AFONSO FESCH, violin
Born in Porto, Afonso Fesch has been regularly heard in the last decade, both as a chamber musician and soloist all over Europe. The young violinist had the opportunity of learning from great pedagogues during his training. Mentors such as Yossif Grinman, Gerardo Ribeiro, Pavel Vernikov, Dora Schwarzberg, Raphaël Oleg and Ivry Gitlis were essential to his artistic development.
A strong advocate of chamber music, Afonso had the privilege of sharing the stage as chamber musician or soloist with musicians such as Guy Braunstein, Giuliano Carmignola, Yoel Gamzou, Otto Tausk, François Benda, Silvia Simonescu, Roland Glassl, Diemut Poppen, Miguel Borges Coelho, Anton Kernjak, Delphine Lizé, Raphaël Oleg, Ivry Gitlis, among others.
Between 2008 and 2014, Afonso worked as the 1st concertmaster of the International Mahler Orchestra with whom he played, as well, many times both as soloist and in different chamber music formations.
Afonso Fesch had the pleasure of working with conductors such as Krzysztof Penderecki, Jonathan Nott, Michael Sanderling and Eliahu Inbal. The portuguese violinist has played as a guest soloist with various orchestras such as the Hamburger Symphoniker, Staatsorchester Kassel, Basel Sinfonieorchester, Porto Symphony Orchestra of Casa da Música, International Mahler Orchestra, Harbin Symphony Orchestra and the Stuttgarter Philharmoniker.
Afonso was recently appointed for the principal 1st violin position of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.
Afonso Fesch plays on a 1871 Jean-Baptiste Villaume violin from the orchestra's collection.