Born in Recife, Brazil in 1957 into a family of musicians, Antonio Meneses began his cello studies at the age of ten. At the age of 16, he met the famous Italian cellist Antonio Janigro and was asked to join Janigro's classes in Dusseldorf and later in Stuttgart. In 1977, Antonio won the first Prize at the International Competition in Munich and in 1982, he was awarded first Prize and gold Medal at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.
Regularly appearing in the music capitals of Europe, the Americas and Asia, Antonio Meneses has performed with most of the world's leading orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony, BBC Symphony, Concertgebouw, Vienna Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, Moscow Philharmonic, Saint Petersburg Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Bayerische Rundfunk Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra (Washington D.C.), in Buenos Aires, in Warsaw, in Brazil, and with the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo. Among the conductors with whom he has collaborated are Herbert von Karajan, Riccardo Muti, Mariss Jansons, Claudio Abbado, Andre Previn, Andrew Davis, Semyon Bychkov, Herbert Blomstedt, Gerd Albrecht, Yuri Temirkanov, Kurt Sanderling, Neeme Jarvi, Mstislav Rostropovitch, Vladimir Spivakov, and Riccardo Chailly.
Antonio is also a frequent guest at many important music festivals, including Puerto Rico (Festival Pablo Casals), Salzburg, Lucerne, the Vienna Festwochen, the Berlin Festwochen, the Prague Spring Festival, New York (Mostly Mozart Festival), Seattle, la Grange de Meslay, the Festival de Colmar, and the Jerusalem Chamber Music Festival.
A devoted chamber music performer, Antonio Meneses has collaborated with the Emerson Quartet and the Vermeer Quartet on tour as well as with pianists such as Nelson Freire, Cristina Ortiz, and Gerard Wyss. Antonio has been a member of the Beaux Arts Trio since October 1998.
As a recording artist, Antonio Meneses made two recordings for Deutsche Grammophon with Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra: Brahms' Double Concerto for Violin and Cello with Anne Sophie Mutter and Richard Strauss' "Don Quixote". Antonio has also recorded the D'Albert Concerto, works by David Popper - both with the Basel Symphony Orchestra - and Cello Concertos by Carl Philip Emanuel Bach with the Munich Chamber Orchestra for Pan Classics. In addition he recorded the Tchaikovsky Piano Trio with Nadja Solerno-Sonnenberg and Cecile Licad for EMI/Angel, and Concertos and the Fantasy for Cello and Orchestra by Heitor Villa-Lobos for Auvidis France. His most recent recordings, the complete works for Cello and Piano by Villa-Lobos with Cristina Ortiz and encore pieces with Gerald Wyss, were released in 2002.
In addition to a busy concert schedule, Antonio Meneses gives master classes in Europe, the Americas, and in Japan.
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