About
Born in Porto, Portuguese violinist Afonso Fesch has built a prolific career as a chamber musician, soloist, and orchestral player across Europe. His artistic development was shaped by esteemed mentors, including Yossif Grinman, Gerardo Ribeiro, Pavel Vernikov, Dora Schwarzberg, Raphaël Oleg, Rainer Schmidt, and Ivry Gitlis.
A passionate advocate for chamber music, Afonso has performed both as a soloist and chamber musician alongside distinguished artists such as Guy Braunstein, Giuliano Carmignola, Thomas Demenga, Maxim Emelyanychev, Simon Crawford-Phillips, Yoel Gamzou, Otto Tausk, François Benda, Silvia Simonescu, Roland Glassl, Pascal Siffert, Diemut Poppen, Anton Kernjak, Raphaël Oleg, and Ivry Gitlis, among many others.
As a soloist, he has appeared with leading ensembles including the Hamburger Symphoniker, Staatsorchester Kassel, Basel Sinfonieorchester, Porto Symphony Orchestra at Casa da Música, International Mahler Orchestra, Harbin Symphony
Orchestra, and the Stuttgarter Philharmoniker.
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From 2020 to 2024, Afonso was the solo second violin of the Royal Danish Orchestra in Copenhagen. He is currently Principal First Violin of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in Edinburgh, where he now resides.
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He plays on two instruments: a modern violin by Marc Pacquin (2023) and a circa-1700 Giuseppe Guarneri.
