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The Portuguese conductor and composer, Nuno Côrte-Real, obtained his Licentiate degree in Composition from Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa (1992-1995). He continued his Composition studies at HKU (Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht (1995-1998); and at Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences (Licentiate degree in Composition: 1998-2001)). He studied Orchestral Conducting at Academia Nacional Superior de Orquestra de Lisboa (2002-2004).
In 1998 Nuno Côrte-Real presented in Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian - Encontros Acarte - the music theatre show “O Sentimento dum Ocidental, enthusiastically received by the Foundation and music critics. Quoting musicologist Rui Vieira Nery, Côrte-Real is a “composer with creative freedom, challenging all current stylistic labels (…) in full production and full consecration, always with the capacity to involve us emotionally, very healthy and very pure, in his own and original way”. He won, consecutively, the prize for Best Classical Music Work of the Portuguese Society of Authors, in 2018 and 2019, with the song cycle Now Every Thing Changes, and the opera bufa Bandit Song, respectively. His CD, “Tremor” (Ars Produktion 2021), has been nominated in five categories at the Opus Klassiek Awards.
Among his most important premieres are the opera Banksters, at the Portuguese National Opera Theatre, the chamber opera A Montanha, at Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, 7 Dances to the Death of the Harpist, at the Kleine Zaal of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Concerto Vedras, at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, in New York, Novíssimo Cancioneiro, at the Siglufirdi Festival in Iceland, Andarilhos - ballet music, at Casa da Música in Oporto, and Kind of concerto - Concerto for Tuba and Orchestra, with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León, Spain. In December 2022, after an invitation from the most famous Portuguese religious monument, Mosteiro dos Jerónimos (Jerónimos Monastery), in Lisbon, he conceived, conducted and directed the closure concert of the 5th centenary of the death of King D. Manuel (1522-2022), with the orchestra and choir of São Carlos National Opera Theatre, light design by Nuno Meira, and a sound installation by Süse Ribeiro, one of the most complex and grand events held in the Church of the Monastery.
His discography includes albums edited nationally and internationally in various musical genres and several renowned labels, such as “Volupia” (Numérica 2012), “Mirror of the Soul” (Odradek 2016), “Agora Muda Tudo” (Odradek 2019), “Cante” (Odradek 2020), “Time Stands Still” (Artway Records 2020), and “Hukvaldy Cycle” (Naxos 2021). In the scenic world, Nuno Côrte-Real has worked with some of the leading names in opera, theater, literature and film in Portugal and abroad, both as conductor and composer. In 2022, his original soundtrack for the film Terra Nova (directed by Artur Ribeiro) has been nominated for the Portuguese Cinema Prizes “Sophia”.
In an ascending international career as a conductor, Nuno Côrte-Real has worked with Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, Orquesta Sinfonica de Castilla y León, Symphonic Orchestra of the Hungarian State Opera, Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa, Orquesta Ciudad de Granada, Orquestra dela Toscana, Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa, Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain, among many others, besides to numerous projects with Ensemble Dacros. Additionally, he has worked with internationally renowned soloists such as Shlomo Mintz, Ann Peterson, Nicola Ulivieri, Mats Lidström, Ana Quintans, Artur Pizarro, Elisabete Matos, António Rosado, among many others.
Nuno Côrte-Real is the founder and musical director of Ensemble Dacros, a chamber music group dedicated to the interpretation of his music and the great European repertoire, and he is the artistic director of Temporada Darcos, one of the most prestigious Portuguese international festivals of classical music. He was a scholarship holder of the National Center of Culture, and in 2003 was awarded the Medal of Cultural Merit of Torres Vedras City Council. Côrte-Real works regularly with the Portuguese Symphonic Orchestra and the Choir of São Carlos National Opera Theatre, in Lisbon.
Nuno Côrte-Real has also worked at Escola Superior de Música e Artes do Espetáculo do Porto: Professor Convidado de Composição (2004/2005); Invited Professor of
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