Brazilian cellist Antonio Meneses was born into a family of musicians in the city of Recife, in the northeastern region of Pernambuco. His international career took off in 1982, when he won the First Prize and Gold Medal in the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow at the age of 25.
He has appeared as soloist with many of the world’s finest orchestras and worked with such eminent conductors as Herbert von Karajan, Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Muti, Riccardo Chailly, Mariss Jansons and Mstislav Rostropovich. He is frequently invited to perform at major festivals, including those of Salzburg, Lucerne, Vienna, Berlin and Prague. Meneses gives regular chamber recitals, and has worked with the Emerson, Vermeer, Amati and Carmina quartets, as well as having been a member of the Beaux Arts Trio from 1998 to 2008.
As well as fulfilling a busy concert schedule, he teaches at the Bern Academy of the Arts and gives masterclasses in the Americas, Japan and Europe (at the Stauffer Academy, Cremona, among others).