Portuguese and Swiss Rui Lopes has studied in Porto, Basel and Munich with the professors Hugues Kesteman, Sergio Azzolini and Marco Postinghel. Lopes received the 1st prize of the Estoril Interpretation Contest in 2008 and has participated in musical festivals such as Schleswig-Holstein, Martinu, Davos, Lucerna, SoNoRo, Oficina de Música de Curitiba and Stellenbosch. As a soloist, he has performed with Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa, Finnish National Opera Orchestra, Zurich Symphony Orchestra, Basel Symphony Orchestra, Czech Chamber Orchestra, Kremlin Chamber Orchestra, among others. He has played as 1st Bassoon at the Paris Orchestra, Camerata Bern, at the chamber orchestras of Zurich, Basel and Munich, at the Modern Ensemble, Les Dissonances Orchestra and the Lucerne Symphonic Orchestra, with musicians like Maurizio Polini, Christoph Eschenbach, Bernard Haitink, Jiří Bělohlávek, Sakari Oramo, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Pierre Boulez. He was a member of the Finnish National Opera as 1st bassoonist and of the Spanish National Contemporary Music Ensemble in Madrid as solo bassoonist. As a bassoon and chamber music professor, he worked at Aveiro University, National Superior Academy of Orchestra Metropolitana and Luxembourg Conservatory. Currently he is a member of Camerata Variabile Basel, Mythen Ensemble, Portuguese Chamber Soloists and frequently collaborates with musicians such as Konstantin Lifschitz, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Teodoro Anzellotti, Nabil Shehata, Sebastian Manz, Ramon Ortega, Nicholas Daniel and Loïc Schneider. Rui Lopes is a passionate contemporary musician and collaborates with composers as Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Dieter Ammann, Wynton Marsalis and Marcelo Nisinman and has debuted several pieces written for him. His last solo CD, “Through Time”, in which he plays as a soloist with the English Chamber Orchestra has been acclaimed by the press and has granted him interviews with BBC Music Magazine, Gramophone, Das Orchester and Rondo.