Rising Stars – David Dias da Silva: Prix d’Europe & Stepping Stones (CMC)

Advertisement / Publicité

This page is also available in / Cette page est également disponible en: Francais (French)

David Dias da Silva was born in 1987, to a Portuguese family, and spent his childhood in Canada before moving to Portugal. There, he joined a wind ensemble, where he developed his passion for music and for the clarinet. At age 12, the musician decided to enrol in a professional music school, where he benefitted from the guidance of Iva Barbosa. “She really gave me all the artistic and personal tools to go into a career in music,” says Da Silva.

After six years of study with Barbosa, the clarinettist undertook a baccalaureate at the Porto Superior School of Music and Performing Arts with the great Portuguese master, Antonio Saiote, where he realized that being a musician was what he wanted to do in life. Da Silva taught in various small schools in Portugal before moving to Switzerland and studying at the Schola Cantorum de Bâle, where he perfected his art with François Benda, obtaining a Master’s degree and a diploma in solo performance. He thus had the opportunity to receive the wisdom of several international master clarinettists, as well as playing in renowned orchestras: Switzerland’s Jugend Sinfonie Orchester (Youth Symphony Orchestra) and Sinfonieorchester Basel, the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, Japan’s Hyogo Orchestra, and the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra. At the same time, he won a number of national and international competitions in Switzerland, Portugal, Italy, and Canada.

Finally, in 2015, Da Silva returned to the country of his birth and began studying with Jean-François Normand at McGill University. In 2016, he won two of Canada’s biggest competitions: the Prix d’Europe and first prize at the CMC’s Stepping Stones competition. “Winning these two magnificent prizes were really some of the best moments of my life,” says Da Silva. “I didn’t believe that it would be possible. Above all, it confirmed that I made the right decision coming back to my home country, which opened new doors for me, in order to share the music that I make here.”

Thanks to both prizes, the clarinettist now has plenty of concert engagements, allowing him to get acquainted with the musical world and complete certain projects more easily. He also likes chamber music and enjoys mixing music with theatre and dance — in fact, for some years, he has been performing works in which the music is a show, encouraging the musician to become an actor or to play a character: “I like to see classical musicians as versatile artists, where the foundation is, of course, music, but with a touch of something else.”

Nevertheless, Da Silva remains realistic and insists that the prestige that comes with these two prizes isn’t permanent. He hopes to find a place with a professional orchestra, specifically the OSM, even though he is still open to discovering new countries and cultures.