Date
7/5/2026

This season, as in previous years, Diogo Ferraz, a student on the Master’s degree course in Music Education at the School of Applied Arts (ESART) of the Castelo Branco Polytechnic (IPCB), in the French horn class taught by Paulo Guerreiro and Luis Vieira, is taking part in various international orchestral training projects for young musicians.

The student has once again been selected to join the Mediterranean Youth Orchestra (OJM). Part of the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence – which runs from 2 to 21 July – the OJM has, since 1984, brought together more than a hundred young talents from higher education institutions and cultural centres across the Mediterranean basin every year, offering them a unique platform for artistic exchange and development.

Diogo Ferraz has also been accepted onto the second edition of the Gulbenkian Orchestra Internship. Since 2013, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’s programme has aimed to promote orchestral experience and the artistic development of young Portuguese instrumentalists or those residing in Portugal, through intensive work guided by specialist tutors and musicians from the Gulbenkian Orchestra.

In addition, he will be taking part in the Mondego International Music Academy, a project organised by the Momentos À Corda Association. The initiative will take place in Coimbra from 1 to 10 July, with the aim of promoting orchestral practice, artistic development and personal enrichment through chamber music rehearsals, lessons with tutors and coaching sessions as part of a composition workshop.

The horn player from ESART-IPCB has also been selected for the reserve list of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, founded in Vienna (Austria) by conductor Claudio Abbado and bringing together Europe’s finest emerging talents. Established in 1992, the orchestra is open to musicians aged up to 27, holding auditions in some thirty cities.