CARLOS FERREIRA

www.cassgb.org12 Clarinet & Saxophone, Spring 2020

FerreiraCarlos

The Philharmonia Orchestra in London has appointed a new principal clarinettist: Carlos Ferreira, still a few years off his 30th birthday and already about to embark on his third orchestral position. Michael Pearce meets him as he prepares to take on his biggest professional challenge to date

PHOTO: ANNE-LAURE LECHAT

Carlos Ferreira performing at Concours de Geneve

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I first met Carlos Ferreira at the final of 2018 International Geneva Clarinet Competition. He was awarded third prize overall, much to the surprise of the audience, who voted him winner of the Audience Prize. His semi-final recital, including a performance of Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet, remains the most popular performance from the whole competition, with over 65,000 YouTube views to date.

I remember reading Ferreira’s biography at the time, noting that he already had a job as second/E flat clarinet with the Monte Carlo Philharmonic and had recently been named principal clarinet of the Orchestra Nationale de Lille. Having just won a job, many in his position would be wary of putting their skills on display for further scrutiny. But for Ferreira, competitions are another opportunity to improve.

‘I think it’s really important we always keep learning,’ he tells me. ‘Even though I have a job I still study. I’m always having lessons, playing to other musicians, searching for that something to help take my playing to the next level.’

A year after the Geneva competition, he took time off from his orchestral duties to take part in the 2019 ARD International Clarinet Competition in Munich. He finished second overall and picked up the BR-KLASSIK Online Prize, voted by people viewing the final live online.

His mindset says a lot about why we are meeting today. By the time you read this, 26-year-old Ferreira will be a month into his new job as joint principal clarinet of London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, a position he will share with the British clarinettist Mark Van de Wiel.

We arrange to meet at a cafe near Baker Street, just a short walk from the Royal Academy of Music. Ferreira has spent the night at one of the Academy’s plush private apartments overlooking Regent’s Park, a nice freebie for adjudicating their Buffet Crampon Clarinet Prize the previous afternoon. It was also a foretaste of things to come, since he has already accepted an invitation to teach at the Academy next academic year.

Starting on E flat clarinetFerreira grew up in the small village of Duas Igrejas (two churches) near Porto on Portugal’s north west coast. Like many towns and villages in the Iberian Peninsula, the local amateur wind band played a prominent cultural and social role in community life. Although his parents weren’t musical, his two older brothers played percussion in the band, and still do today.

Aged five, Ferreira expressed an interest in joining his brothers in the band and began theory and solfège lessons at the local music school – a common requirement in many European music schools before a child can start instrumental lessons. His brother said he should play the saxophone, but his classmate intervened.

‘I had a very good friend next to me when we had to tell our teacher which instrument we wanted to play. When it was my turn, my friend turned to me and whispered clarinet, so I said OK, and that was it.’

But things didn’t quite go to plan. ‘My first teacher was a local amateur player and the first note he taught me was a low E. I remember getting my right hand fourth finger stuck in the low G tone hole and I started to cry because I couldn’t get it out! So then he gave me an E flat clarinet to try and I was happy.’

When he progressed to lessons at his local conservatoire aged nine, Ferreira started studying clarinet with the new conductor of his wind band, who was by chance one of the best clarinet teachers for young children in Portugal. The time had come to change to a B flat clarinet, but Ferreira was having none of it.

‘I didn’t want to change, not at all,’ he says. ‘When I told my teacher I wouldn’t do it he said OK, then you have to transpose everything, so that’s exactly what I did. I learned to transpose everything from B flat clarinet to E flat clarinet and kept playing the E flat.’

After seven years learning the E flat clarinet, he finally picked up a B flat clarinet aged 12. An unusual progression, but one he is grateful for.

‘It was a really important time for me because wind band E flat clarinet parts are often very challenging. If you play transcriptions of orchestral pieces, the E flat clarinet often plays the violin parts, which are often really tricky, so I practised loads when I was a kid. I was determined to get it right, so I worked hard and was really happy when I could do it.’

Things could have been different for Ferreira. A talented footballer, he passed a trial to join one of Portugal’s top football academies aged 10.

‘When the results were announced, I said OK, great, but I have clarinet lessons on Mondays and Thursdays. The coach told me this wouldn’t be possible because they trained every day after school, so I said in that case, I can’t come. Of course, I was a just a kid at the time. I didn’t have a fixed idea of what I wanted to do

I didn’t have a fixed idea of what I wanted to do with my life, but I thought if it’s not going to be football, music it is, and I’ll practise as hard as I can to get there

Even though I have a job I still study. I’m always having lessons, playing to other musicians, searching for that something to help take my playing to the next level

Carlos Ferreira receiving an award at Concours de Geneve

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with my life, but from that moment I thought if it’s not going to be football, music it is, and I’ll practise as hard as I can to get there.’

Long before he took part in the Geneva and ARD international clarinet competitions, Ferreira learned to appreciate the benefits of performing and preparing for a music competition.

‘I was lucky that there were lots of music competitions in Portugal at the time. I grew up with that – it was so important. From a young age I learned how to be on the stage, because for me every competition was a concert. They were always open to the public, not just in your school surrounded by people you know, so I started to get used to this feeling.’

He continues: ‘It’s always important to have these kinds of goals, so you’re not always just practising to improve, but you have a deadline – a competition on this date next week, so you have to practise and prepare a programme to performance standard. This is why competitions have been so important all my life, not because of the prizes, because actually I learned much more when I didn’t win than when I did win. When you’re the winner, no one says anything. Everyone just says it was great. But when you don’t win, someone will always tell you something that is really important to help you improve.’

Portuguese clarinet schoolAged 17, Ferreira started his bachelor studies at the Escola Superior de Música e das Artes do Espectáculo in Porto, studying with Nuno Pinto, a former student of the famed Portuguese clarinettist António Saiote.

Portugal was effectively closed off from the outside world during the Estado Novo dictatorship from 1932 to 1974, leaving the country’s musical tradition isolated and lagging behind developments elsewhere in Europe, particularly in terms of music pedagogy. But after the 1974 Carnation Revolution, things began to change.

Saiote left Portugal in the late 1970s to study at the Paris Conservatoire with Guy Deplus and Jacques Lancelot, before further studies at the Hochschule für Musik in Munich with Gerd Starke. When he returned to Portugal he revolutionised clarinet pedagogy, founding the modern Portuguese school of clarinet playing.

‘He’s like a grandfather to everyone,’ Ferreira explains. ‘It all started with him. I can literally say that every professional clarinettist in Portugal either studied with him or with one his former students. He single-handedly raised the technical and musical level of all clarinet playing in Portugal – his impact was amazing.’

After his studies with Pinto, 20-year-old Ferreira moved to Spain to study with the French clarinettist Michel Arrignon at Madrid’s Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía. ‘He was the teacher of my dreams,’ he says. ‘I remember when I was a kid I had a CD of him playing Mozart. Everyone at that time really liked Karl Leister, but as soon as I listened to Michel Arrignon I knew I had to study with him one day. I discovered he was teaching in Madrid, so I had to take the opportunity to audition. I was lucky, it was a very important time in my life.’

Concertgebouw Orchestra AcademyFollowing his masters in Madrid, Ferreira was offered a place on the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Academy in Amsterdam, a year-long programme which promises up to 12 concerts playing with the main orchestra, regular chamber music opportunities, and 20 private lessons with section principals and others in the orchestra.

‘There are lots of orchestra academies where you’re there for two years and don’t really get to play with the orchestra,’ Ferreira says. ‘But with the Concertgebouw, that doesn’t happen. You are there to play with them.’

For his first concert, Ferreira joined the orchestra for a concert of Mahler’s seventh symphony, conducted by the then

Competitions have been so important all my life, because actually I learned much more when I didn’t win than when I did win

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Carlos Ferreira performing at Concours de Geneve

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chief conductor Maris Jansons. ‘I was really nervous at the first rehearsal, but after we’d played through the first movement, the clarinettists started telling a few jokes. From then on I never felt nervous again. They really made me feel at home.’

As part of the Academy programme all participants are offered training in audition techniques, culminating in two mock auditions in front of members of the orchestra. But they begin with classes in mental training.

‘I didn’t really think about that side of things before,’ Ferreira says. ‘But after I started the mental training, lots of things improved. It’s so important in our jobs. We are artists, and to be able to perform at your best you have to look after yourself both physically and mentally.’

Our conversation turns to the Philharmonia and his experience on trial with the orchestra. Coming from a French orchestra, which would usually rehearse a single programme for two or three days, I ask him how he has found the shorter rehearsal schedules in the UK, where orchestras often have just one three-hour rehearsal before a concert.

‘I think the trial period is very important in Britain, because not only do you have to find someone whose sound fits with the identity of the orchestra, but also someone who can cope with the quick turnover of repertoire. Many people outside the UK think it’s just crazy, but I think it is exciting. I always like a challenge.’

Soft reeds, more soundThroughout our chat, Ferreira has been resting his arm on a sleek Buffet Crampon rucksack. He tells me he plays on a pair of Buffet Légènde clarinets, a Vandoren B40 Lyre 13 mouthpiece, D’Addario Reserve Classic strength 3 reeds, and a Bonnard gold ligature, which, he proudly tells me, cost only £25!

His set-up is quite soft compared to many orchestral players. ‘Yes, but for flexibility,’ he says. ‘Of course, it depends on your facial muscles, but it was Michel

Arrignon who taught me you don’t need a hard set-up to make a big sound. When I started studying with him I was playing on harder reeds. I always played D’Addario reeds, but for two years with him I played Vandoren. I was playing on the traditional blue box reeds 3.5s and he changed me to 2.5 V12 reeds, which were very soft. He said you will learn how to make an even bigger sound with much less effort. I didn’t believe him, but it was true. I can play for hours and I don’t get tired, and project the sound with little effort.’

As we finish our morning coffee Ferreira asks for directions to Kings Cross St Pancras, where he will meet his colleagues from the Lille orchestra. It’s a strange coincidence that some of his final concerts with the French orchestra are part of a week-long tour of the UK. The next time audiences see him, he’ll be performing under a different banner. n

You can watch a selection of performances by Carlos Ferreira, including from the finals of the Geneva and ARD International Clarinet Competitions, on YouTube by searching ‘Carlos Ferreira clarinet’.

Many people outside the UK think the quick turnover of repertoire in orchestras is just crazy, but I think it is exciting. I always like a challenge