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Details as composer
Carlos Damas was born in Coimbra, Portugal. At the age of 3 years old he attended the Conservatory of this same city and at the age of 6 he moved to Lisbon and started his violin studies with professors Vasco Brôco, Alexandra Mendes and Leonor Prado. He played as a soloist for the first time at the age of 15 with the National Radio Symphonic Orchestra, conducted by Silva Pereira. In 1989 Carlos Damas represented his country in the International Music Camp, and the American String Teachers Association awarded Carlos Damas for “Excellence in Performance and Leadership”. He has worked with the conductor Joseph Giunta. That same year Damas was awarded in the Portuguese Youth Musical Competition. In 1990 he established residence in Paris where he attended the Conservatory, where he worked with Mrs. Jacqueline Lefévre and met with master Ivry Gitlis. In 1992 he was the concertmaster of the International Orchestra of the "Cité Internationale de Paris”. During these years he worked under the orientation of Sir Yehudi Menuhin. As a soloist he has collaborated with different orchestras such as the Orchestre Jeune Philarmonie and the Camerata de St. Severin. He was also invited to participate in the Eastern Music festival and to collaborate with Santo Domingo Symphonic Orchestra. He was the concertmaster of the Orchestre de La Cité in Paris during three years. In 1993 Carlos Damas played for the first time in Paris the violin Concerto by the Portuguese composer Luis de Freitas Branco. He participated in Masterclasses by Master Shlomo Mintz. Damas graduated in 1993 with the best classification by unanimity of the jury. In 1995 his first recording was released by the label Numérica (Portugal). In 1996 he was invited to participate in the Sammering Festival and Worked with Dora Schwarzberg and the pianist Yuri Smirnov. He participated in the Salzburg Mozart Festival. In September 1996 he was invited to be an assistant concertmaster of the Macao Chamber Orchestra, having later played as a second violin principal. In China he played with the Orchestra of Macao, Canton Symphony and Hong-Kong Philharmonic. In I997, his second CD was edited by Tradisom (Macao-Asia Portugal). He participated in the Macao Music Festival, the Arts Festival of Macao and was the only european to be invited to the 5th Arts Festival of R.P. China. In 2001 a new CD was released with works for solo violin by Bach, Lopes-Graça, Prokofiev and Yan-Jun-Hua. In 2002 he played the 10 Beethoven violin sonatas, the Brahms piano Quartet, the Prokofiev Quintet with winds. In 2003/4, Carlos Damas played Luis de Freitas Branco’s violin Sonatas in Japan, Korea and Europe. In 2004 a CD with a live recording of Beethoven's sonatas nºs.4 and 5 for violin and piano was released. In December 2006 the CD Modern Music for solo Violin was realesed on the international market, which includes two world première recordings: one by the composer Sérgio Azevedo the another by Fernando Lopes-Graça. The composer Sérgio Azevedo dedicated his Sonatas for violin solo and the Serenata for violin and string orchestra to Carlos Damas; the Serenata will be premiered during the 2007/2008 season.