contracted musician with the Orquestra Gulbenkian.