Bárbara Lopes, bassoon
Freelancer based in Zürich | Soloist Master’s at ZHdK
Bárbara Lopes (*1997) is a Portuguese bassoonist based in Zürich, Switzerland. Active in both orchestral and solo performance, she recently completed her Master’s degree specialized in Soloist Performance at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste (ZHdK) under the guidance of Professor Giorgio Mandolesi.
A former academist of the Opernhaus Zürich Orchestra (seasons 2023-2025), Bárbara is active as a freelance orchestral musician, having collaborated with ensembles such as the Orchestre de Paris, Berner Symphonieorchester, Orquestra Filarmónica Portuguesa, Espinho Classical Orchestra, Zürcher Kammerphillharmonie, and the festival orchestras of Höri Musiktage Bodensee and Pacific Music Festival. Her orchestral experience allowed her to perform under numerous celebrated conductors including Gianandrea Noseda, Klaus Mäkelä, Lahav Shani, Marco Armiliato, Krzysztof Urbański, Lorenzo Viotti and Pedro Neves. She will perform as guest solo bassoon with Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in spring 2026.
In the solo realm, Bárbara was recently awarded 2nd prize at the International Bassoon Competition Gioachino Rossini (Italy, October 2025) in addition to her awards at the LowBb Bassoon Cluster (Italy, 2024), Terras de La Salette (Portugal, 2019), and the Double Reed Festival (Portugal, 2019) international competitions. She has also been invited to participate in the prestigious The Muri Competition in April 2026. Bárbara has performed as a soloist with the Webern Kammerphilharmonie at the ISA Music Festival (Austria, July 2025), with the Conservatorio Rossini Orchestra under the baton of Milan Turkovic at Teatro Della Fortuna (Fano, Italy, October 2025), and she will perform Weber’s Bassoon Concerto with the Musikkollegium Winterthur in May 2026.
Bárbara’s versatility extends to her collaboration in multidisciplinary projects, such as IRON TO RUST (ferro à ferrugem), created with the circus artist Alan Sencades, blending contemporary circus, movement, and live bassoon music. The project has been presented at various venues and festivals across Portugal since November 2021.
She began her musical studies at the age of 6 at the Music Conservatory Calouste Gulbenkian Braga. She completed her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Artistic Interpretation in Portugal at the University of Aveiro and Superior School of Performing Arts (ESMAE) studying with Professors Pedro Silva and José Pedro Figueiredo. At ZHdK she also studied contrabassoon with Hans Agreda. Her musical education has been regularly complemented by courses with esteemed bassoonists, including Dag Jensen, Matthias Rácz, Carlo Colombo, Stefan Schweigert, Marco Postinghel, Urs Dengler, Raffaele Giannotti, Afonso Venturieri, Tobias Pelkner, Anne Gerstenberger, Sophie Dervaux and Axel Benoit. Her studies in Switzerland have been generously supported by Freundeskreis Musik ZHdK, Elsy Meyer, Bruno Schuler, and Animato Foundations.
Bárbara has recently been admitted to the Konzertexamen program at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold with Professor Tobias Pelkner, beggining in the spring semester of 2026.
