Francisca Barradas Vaz Galante is a member of the Concertgebouw Orchestra since August 2026. She began her viola studies at the age of six when she joined Isabel Pimentel’s class at the music school of the National Conservatoire in Lisbon, and obtained het bachelor and master degrees at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, where she studied under the guidance of Nobuko Imai and Francien Schatborn.
The Portuguese violist won many competitions, including first prizes at the Vasco Barbosa string competition (2021), the Britten Concours (2021), Prémio Ilda Moura (2019), the national competition of Montijo (2018) and the IMKA Competition (2017).
Francisca Galante has played in the European Union Youth Orchestra and other youth orchestras, the Dutch Radio Philharmonic and the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2019, she participated as co-principal viola in the first edition of Concertgebouworkest Young. Galante was a member of the Seiji Ozawa International Academy Switzerland for three consecutive summers since 2024, and a participant of the Academy of the Concertgebouw Orchestra during the 2024-25 season.
As a soloist, she has performed with the Camerata Atlântica and several youth orchestras as well as live on Dutch national radio broadcasts from The Concertgebouw's Mirror Hall.
Through the generous support of the Foundation Concertgebouworkest, Francisca Galante plays on a 1947 Ansaldo Poggi viola.