Percussionist André Castro, a former student of the Academia Nacional Superior de Orquestra (ANSO), has won the position of Principal Timpanist with the Welsh National Opera Orchestra, standing out among international candidates and reaching a new milestone in his career.
A graduate of ANSO, where he studied with Richard Buckley, Pedro Silva, Rui Sul Gomes and Fernando Llopis, André began his musical training at the SFOA Music School, continued at the Conservatório Nacional, and at the Conservatório de Música da Metropolitana (CMM) with Marco Fernandes. He later furthered his studies with Nando Russo at the Conservatorio Lorenzo Perosi and at the Escola Superior de Artes Aplicadas.
In recent years, he has collaborated regularly with major national and international orchestras, including the Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Portuguese Symphony Orchestra, Casa da Música Symphony Orchestra, Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, Nederlands Kamerorkest and Nederlands Philharmonisch Orkest. From 2018 to 2022 he was a permanent member of the PSP Wind Band, and he is currently a member of the Cascais and Oeiras Chamber Orchestra, while also teaching at the conservatoires of Cascais and Sintra.
He has also distinguished himself as a soloist — performing with the EMCN percussion ensemble at the Tomarimbando Festival (2016) and premiering in 2025 the Concerto for Timpani and Orchestra by J. Carlos Alves — and has taken part in leading international training programmes such as the Gulbenkian Orchestra Academy, the Orchestre des Jeunes de la Méditerranée, and the Wieland Paukenkurs.