Guimarães String Quartet

Emanuel Salvador – Violin I
Veronika Taraban – Violin
Emilia Goch Salvador – Viola
Luís Cruz – Cello

Guimarães String Quartet

Founded in 2016 in Guimarães, Portugal, the Guimarães String Quartet is a pioneering artistic residency project aimed at developing a permanent chamber music program. Through regular concerts in the city and municipality, the ensemble seeks to revitalize and decentralize cultural life, promoting Guimarães as a center of artistic creativity while acting as a cultural ambassador both in Portugal and internationally.

The quartet’s strong artistic identity, combined with creative programming and the broad scope of its projects, has firmly established its reputation among both critics and audiences.

In addition to its own concert season in Guimarães, the quartet has performed at the Macau International Music Festival, the National Forum of Music in Wrocław, the Bronisław Huberman Częstochowa Philharmonic, the Świętokrzyska Philharmonic in Kielce, the Theodor Zink Museum in Kaiserslautern, as well as at the Baltic Neopolis Festival (Poland), Musicales en Tricastin (France), and Varaždin Baroque Nights (Croatia).

In 2019, the quartet founded the Guimarães Clássico Festival, whose mission is twofold: to present a concert series featuring outstanding international artists—such as Vasko Vassilev, Roman Kim, Andriy Viytovych, George-Emmanuel Lazaridis, and Konstantin Heidrich—and to attract young musicians at the start of their careers through masterclasses and festival concerts. From 2023 to 2025, the festival received support from the Directorate-General for the Arts (DGARTES), enabling its dynamic development.

The quartet regularly collaborates with distinguished artists, including flutist Claudi Arimany, pianist Ronaldo Rolim, mezzo-soprano Wioletta Hebrowska-Klein, and bandoneonist Marcelo Nisinman. In 2026, the ensemble will commemorate its 10th anniversary and start with a tour of Poland and Vietnam, a project that is co-funded by DGARTES’ internationalization program. The tour aims to commemorate the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Portugal and Vietnam.

Emanuel Salvador – Violin I

Described by The Strad magazine as „one of the best Portuguese violinists of his generation,” Emanuel Salvador performs as a soloist, chamber musician, and concertmaster on four continents. After completing his studies in Portugal, he continued his education in London at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Royal College of Music.

His diverse career includes solo appearances with orchestras such as the Orquestra Sinfónica de Brasília, Orquestra da Rádio Mexicana, Covent Garden Soloists, and Rotterdam Ensemble, as well as participation in festivals including the International Spring Orchestra Festival (Malta), Ohrid Festival (North Macedonia), and the Eternal Spring Chamber Music Festival (Mexico).

His discography includes critically acclaimed recordings, among them violin concertos by Karl Fiorini with the Sudeten Philharmonic, and chamber music recordings with the Baltic Neopolis String Quartet and the Kinematic Ensemble. From 2005 to 2014 he served as concertmaster of the Orquestra do Norte, and since 2015 he has held the same position with the Baltic Neopolis Chamber Orchestra in Poland. As a guest concertmaster, he regularly collaborates with the Spanish National Orchestra, the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Orquestra Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias.

Veronika Taraban – Violin

Veronika Taraban began her musical education at the Conservatório – Escola das Artes da Madeira and continued her studies at the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa, focusing on violin performance and chamber music. She later pursued further studies at the Folkwang University of the Arts under Professor Alissa Margulis.

She is a laureate of numerous international competitions, including First Prize at the Alexey Gorokhov International Competition, the Grand Prix of the International Forum of Musical Interpretation, and First Prize at the Prémio Jovens Músicos 2021 in the chamber music category with the Dialecticae Piano Trio. She has performed as a soloist with many orchestras and conductors and regularly appears in concerts both nationally and internationally as a soloist and chamber musician.

Emilia Goch Salvador – Viola

A charismatic violist and founder of the Baltic Neopolis Orchestra, which she has led since 2008, Emilia Goch Salvador has long combined artistic activity with cultural management, creating ambitious international music projects. Since 2016, she has also performed with the Portuguese Guimarães String Quartet, touring regularly throughout Europe and Asia.

As an accomplished chamber musician, she has collaborated with world-class artists such as Bartłomiej Nizioł, Vasko Vassilev, Carmine Lauri, Daniel Stabrawa, Sándor Jávor­kai, Kevin Kenner, Roman Jabłoński, and Maria Machowska. Her artistic output includes numerous recordings and collaborative projects with prestigious ensembles, including Deutsche Oper Solisten, Covent Garden Soloists, the Symphony Orchestra of India, the V4 – Visegrad Quartet, and Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London. She has performed in leading concert halls worldwide across Europe, Asia, and South America.

Since 2019, she has conducted masterclasses for violists in her hometown of Szczecin and in Guimarães, Portugal, inspiring new generations of musicians. She is also the founder and artistic director of the international festivals **Szczecin Classic** and **Music West Fest**, which attract outstanding artists from around the world. Her passion, talent, and constant artistic curiosity make her one of the most respected figures in the world of chamber music.

Luís Cruz – Cello

Born in 2001, Luís Cruz began studying the cello at the age of five. He completed his Bachelor’s degree in Music Performance at the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa under Professor Levon Mouradian and went on to earn a Master’s degree in Performance at the Royal College of Music in London as a Leverhulme Trust Scholar and RCM Scholar, studying with Professor Alexander Chaushian.

He has won First Prize in numerous competitions, including the Vasco Barbosa National String Competition (2017), the Prémio Jovens Músicos – Cello (2018), and the À Corda International Cello Competition (2022). He was a member of the Orquestra Sinfónica Ensemble (2014–2017), the Jovem Orquestra Portuguesa (2015–2019), and the Spanish JONDE orchestra through the MusXchange program (2020–2021).

As a soloist, he has performed with Camerata Atlântica, Jovem Orquestra Portuguesa, Orquestra de Câmara Portuguesa, Orquestra de Vigo 430, and the Gulbenkian Orchestra.