Ensemble Darcos is one of the most prestigious Portuguese chamber ensembles, recognized and respected both by specialists and the audience. Created in 2002 by composer and conductor Nuno Côrte-Real, Ensemble Darcos has its main focus on the interpretation of the great European composers, such as Beethoven, Brahms or Debussy, and the music of Côrte-Real. It varies between different formations going from duo to the typical nineteenth-century formation of fifteen musicians, and develops its activity around cellist Filipe Quaresma, violinist Gaël Rassaert, pianist Helder Marques and violist Reyes Gallardo. Ensemble Darcos regularly invites leading musicians such as pianist António Rosado, violist Ana Bela Chaves, cellist Mats Lidström, violinists Massimo Spadano, Giulio Plotino and Junko Naito, and percussionist Miquel Bernat. For the lyrical programs, always very much appreciated, the ensemble has performed and recorded with some of the most interesting Portuguese singers such as Ana Quintans, Dora Rodrigues, Eduarda Melo, Job Tomé, Lara Martins, Luís Rodrigues, among others. Since 2006, the Ensemble Darcos is based in Torres Vedras, and, since 2008, integrates the Temporada Darcos, a season of chamber and symphonic concerts, with Portuguese public financial support and artistic direction of Nuno Côrte-Real. Among many others we name some special performances in venues such as Dias da Música (CCB Lisbon), Magnus Hall (Berlin), St. John's Smith Square (London), Budapest Music Center, to name a select few. In 2010, the Portuguese National Television (RTP) broadcasted a concert with a series of songs  by Cole Porter arranged by Nuno Corte-Real for the ensemble, with singers Sónia Alcobaça and Rui Baeta and a special collaboration with the Camerata du Rhône. This concert was also presented in Lyon, France. The Ensemble Darcos discography includes “Volupia” (Numerica 2012], entirely dedicated to Nuno Côrte-Real's chamber music, “Mirror of the Soul” (Odradek 2016), "Lagarto Pintado“ (Artway Records 2019), “Agora Muda Tudo” (Odradek 2019), “Cante” (Odradek 2020) and “Time Stands Still” (Artway Records 2020) with excellent national and international reviews. Recently, Ensemble Darcos, by the hand of Nuno Côrte-Real, embarked on its biggest record challenge: recording the song cycle “Tremor” at the acclaimed Teldex Studios in Berlin (Germany) with the award-winning music producer Tobias Lehmann, edited by the label German Ars Produktion (2021).

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Booking and Agency:

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