Rui Massena reveals his pianist and composer’s side on the debut album Solo, released today by Universal Music. There are 15 songs composed and played on the piano by Rui Massena, revealing a more complete and personal dimension.

Orchestra conductors are fascinating figures – often eccentric, mostly touched by genius. Such as Rui Massena, the well-known Portuguese maestro who helped Guimarães’ 2012 run as European Cultural Capital become such a success. As a programming director of the event, Mr. Massena created the Fundação Orquestra Estúdio, a singular foundation designed to plant a seed for the future in the shape of an orchestra with musicians from over 20 countries. Its success became living proof of Mr. Massena’s unique talents: a conductor who doesn’t only lead the different sections of the orchestra, but also a harmonizer of different attitudes, cultures and languages.

That vision is what has been setting Rui Massena’s work as conductor apart. Abroad, he has been the main guest conductor of the Rome Symphony Orchestra in the 2009-2011 seasons; he was the first Portuguese conductor to perform at New York’s prestigious Carnegie Hall, in 2007. In Portugal, he dived wholeheartedly into the unusual adventure of The Expensive Soul Symphonic Experience, a unique combination of classical orchestra and the modern hip-hop/pop of Oporto duo Expensive Soul; its DVD release was the best-selling Portuguese music DVD of 2012. Mr. Massena has also received a number of distinctions: the Cultural Merit Medals from the Brazilian Arts and Sciences Academy and the Vila Nova de Gaia City Hall, and the Rose d’Or television festival shortlisted his television series “Música Maestro” in the Arts category.

Mr. Massena has also been the artistic director and resident conductor of the Madeira Classical Orchestra from 2000 to 2012 and in that role he worked with names such as José Carreras, José Cura, Ute Lemper, Wim Mertens, Guy Braustein or Ivan Lins.