Curriculum
About Me
Born in Porto, Portuguese violinist Afonso Fesch has built a prolific career as a chamber musician, soloist, and orchestral player across Europe. His artistic development was shaped by esteemed mentors, including Yossif Grinman, Gerardo Ribeiro, Pavel Vernikov, Dora Schwarzberg, Raphaël Oleg, Rainer Schmidt, and Ivry Gitlis.
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A passionate advocate for chamber music, Afonso has performed both as a soloist and chamber musician alongside distinguished artists such as Guy Braunstein, Giuliano Carmignola, Thomas Demenga, Maxim Emelyanychev, Simon Crawford-Phillips, Yoel Gamzou, Otto Tausk, François Benda, Silvia Simonescu, Roland Glassl, Pascal Siffert, Diemut Poppen, Anton Kernjak, Raphaël Oleg, and Ivry Gitlis, among many others.
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As a soloist, he has appeared with leading ensembles including the Hamburger Symphoniker, Staatsorchester Kassel, Basel Sinfonieorchester, Porto Symphony Orchestra at Casa da Música, International Mahler Orchestra, Harbin
Symphony Orchestra, and the Stuttgarter Philharmoniker.
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In the realm of contemporary music, Afonso regularly collaborates with cutting-edge ensembles and composers such as Jörg Widmann, Peter Rundel, Heinz Holliger, Thomas Demenga, Helmut Lachenmann, Thomas Adès, Harrison Birtwistle, and Ilya Gringolts. He recorded Mysteriendramen by Elmar Lampson for the col legno label and premiered Lampson’s Violin Concerto in 2014 with the Staatsorchester Kassel.
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He has also held concertmaster roles with several notable ensembles, including the International Mahler Orchestra, Ensemble Musique des Lumières, and has frequently appeared as a guest concertmaster with other orchestras and ensembles.
From 2020 to 2024, Afonso was the solo second violin of the Royal Danish Orchestra in Copenhagen. He is currently Principal First Violin of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in Edinburgh, where he now resides.
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Afonso has performed in leading roles under the baton of renowned conductors such as Krzysztof Penderecki, Jonathan Nott, Michael Sanderling, Gábor Takács Nagy, Paolo Carignani, Maxim Emelyanychev, Nikolaj Znaider, Pekka Kuusisto, Riccardo Minasi, Andrew Manze, and Eliahu Inbal, among others.
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He plays on two instruments: a modern violin by Marc Pacquin (2023) and a circa-1700 Giuseppe Guarneri.
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