Pedro Miguel Silva

Povilas Jacunskas was born in 1983, Vilnius. From 1988 to 2001, he studied cello with the teacher A. Palšauskas at the National M. K. Čiurlionis Art Gymnasium. Currently he studies cello at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre with the assistant E. Kulikauskas.

Born in Guimarães, Pedro Silva is one of the most acclaimed musicians and teachers of his generation. He began his bassoon studies at the Escola Profissional Artística do Vale do Ave, later completing both a Bachelor’s degree and a Master’s degree in Artistic Performance at the Escola Superior de Música do Porto, studying under Professor Hugues Kesteman. He also holds the Specialist Degree in Bassoon.

He continued his studies at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe (Germany), in the class of Professor Günther Pfizenmaier. In parallel, he attended numerous masterclasses given by Sérgio Azzolini, Carlo Colombo, Milan Turkovic, and Dag Jensen in Portugal, Germany, Switzerland, and France.

As a performer, he has appeared at some of the most important international festivals in countries such as Portugal, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Panama, and Brazil. He was a permanent member of the Orquestra do Norte, the Orquestra Filarmonia das Beiras, and the Orquestra Nacional do Porto. Between 2005 and 2019, he was a member of the Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música, and has also collaborated with several other leading orchestras on the national and international scene, most notably the Gulbenkian Orchestra and the Orchestre de Paris.

Pedro has also been actively involved in other ensembles, including the Gulbenkian Orchestra Soloists, the Porto Symphony Orchestra Soloists, the Zelenka Quintet, and, on a regular basis since its foundation, the Remix Ensemble. He is a founding member of Trivm de Palhetas and Camerata Senza Misura, with whom he has released recordings on the Numérica label. Pedro has premiered over one hundred works as an orchestral and chamber musician. Particularly noteworthy are the works dedicated to him as a soloist by composers Jean-François Lézé, Fernando Lapa, Carlos Azevedo, Sérgio Azevedo, Telmo Marques, Pedro Faria Gomes, and José Luís Ferreira. He has also served on several competition juries, including the Prémio Jovens Músicos (2012/2016 and 2024) and the Helena Sá e Costa Competition.

In his pedagogical activity, he has been instrumental in establishing bassoon classes in several academies and music schools within the national music education system. He is currently a tenured professor of bassoon and chamber music at the Escola Superior de Música do Porto (ESMAE) and regularly gives masterclasses at leading national and international institutions.