Francisca Galante – altviool

​

Born in 2003 in Portugal, Francisca Barradas Vaz Galante began her viola studies at the age of 6, when she joined Isabel Pimentel’s class at the Escola Artística de Música do Conservatório Nacional, Lisbon. She is currently studying with Nobuko Imai and Francien Schatborn at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. During the season of 2024/2025, Francisca is part of the Academy of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. In 2024, she was part of the Seiji Ozawa academy, a prestige academy dedicated for string quartets, where she had the opportunity of working with Nobuko Imai, Sadao Harada, Kazuki Yamada, Suyoen Kim, Julien Szulman and Marie Chilemme.

In masterclass, she has worked with, among others, Gerard Caussé, Daniel Bard, Timothy Ridout, Louise Lansdown and William Coleman (solo), and for chamber music with, among others, Marc Danel, Robert Kulek, Dmitri Ferschtman and Olivier Thiery.

​

Francisca is a laureate of many national and international competitions, including First Prizes in the Britten Concours (2021), the Prémio Ilda Moura (2019), the North International Music Competition (2019), the Concurso Nacional Cidade de Montijo (2018), and the Concurso Nacional de Cordas Vasco Barbosa and the IMKA International Music & Dance Internet Music Competition (2017). Several of these prizes have led to important solo engagements, for example two concertos with the Camerata Atlântica, and a further solo appearance with the Britten Youth Orchestra. The later engagement also saw Francisca perform live on Dutch NPO Radio 4, presented by Hans van den Boom and broadcast from the Concertgebouw’s Spiegelzaal.

​

In 2021, she won Second Prize and the JON Prize in the prestigious Prinses Christina Concours, which included an engagement to play solo with the JeugdOrkest Nederland (JON). 

 

As an orchestral musician, Francisca has been a member of the Portuguese Orquestra Sinfónica Juvenil and Jovem Orquestra Portuguesa, and in 2019 was co-principal viola of the first Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Young orchestra, conducted by James Ross and Pablo Heras-Casado, and a member of the National Youth Orchestra of the Netherlands, conducted by Anthony Hermus. During 2023 and 2024 she was part of the European Union Youth Orchestra, working with Ivan Fischer, Ginandrea Noseda, Antonio Pappano and Manfred Honeck. Francisca has also worked as a professional substitute with the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest directed by Karina Canellakis.

​

Francisca has won prizes for chamber music as early as 2017 (Concurso.Jovem.com), and is currently a member of the Otilka String Quartet with Iris van Nuland, Lucien Renette and Stefano Bruno. She has also toured with the violinist Iris van Nuland, performing Britten’s double concerto for violin and viola with the JON orchestra under the baton of Jurjen Hempel. In 2022 as part of her Britten Concours prize, she participated in the Stift Festival masterclass programme performing chamber music with Daniel Rowland and Maja Bogdanović. In 2021, she was engaged by the Oranjewoud Festival together with Matthieu van Bellen, Maria Milstein, Gideon den Herder and Hanna Shybayeva.