Biography

Carlos Bertão, born into a family of Azorean diaspora in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is a bassoonist specialized not only in historical instruments but also in symphonic and opera music, thanks to his tenure as a bassoonist in the Symphony Orchestra of Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro. After completing his bachelor's degree under the guidance of Aloysio Fagerlande at UFRJ, he became a bassoonist in the National Symphony Orchestra (UFF). His passion for exploring different styles led him to Geneva in 2018, where he gained experiences with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and the Orchestre de chambre fribourgeois, among others.

 

Always interested in artistic research, he has delved into the solo bassoon repertoire of the Brazilian composer Francisco Mignone, recording his Sonatina for solo bassoon for the first time. He has represented Brazilian music in Portugal, Tunisia, Germany, and the United States, also participating in the "Música em Viagem" initiative by the Secretariat of Communities, in the Azores in 2009 and in California in 2010.

 

He won the Chamber Music Prize at the Villa-Lobos Festival in 2017 with the Rio de Janeiro Reed Trio. In the same year, he shared with Vivian Meira the 2nd Prize ex aequo at the Brazilian Double Reed Association Competition (first prize not awarded) held in João Pessoa.

 

In recent years, specializing in early repertoire, he created in 2022 the show Edipo re based on pieces from opera seria collected in Italian libraries, with the research project called Pasticcio alla napoletana at the Haute école de musique in Geneva. He has performed baroque bassoon in concerts in Switzerland, France, Germany, and Austria. In 2023, he graduated from the historical bassoon class under the guidance of the brilliant Giulia Genini.

 

He has participated in intensive courses with bassoonists such as Milan Turkovic, Carlo Colombo, Fábio Cury, Philipp Zeller, Frank Forst, and Elione Medeiros, as well as specialized courses in early music with Jérémie Papasergio, François Lazarevitch, Benoît Dratwicki, and Sergio Azzolini.

Recipient of a cultural scholarship from the Leenaards Foundation in 2023, he is embarking on a research of historical sources to better understand the role of the bassoon in baroque opera. He teaches bassoon at the Académie Internationale des Arts du Léman.

 

During the Geneva Baroque Biennale 2023, a European symposium on baroque music themes, he presented jointly with Donna Agrell and Giovanni Battista Graziadio, from the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, about the research project animated by them, a team of scholars they integrate, which investigates the historical practice of fagottinos and tenoroons, smaller instruments of the bassoon family used in the 18th and 19th centuries. In partnership with the Geneva research project Pasticcio alla napoletana, he performed in Geneva the modern premiere of the aria Giusti Numi from Nicola Porpora's opera.

 

Among his chamber music projects are the Lorenzo Fernandez Quintet (of which he was a founder in 2010), the Rio Mönnig Fagotti (a quartet of carioca bassoonists led by Aloysio Fagerlande and sponsored by the Mönnig bassoon firm), and the Dualités Réminiscentes, specialized in the performance of peculiar soprano and bassoon repertoire, with Inês Flores-Brasil. Since 2019, he has been part of the Ensemble Alma Brasileira team, an initiative that brings together Brazilian musicians who have passed through or are currently at the Haute école de musique at Geneva.