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Details as performer
 Pedro Carneiro is one of the very few percussion players to have made an international career as a soloist, and has established himself as one of the world's foremost solo percussionists, performing regularly throughout Europe, the Far East and the USA. Now at the age of 29, Carneiro has performed and conducted the world première of over 50 works and appears regularly with a wide range of acclaimed musicians such as the harpsichordist Elisabeth Chojnacka, cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras, pianists Valentina Lisitsa and Artur Pizarro, the Chilingirian and Shanghai string quartets, composers Steve Reich, Egberto Gismonti, James Dillon, Emmanuel Nunes and Django Bates. Pedro Carneiro took up the piano at the age of five, later studying cello and trumpet. At the Conservatório Nacional in Lisbon he studied with his father and at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama (with a scholarship from the Gulbenkian Foundation) he studied percussion and conducting with David Corkhill and Alan Hazeldine, where he graduated in 1997 with the Head of Department Award. Pedro also studied with a scholarship from the Centre Acanthes with Sylvio Gualda in 1993, later in London with the marimbist Leigh Howard Stevens and conducting in Milan with Emilio Pomárico. Carneiro has won several competitions and awards (Prémio Jovens Músicos, Prémio Maestro Silva Pereira, Park Lane Young Artists Auditions, Medal of Honor of the City of Setúbal, Distinction of the Orfeão de Leiria, an award from the Hattori Foundation in London, Distinction from the President of the Portuguese Republic on the 30th anniversary in April 2004, of the Carnation Revolution of 25th April 1974 and an Award from SiC TV Network in October 2004, given to 12 Portuguese rising stars, ranging from sport to music) and performs regularly in festivals and venues such as the BBC Proms, Rhythm Sticks Festival, Queen Elisabeth Hall and Purcell Room in London, Sonorities Festival in Belfast, Macau International Music Festival, Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago, New Zealand International Festival of the Arts, Capital Theatre in Beijing, La Biennale di Venezia, Folles Journées (Lisbon), Schumannfest in Düsseldorf, Festival Classique au Vert, Festival d'Ile de France, IRCAM in Paris, amongst others. Pedro has also performed recitals in cities such as London, Paris, Los Angeles, Hanover, Seville, Lisbon, Seoul and Hong Kong. In the last seasons, Pedro Carneiro has been performing the world premières of several new concertante, solo and chamber works written specifically for him by composers such as Erkki-Sven Tüür, John Psathas, João Madureira, Ian Wilson, Gabriel Erkoreka, Áskell Masson, Thanos Mikroutsikos and others. He has also performed new works for solo percussion and live electronics by Paul Wilson, Ricardo Climent, Pedro Rebelo, Cort Lippe, Pedro Amaral and João Pedro Oliveira; as well as new solos by Japanese composers Karen Tanaka and Dai Fujikura. Carneiro is a frequent guest soloist with numerous orchestras: BBC National Orchestra of Wales, London Mozart Players, Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid, Bilbao Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Régional de Basse-Normandie, Gävle Symfoniorkester and Portuguese Symphony Orchestra, to name but a few, working with conductors such as Petri Sakari, John Neschling, Ronald Zollman, Kaspar de Roo, Jurjen Hempel, Olari Elts, Andrew Parrott, Juanjo Mena, António Saiote, José Ramón Encinar, John Storgårds, Hamish McKeich, Max Rabinovitsj, Sarah Ioannides, Joseph Swensen and Dominique Debart, amongst others. Pedro has been heard and seen on radio and television stations throughout the world (BBC Radio 3, RAI, RNE, K-Mozart, WNYC, Artsworld, Mezzo, etc). In 2003 the British label Deux-Elles launched the solo CD "Crazy Mallets - Portuguese Music for Marimba". 2004 marked the beginning of Carneiro's ongoing collaboration with the French label Zig-Zag Territoires, who released a CD/DVD of the solo works of Iannis Xenakis in October, receiving astonishing reviews worldwide. Pedro Carneiro's new recording with the label is expected to be released in early 2006. As a composer, Carneiro's work is published by Editions BIM, Switzerland. His catalogue includes solo and chamber music, as well as works for contemporary dance. October 2003 saw the world première of his “...ni mots, ni signes...” with texts by the composer himself and the poet Sebastião da Gama; scored for voices, cello, prepared piano/percussion and electronics - commissioned by Câmara Municipal de Setúbal for the celebration of 250th anniversary of opera singer Luísa Todi. At the end of 2003, Carneiro finished "…when the dusk was wet with dew..." for solo percussion, inspired by the poetry of Sara Teasdale and Portuguese painter Paula Rego, commissioned by Phoenix Dance Theatre, UK. He is currently working on "Quattro Ritratti" (quadriphonic computer music) and on a new commission for a ballet for Portuguese choreographer Rui Lopes Graça. His projects for 2005 and 2006 include "Baladas e Virelais" (for orchestra and narrator, inspired on the work of Guillaume de Machaut and José Cardoso Pires) and a new work for the Swedish percussion ensemble Kroumata, based on a deconstruction of António Lobo Antunes’ book “Não entres tão depressa nessa noite escura”, by the young writer Alexandre Simas Dias. As a guest teacher, Pedro has given masterclasses in many prestigious conservatoires and universities, such as the Royal College of Music, Guildhall School of Music & Drama and Trinity College of Music in London, Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, São Paulo State University in Brazil and the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, to name but a few. He is the visiting professor of solo percussion studies at the Academia Nacional Superior de Orquestra in Lisbon. Carneiro performs exclusively on Malletech marimbas and mallets, and on Zildjian cymbals. EXTERNAL LINKS Pedro Carneiro