Telmo Costa has been Principal Associate Clarinet of the Gulbenkian Orchestra since 2019. Alongside his orchestral career, he is Co-Founder and Artistic Director of the Santa Maria da Feira Chamber Music Series.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music, specializing in Clarinet, from the Basel Academy of Music (Hochschule für Musik Basel, Switzerland), where he also earned two Master of Arts degrees, one in Solo Performance and another in Performance. Additionally, he completed a Master’s degree in Music Education at the Lisbon Higher School of Music (Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa). His training was guided by prestigious teachers such as José Américo Belinha, Edgar Silva, Hélder Tavares, Manuel Jerónimo, and François Benda. He also furthered his expertise in several masterclasses with António Saiote, Nuno Pinto, Victor Pereira, Horácio Ferreira, Ricardo Alves, Juan Ferrer, Florent Héau, Kilian Herold, Harri Mäki, and Johannes Peitz.
He has been awarded several national and international prizes, notably: 1st Prize at the Luso-Spanish Competition in Fafe; 1st Prize at the APC International Clarinet Competition; the Golden Prize at the Vienna International Music Competition; 1st Prize at the North International Music Competition; and 1st Prize at the Prémio Jovens Músicos. In this final competition, he was also awarded the Maestro Silva Pereira Prize, the European Union of Music Competitions for Youth Prize, and the Richard Wagner Circle Prize.
Throughout his career, he has collaborated with various youth and professional orchestras, including the Portuguese Youth Orchestra (Jovem Orquestra Portuguesa), the Gulbenkian Orchestra Training Program (Estágio Gulbenkian para Orquestra), the Neue Philharmonie München, the Schweizer Jugend-Sinfonie-Orchester, the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, the Portuguese Philharmonic Orchestra (Orquestra Filarmónica Portuguesa), the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest), and the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, serving as an academy member in the latter.
In 2022, he began his studies in Orchestral Conducting under the guidance of Maestro Jean-Marc Burfin. Since then, he has participated in masterclasses with conductors Ernst Schelle, Jean-Marc Burfin, and Lawrence Foster, having conducted the Orquestra Filarmonia das Beiras, the Orquestra do Norte, and the Gulbenkian Orchestra. In 2024, he was appointed Assistant Conductor of the Portuguese Youth Orchestra (Jovem Orquestra Portuguesa) and the Portuguese Chamber Orchestra (Orquestra Câmara Portuguesa) for the 2024/2025 season.
