Winner of the 2017 Cadaqués International Conducting Competition, Nuno Coelho has been recently appointed Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias and continues his collaboration as Guest Conductor of Orquestra Gulbenkian. 2021/22 season highlights include debuts with the Dresden Philharmonie, Staatsorchester Hannover, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Gavle Symphony, Malmö Symphony, Residentie Orkest, Antwerp Symphony, Orchestre philharmonique de Strasbourg, Orchestre National de Lille; alongside returns to Orquesta Sinfonica de Galicia and Orquestra Simfónica de Barcelona. In March 2023 he will make his Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra debut.
In recent seasons Nuno has conducted the Hamburg Symphoniker, Beethoven Orchester Bonn, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Orquesta Sinfonica de Castilla y Leon, Orchestra del Teatro Regio Torino and Noord Nederlands Orkest. In spring 2019 he stepped in for Bernard Haitink to conduct the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and during the 2018/19 season he conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic as a Dudamel Fellow on numerous occasions, including presenting a world premiere as part of their “Green Umbrella” new music series.
In the theatre Nuno has conducted productions of La traviata, Cavalleria rusticana, Rusalka and Das Tagebuch der Anne Frank, and assisted Marc Albrecht on Pierre Audi’s production of Parsifal at the Dutch National Opera. As a Tanglewood Conducting Fellow in 2016 and 2017 he led several performances with the festival orchestra, including a staging of Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins.
Assistant Conductor of the Netherlands Philharmonic from 2015-17, Nuno returned to the orchestra in July 2018 for a concert at the Concertgebouw as part of Robeco SummerNights. The same summer saw him conduct the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra as a participant in the Daniele Gatti Masterclass. As an assistant, he has worked with Bernard Haitink, Susanna Mälkki, Andris Nelsons and Gustavo Dudamel, amongst others.
Born in Porto, Nuno studied violin in Klagenfurt and Brussels, and conducting at the Zürich University of the Arts with Johannes Schlaefli. He won First Prize at the Portuguese Radio Conducting Competition, the Neeme Järvi Prize at the Gstaad Menuhin Festival and was a finalist at the Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Competition.
In 2014 he received a scholarship from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and in 2015 he was admitted into the German Music Council’s Dirigentenforum, who subsequently named him one of their “Conductors of Tomorrow”.
This biography should not be edited without permission from Askonas Holt.
Nestlé & Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award
“Der dritte Kandidat, der 28-jährige Portugiese Nuno Coelho, durfte sich jedenfalls – gemeinsam mit der zum dritten mal exzellent aufgestellten Camerata Salzburg – nach Kodálys „Tänzen aus Galanta“ im Jubel baden. (…) Schon Schuberts Fünfte am Beginn ließ er delicatissimo und mit locker-tänzerischem Animo spielen, dabei mit feinem Sinn für Formgefühl und gut austarierter Klangbalance zwischen pointieren Bläsern und schön abgemischten Streichern.”
Salzburger Nachrichten, 7 Aug 2017
ORQUESTA Sinfónica de galicia
"La versión de la Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia al mando de Nuno Coelho fue impecable, cuidadosa, consciente del lenguaje y de su significado.
El joven (Oporto, 1989), premiado —en el Concurso de Cadaqués, por ejemplo— y suficientemente preparado maestro portugués firmó luego una magnífica versión de la Pastoral beethoveniana en la que mostró, junto a una orquesta muy concentrada, no sólo competencia técnica sino una idea muy clara de la partitura en la que, a mi entender, destacó el modo de tratar el segundo movimiento, con una delectación casi al límite, demorado pero clarísimo, definiendo muy bien cada plano sonoro —fue una excelente idea la de colocar primeros y segundos violines enfrentados—, cuidando enormemente cada mínimo detalle dinámico con naturalidad y sin aspavientos."
Luis Nuñen, Scherzo, 11 October 2020