Diana Vinagre
Baroque Cello & Artistic Direction
After completing her studies at the National Superior Academy of Orchestra in Lisbon, in the class of Paulo Gaio Lima, Diana’s long-standing interest in historically informed performance led her to the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, Netherlands. Under the tutelage of Jaap ter Linden, she obtained both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Historical Performance Practice with distinction, having been awarded the Top Talent Scholarship. During her studies she was a member of the European Union Baroque Orchestra and participated in the Jerwood Project with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
Diana has developed an intense professional activity with some of the most renowned early music ensembles, including the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Cappella Mediterranea, L’Arpeggiata, Les Arts Florissants, Orchestra of the 18th Century, Le Cercle de l’Harmonie, B’Rock, Ludovice Ensemble, Holland Baroque, Al Ayre Español, and Divino Sospiro, working under the direction of musicians such as René Jacobs, Barthold Kuijken, Leonardo García Alarcón, Ton Koopman, Enrico Onofri, Laurence Cummings, Christina Pluhar, Frans Bruggen, and Lars Ulrik Mortensen.
She regularly performs in the most important concert halls across Europe, both in orchestral and chamber music contexts, including the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Opéra Garnier and the Opéra Bastille in Paris, La Scala in Milan, the Barbican Centre, the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, the Philharmonie de Paris, and the Royal Albert Hall. She has also appeared at major early music festivals such as Utrecht, Aix-en-Provence, Ambronay, and Bruges.
Throughout her career she has participated in numerous recordings for radio stations such as Antena 2, Klara, BBC and France Musique, as well as for specialised television channels including Mezzo, Arte, and Culturebox. Her discography includes recordings for labels such as Alpha, Ricercare, Sony, and Winter & Winter.
In 2009 she founded Ensemble Bonne Corde, specialising in eighteenth-century repertoire for the cello, both instrumental and vocal, and actively engaging in the recovery of previously unpublished repertoire from the Baroque and Classical periods. In this context, her research and performance of Portuguese sacred repertoire from the second half of the eighteenth century and the early nineteenth century have been particularly notable; this subject formed the core of her doctoral research at NOVA University Lisbon (INET-md), under the supervision of Professor Rui Vieira Nery.
In 2021, together with double bassist Marta Vicente, she founded the baroque orchestra Real Câmara, which, under the direction of Italian conductor and violinist Enrico Onofri, is dedicated to the recovery of Portuguese musical heritage.
