Foto: Katharina Kühl

Ricardo Silva- Kontrabass

was born in 2003 in Portugal, in the city of Viana do Castelo. He began his studies in 2014, at the Academia de Música de Viana do Castelo, in the double bass class of the teacher Jorge Castro. From 2016 onwards, he attended the double bass class of the teacher Jaime Alvarez, at the Escola Profissional Artística do Alto Minho, where he was part of the Orquestra Arte Sinfónica, conducted by Javier Viceiro.

As an instrumentalist, he attended masterclasses with Rafael Cunha, Adriano Aguiar and Nuno Arrais, and in the context of chamber music, with Jano Lisboa and Olga Prats. In 2017, he was a finalist in the Galicia Graves International Competition, where he had the opportunity to work with Petru Iuga, Andrés Martin and David Heyes.

From his orchestral experience, the position of Principal Double Bass, in the Orquestra APROARTE, Orquestra de Sopros da ARTEAM and Orquestra Arte Sinfónica stands out. Since 2019 he is member of Jovem Orquestra Portuguesa, a portuguese youth orchestra member of EFNYO – European Federation of Nation Youth Orchestras, more notoriously playing in the 2022 edition of Young Euro Classic, in Berlin.

He had the opportunity to work with conductors like Ernest Schelle, José Eduardo Gomes, Juliàn Lombana, Luis Carvalho, Moritz Gnann, Pedro Carneiro, Peter Askim, among many others, and accompanied soloists such as Narek Haknazaryan, Marie Ange Nguci, Kyril Zlotnikov, Aleksey Shadrin and Antje Weithaas.

He began his studies in the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg in October 2022 in the double bass class of professor Michael Rieber. He is currently a member of the HSO, the symphony orchestra of the same school, conducted by Ulrich Windfuhr. With this orchestra he frequently attends concerts around Germany, one exemple being the concert in the Elbphilharmonie in March 2025.

His most recent achievements include winning the third prize in the latest edition of the Elise Meyer-Wettbewerb; participation of a recording with the Staatsoper Hamburg conducted by Omer Meir Wellber and playing in the latest edition of the Krzyżowa-Music Chamber Music Festival in September 2025.